Express Lab becomes first automated medical lab in east Idaho

IDAHO FALLS — When doctors examine a patient, they sometimes will take samples of a person’s blood or bodily fluids to try and determine what’s wrong. Once the samples are collected, they are taken to a medical laboratory where they are tested for various diseases or illnesses.

Some doctor’s offices and hospitals have a staff that processes those samples in house, but many clinics don’t. In that case, the processing of samples has to be outsourced and taken to a lab somewhere else.

Express Lab is an independent reference laboratory that gathers samples from medical providers throughout eastern Idaho. Thanks to a new system provided by New Jersey company Ortho Diagnostics, the lab is now the region’s first automated medical lab. Because of its upgrades, the lab will be faster and more accurate without having to manually process samples.

Express Lab manager Lori Leask says the upgrade will increase the lab’s effectiveness by about 30 percent.

“This automated system allows us to be a lot more accurate as well as increase our speed,” Leask says. “The faster those results come back, the faster those physicians are able to make decisions.”