In crime-based television shows, laboratory techs huddle over a state-of-the-art analyzer amid a gleaming, colorful and bewildering array of bottles, beakers, flasks and tubes. In real life, the lab is not quite as glamorous or photogenic. However, lab work is very critical in that it is an indispensable part of good health.
Today kicks off Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. Physicians, nurses and other health care workers depend on laboratory professionals, which includes phlebotomists as well as lab scientists, every day. Lab professionals perform tests on a variety of bodily specimens, interpret the results and help provide a complete picture of a patient’s health.
Using modern biomedical equipment and complex analysis, laboratorians can detect the presence of cancer as well as identify infectious bacteria and viruses (like the one that causes COVID-19). They can also measure glucose, cholesterol or medication levels in your blood. These precise and valuable test results provide an estimated 70% of the objective information used in medical decision making, playing a crucial role in the detection, diagnosis and treatment of disease in patients.
At Bon Secours Rappahannock General Hospital specifically, there are more than 15 phlebotomists and laboratory scientists in our lab that have a total of more than 300 years of clinical experience (pictured above). We would like to give a special shout out to them as well as all our medical laboratory professionals this week for the important work they do.
Learn more about the lab services we offer at Bon Secours.
