GRMC laboratory services partnering with CSU

Graham Regional Medical Center has something it claims rural hospitals do not have, a laboratory that is at the same level as that of larger health care centers. Now the hospital is partnering with Charleston State University to bring students into the lab to complete their clinical.

Teri Robertson, Laboratory Director at GRMC gave the board an update on what is going on in the lab at the hospital district board meeting on Jan. 21.

“We (the laboratory) have the same level of expertise and technology that you get at the larger health systems like United Regional or Wise Health Systems or even Cook Children’s,” Robertson said. “So people in our community are getting the same benefit as you would get from those large health systems.”

The lab at GRMC is capable, according to Robertson, of doing any kind of high complexity testing, but there are some problems that they are working on fixing.

“The biggest problem that I think we have in a rural community is attracting qualified applicants into this setting rather than the city. So this year with Shane’s (Kernell, CEO) encouragement we have reached out to local universities and I am glad to say that we are going to partner with Charlton State University and their Medical Laboratory Science program,” Robertson said. “Their students are going to take a rotation through our laboratory and I just feel like once they get into the rural hospital setting, they’re gonna see it for the benefit that it is.”

She says that students will see that they have their hands in many different things within the laboratory. Students will be able to work closely with all departments within the hospital, which Robertson sees as a great benefit to the students.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 29 edition of The Graham Leader.