Next week, April 23 through 29, is Lab Week 2023 (full name: National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week).

Per the official website, Lab Week is “an annual celebration of medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in health care and patient advocacy.”

Trinity Health System Department of Laboratories is honored to participate in honoring our laboratory professionals, and as part of our observance, we’ll be hosting lab tours with Mrs. Tiffany Dobson’s seventh-graders from Bishop John King Mussio (BJKM) Junior High School next Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

“The BJKM students will be touring each department to get an overview of what a hospital laboratory is really like and what the scientists who work in them do,” said Constance L. Moore, MEd, MLS (ASCP)CM, Program Director, School of Medical Laboratory Science, Trinity Health System, West. “It really is exciting for all involved.”

The Laboratory is one of the largest ancillary departments within the hospital. Testing options include hundreds of tests in multiple specialties, including Microbiology, Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Blood Bank, Urinalysis, and Anatomical Pathology. 

Each tour will include 18 to 20 students, with six to seven at a time visiting each section of the lab. While waiting for their turn, the students will conduct experiments with non-biohazard materials (e.g., blood typing, urinalysis) and will play lab-related games in the cafeteria conference room.

“Lab Week serves two purposes,” said Josie Cortes, MS, MB(ASCP)CM, Medical Lab Technologist, Trinity Health System. “We’re able to not only acknowledge our lab professionals for all the things they do–most especially during the beginning and height of COVID–but more importantly, we’re able to bring awareness to our community of this profession. Hence we have the lab tours during LabWeek to start exposing our next generation of workforce.”

We would like to invite the media to cover these tours on any of the three days above. Lab professionals and students will be on hand for interviews.

If you’re interested in covering one of these tours, please contact Pete Fernbaugh via email at peter.fernbaugh@commonspirit.org or call/text 724-255-5911, and he’ll coordinate the details with Theresa Clark, Market Director of Laboratory Services.