The St Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH) has entered into a partnership with a prestigious Caribbean laboratory facility that will vastly enhance the hospital’s capacity to provide timely diagnosis and value-based medical care to its patients.
This week, SJMHs’ Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), MsDeborrah Ramsay announced the hospital’s agreement with Trinidad-based NexGen Pathology, a fully CAP (College of American Pathologists) accredited laboratory that specializes in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, Molecular Diagnostics and Genetic studies.
Ms. Ramsay disclosed that the new partnership with NexGen will expand and improve the hospital’s medical diagnostic services because it gives SJMH direct access to the acclaimed laboratory’s cutting edge technology.
The 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.
Giving a brief overview of what the partnership entails, CEO and Founder of NexGen Pathology, Dr. Wesley Greaves 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,” he explained.
Dr. Greaves noted 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.
Dr. Greaves said the facility also has sub-specialty pathologists trained in Hematopathology, 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 said.
He added 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.
According to Dr Greaves, who is a specialist in Molecular Genetics Pathology, NexGen Pathology is also a strong provider of DNA testing, which is not widely available in the Caribbean.
Samples for analysis will be shipped to NexGen Pathology’s laboratory in Trinidad and Tobago. Tests will be done either there or at a partnering lab in North America. Reports from findings will be sent electronically.
