The St Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH) has entered into a partnership with a Caribbean laboratory facility that will enhance the hospital’s capacity to provide timely diagnosis and value-based medical care to its patients.
Last week, SJMH’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Deborrah Ramsay announced the hospital’s agreement with Trinidad-based NexGen Pathology, a laboratory fully accredited with the College of American Pathologists (CAP) that specialises in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, Molecular Diagnostics and Genetic Studies.
Giving a brief overview of what the partnership entails, CEO and Founder of NexGen Pathology, Dr Wesley Greaves, a specialist in Molecular Genetics Pathology, explained that a main component of the laboratory’s services is Surgical Pathology, which involves diagnosing surgical specimens, including breast biopsies and skin biopsies.
“If someone did a surgical procedure for a tumour and the tumour needs diagnosis, then it would need to go to the pathology lab to be diagnosed. That is a basic service that will be provided,” Dr Greaves was quoted as saying
The CEO observed that the Caribbean has a history of lacking skilled human resources in terms of internationally trained pathologists to provide specialist services. However, the partnership will allow SJMH to benefit from the expertise of NexGen Pathology’s four American board certified pathologists. The facility also has sub-specialty pathologists trained in haematopathology, gastrointestinal, liver and breast pathology.
“This sort of world class team of pathologists is unprecedented in the English speaking Caribbean and that is the kind of quality service we will be bringing to Mercy…” Dr Greaves also said.
He disclosed that while SJMH has its own onsite laboratory, NexGen Pathology will provide a comprehensive range of laboratory services, some of which are not done at SJMH. NexGen Pathology is also a provider of DNA testing, which is not widely available in the Caribbean.
“Even with that logistical reality in terms of the specimens having to go outside of Guyana, we believe we can meet and even beat the turnaround times that one would usually be accustomed to when sourcing these services here within Guyana. So we are confident that even with that limitation at this point in time, our turnaround time can match world class standards,” the CEO said.
The SJMH Deputy CEO indicated that the collaboration with NexGen Pathology is a key element of the hospital’s strategic focus on constantly upgrading the quality of its medical services to fulfill its core mission of promoting good health and well-being while maintaining meaningful bonds with the medical community, patients and the communities it serves. The new partnership with NexGen will expand and improve the hospital’s medical diagnostic services because it gives SJMH direct access to the laboratory’s cutting edge technology.
SJMH’s Lab Manager, Cindy Lalaram disclosed that the hospital does not do pathology testing and makes use of external services. She underscored the importance of getting pathology results in a timely manner to ensure well-timed diagnosis and treatment lest a patient’s condition worsens because of delays in testing and acquiring test results. NexGen Pathology’s turnaround time is about seven to 10 days, depending on when SJMH submits the samples.
