CLINICAL LABORATORY


About Us
The WNH Laboratory is a full service clinical laboratory. Open 24/7, the lab is staffed by certified personnel and is dedicated to the efficient handling and quality testing of approximately 116,000 tests per year. WNH is the laboratory for many physician's offices, nursing homes and rural health clinics in the area. The management is dedicated to training and teaching and we offer clinical rotations for area laboratory training programs. The WNH Clinical Laboratory is licensed with the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA).

File a Grievance
Please feel free to speak with us about your concerns. If you would like to file a formal grievance with the hospital, click here. To see a CLIA brochure describing your rights and options for filing a grievance related to a clinical laboratory, click here.


Services

Blood Bank/Transfusion
Urinalysis
Hematology/Coagulation
Microbiology
Electrocardiogram (EKG)
Cardiac Stress Testing
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Chemistry & Special Chemistry
Referral Laboratory

Description of Services

Blood Bank/Transfusion
The WNH Lab houses a full service blood bank (transfusion service) and is staffed 24/7. Blood is provided by the American Red Cross Blood Services in Wichita and is donated by volunteer blood donors from throughout Kansas and northern Oklahoma.

Urinalysis
This test is one of the oldest laboratory tests still in use. We test urine using several chemical screening tests. The results of these tests can indicate several renal or systemic diseases. We also will look at all samples under the microscope to look for bacteria, crystals, cells or other objects which can indicate a disease. This area also does several tests called serological tests. These will screen for pregnancy or some illnesses such as mononucleosis, HIV, rheumatoid arthritis.

Hematology
Medical Technologists and Technicians in the hematology laboratory play a major role in patient care. The testing assays and examinations that they perform can do the following:
Confirm a physician's clinical impression of a possible hemtological disorder.
Establish a diagnosis or rule out a diagnosis.
Detect an unsuspected disorder.
Monitor the effects of radiation or chemotherapy.

Basic Hematology Procedures such as the Complete Blood Count (CBC), which includes measurement and examination of White Blood Cells (WBC), Red Blood Cells (RBC) and their indicies, Hemoglobin, and Platelets, and the Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) frequently guide the physician in development of a patient diagnosis.

Even though the CBC is the most frequently requested procedure, the technologists and technicians must be familiar with the theory and practice of a variety of automated and manual tests, including Reticulocyte Counts and Body Fluid Cell Counts. The field of Hematology also includes the study of Hemostasis and Thrombosis.

Coagulation
Coagulation or Hemostasis is the study of the body's ability to form clots, dissolve clots, and maintain the delicate balance in between.

The "Coag" Area of the Hematology lab aids the physician in the detection of coagulation abnormalities and the monitoring of medication affecting them. Using tests such as Protime (PT) with INR, Activiated Partial Thromboplastin Time (PTT), Fibrinogen, and Platelet Function the physician can assess and make medication changes as neccessary and in a timely manner.

Microbiology
WNH microbiology lab purpose is to identify bacteria that cause infection in body fluids and tissues, and to test for the antibiotics that will work best to treat those infections.

Electrocardiogram
An EKG is a quick, easy test done to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Not only does this define your heart rate and rhythm, but also can show an acute heart attack or an old injury to your heart. This is done by placing electrodes in various places on your chest, arms and legs and attaching leadwires to these electrodes. The patient lays still for 30 seconds while the EKG machine gathers and analyzes the data.

The holter monitor and cardiac event monitor are used to monitor a patients heart over a longer period of time. With the capability of monitoring from 24 hours to 30 days, these montiors are often utilized for intermittent problems not always captured on an EKG. Depending on which monitor the patient wears, it will either record continually or only as indicated to do so by the patient when they are symptomatic. A patient diary is kept to help correlate these symptoms.

Cardiac Stress Testing
This is a very effective, non-invasive procedure performed to help in diagnosing coronary artery disease. This test, done using state of the art treadmill equipment under the direct supervision of a physician, is often accompanied with nuclear imaging to further enhance the diagnostic value. For patients unable to walk long enough on the treatmill to obtain an accurate study, a medication called adenosine is injected. This simulates exercise. The adenosine injection, accompanied with the nuclear imaging, provide an alternative for less ambulatory patients.


Electroencephalogram
Also know as EEG is performed at WNH by a contracted company. An EEG is a reading of the electric currents developed in the brain by means of electrods applied to the scalp.

Chemistry
The largest area in the laboratory is the chemistry area. WNH offers a wide variety of general chemistry, special chemistry and therapeutic drug testing done on blood, urine or body fluid. The automated equipment will allow a very high throughput for the general chemistry tests. The special chemistry tests take longer to run (up to 1 hour on the instrument) however this is still faster than sending the work to a reference laboratory. The chemistry area also has equipment dedicated to doing only STAT work. This instrument performs tests that are utilized mainly by the emergency room. The intstrutment has a limited test menu but it is much faster than the main analyzer.

Reference Laboratory
For those tests that the laboratory is not able to perform in-house we are affliated with a national reference laboratory. To ensure the quickest turnaround time possible the laboratory is directly interfaced with the testing laboratory so reports do not have to be mailed. The reference laboratory provides a courier service to pick up specimens six days a week.