PeaceHealth opens Springfield lab for faster, cheaper test results
Springfield’s new PeaceHealth lab is cutting bloodwork turnaround to 16 hours or less, while replacing two bills with one and expanding access to financial aid.
PeaceHealth’s new outpatient lab at the Riverbend Annex in Springfield is supposed to do two things Lane County patients will feel quickly: get bloodwork back faster and simplify what they owe.
The lab opened April 29 at 123 International Way, moving outpatient testing that once went through Quest Diagnostics and was sent out of state for analysis. PeaceHealth says that shift brings specimens closer to home and avoids the delay of shipping tests as far as Seattle, where timing can affect treatment decisions and medication changes.
The system says the turnaround is already far better than the old model. Quest’s process took one to two days, while the Springfield lab is producing results in 16 hours or sooner. PeaceHealth also says most results are available in the electronic medical record within 24 hours. After an early lull while staff stood up the new operation and canceled orders routed through Quest, the lab is now seeing normal wait times of about 10 to 15 minutes per patient.
Cost is the other promise. Under the old arrangement, patients could receive separate bills from PeaceHealth and Quest. PeaceHealth says the new setup produces one bill, which should remove at least some of the billing confusion that often lands hardest on uninsured and underinsured patients. The system also says some patients may qualify for its financial assistance program for tests that are eligible. That aid is based on family size and income, with sliding fees available, and patients may apply before, during or after treatment.
PeaceHealth says the Riverbend Annex lab is built to handle the load. The reference lab can process more than 1.2 million patient tests a year at full capacity, with 16 blood-draw sites operating inside Washington and Oregon clinics. Tracy Hickson, the lab director, said the team has already processed about 60,000 tests in roughly a month and is positioned to absorb the work Quest previously handled, about 1 million specimens a year. PeaceHealth says all outpatient lab testing in Oregon and Washington is centralized in Springfield, though some samples may still be sent elsewhere depending on the test and collection site.
For local patients, the biggest test now is whether those promised efficiencies hold up. PeaceHealth says the lab can run most routine tests in-house and offer allergy testing tailored more specifically to the Pacific Northwest, a sign that this facility is meant to be more than a back-office change. For Springfield and the rest of Lane County, the real measure will be whether faster results and simpler billing translate into care that is actually easier to get.
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