Construction Begins on Clinical Laboratory Expansion at Mount Nittany Medical Center

Construction began this week for an expansion of Mount Nittany Medical Center’s clinical laboratory, according to Mount Nittany Health.

Mount Nittany expects work to be completed in the spring of 2022.

“Though it’s unseen by many, our current lab is original to the Medical Center,” TIffany Cabibbo, Mount Nittany Health’s executive vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, said in a statement. “It is exciting to embark on this project, not only to create efficiencies, but to improve the work space for our outstanding team of lab professionals. These enhancements will only improve the quality service they already provide to those in our care.”

Performing about 8,000 venipunctures a month across seven outpatient locations, the lab annually completes approximately 3 million tests throughout its departments, which include anatomic pathology, blood bank, core lab, cytology and microbiology.

The lab holds accreditation from the American College of American Pathologists & American Association of Blood Banks and recently introduced use of the Panther SARS-CoV-2 platform, which allows for real-time in house COVID-19 testing.

When the expansion and renovations are completed, the facility will have an upgraded laboratory automation system that, according to the hospital, will increase overall efficiency and enhance quality measures, such as pre-analytics sample quality detection.