By Mark Hallum
Northwell Health and NYC Health and Hospitals have partnered together to build a jointly operated lab in Little Neck.
Since Northwell is the largest health system in the state and NYC Health the largest in the nation, the centrally located facility will help both institutions serve their patients from a logistically convenient location.
About $47.7 million will go into the two-story, 36,000-square-foot facility to be located on Little Neck Parkway near 260th Street.
“This exciting, mutually beneficial partnership provides a unique opportunity to standardize the quality and performance of lab services, benefitting patients in our community and the entire metropolitan area, while achieving cost savings for both organizations,” said Michael Dowling, president and CEO at Northwell Health.
NYC Health operates 11 hospitals in the city and its health system operates at 70 other facilities throughout the five boroughs.
“Working with Northwell, we can improve lab performance for patients and achieve greater efficiencies through a shared, centralized lab and realize substantial cost savings annually,” Stanley Brezenoff, interim president and CEO at NYC Health and Hospitals, said. “Northwell Health has extensive experience operating a nationally recognized core lab for its own large health system and has achieved impressive standards in terms of speed and accuracy while maintaining a strong focus on patient service.”
The lab will primarily perform microbiology tests and molecular diagnostics for patients at local hospitals, clinics and physicians offices. The state-of-the-art facility will be part of the Clinical Laboratory of New York Alliance, an effort between the two organizations centralize information from different medical centers.
“As large systems, NYC Health + Hospitals and Northwell Health share many priorities,” said Kenra Ford, assistant vice president for clinical laboratory operations at NYC Health and Hospitals. “We both have lab needs that extend beyond our hospitals to include, for example, post-acute care facilities and community health centers. The shared lab brings even greater cohesion to our respective health systems. Plus, it provides an opportunity for two of the nation’s largest health systems to collaborate on innovations that can benefit laboratories and the patients they serve nationwide.”
The lab is expected to bring jobs to the city as well as saving the two health systems a shared $30 million every year and complete 50 million tests annually.
The projected opening for the Little Neck will be for mid-2018.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
