HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Central Laboratory: A new era in cutting-edge medical diagnostics

In the ever-changing landscape of healthcare, advancements in diagnostic capabilities are critical for delivering accurate and quality patient-centered care. Behind the scenes of every HCA Healthcare facility is a dedicated team of laboratorians and pathologists who work tirelessly to provide the vital clinical information that forms the foundation of diagnosis and treatment.

With a network of more than 6,500 skilled laboratorians and pathologists across the enterprise, HCA Healthcare relies on these dedicated professionals to support the organization’s 183 hospitals and approximately 2,300 sites of care – including our freestanding emergency rooms. These unsung heroes play a pivotal role in shaping healthier tomorrows for millions of patients. And now, that work is becoming more impactful than ever with the opening of a new centralized laboratory in Tennessee.

New centralized laboratory opens in Tennessee

The brand-new TriStar Central Laboratory heralds a new era in HCA Healthcare Laboratory Services. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, this is the first laboratory of its kind for HCA Healthcare located outside Florida. It is strategically positioned to serve 17 hospitals and six freestanding emergency rooms across our organization’s TriStar Division spanning two states – Tennessee and Kentucky.

For over a year, more than 80 colleagues worked side by side to get the laboratory up and running in Middle Tennessee on April 19, 2023. Kelli Riggins, assistant vice president of laboratory services at HCA Healthcare, emphasized the significance of this laboratory to meet the growing healthcare needs of our communities. “We are always looking for opportunities to centralize and utilize staff differently in ways that are successful and still drive patient care forward — that’s what a central laboratory does,” Kelli explained.

More than a testing location inside a facility, the TriStar Central Laboratory is able to complete an array of specialized testing, including microbiology and histology. These tests play a pivotal role in detecting and diagnosing infectious diseases and other potential diseases, such as cancer.

While every hospital within the HCA Healthcare network has its own clinical laboratory, not all of them possess the resources to conduct every type of test. This limitation often leads to various turnaround times and patients waiting longer to learn their course of treatment. By concentrating these specialized tests in the TriStar Central Laboratory, patients can benefit from faster and more accurate diagnoses, ensuring timely treatment and improved health outcomes.

The work laboratorians and pathologists do play a central role in high-quality patient care, with up to 70% of medical decisions informed by laboratory results. That’s why HCA Healthcare is committed to growing our laboratory presence to help provide timely, accurate care across our more than 37 million patient encounters each year.

HCA Healthcare’s laboratory story began nearly two decades ago when the enterprise entered into a joint venture and eventually acquired Integrated Regional Laboratories in Florida in 2005. At the time, centralization was more of a perk than a necessity, but as the healthcare landscape has changed, it has become increasingly important to bring laboratorians, tools and resources together. HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Central Laboratory is the next step in leveraging our scale to help improve patient outcomes.

George Deratany, division director of Laboratory Services for the TriStar Division, recognizes that this laboratory is the pilot facility that will serve as a model for all other central laboratories across our divisions, improving care throughout our organization’s footprint. “With the centralization of testing and staff at one facility, higher complexity testing is now available for the entire division as opposed to only a few hospital sites,” he said. This leads to faster results and more accurate diagnoses for patients.

Raising the bar for our patients and colleagues

This new central laboratory is more than just a building. It contributes directly to better experiences for our colleagues and, most importantly, better patient care. Here are just a few of the ways central laboratories raise the bar for our colleagues and patients.

Centers of excellence: For our laboratory colleagues, serving in a central laboratory offers unprecedented access to impactful resources and meaningful work. The TriStar Central Laboratory team enjoys streamlined support from the quality team, more information and greater connections to their peers as dozens of laboratorians and pathologists work together, in one location, toward a common purpose.

Getting patients timely results: The TriStar Central Laboratory currently processes results for approximately 30,000 patients per month. The 24/7 operations delivered by this centralized laboratory team allow us to share results faster for each of these patients, meaning our care teams can work with them to determine the right course of action.

Multi-team alignment: A lot goes into helping a laboratory run, and the stars aligned for the central laboratory model according to Kristie Shafer, assistant vice president of quality for HCA Healthcare Laboratory Services. “We had operations, the tech team, the quality team, IT resources and HR resources all working toward a common goal of improving Laboratory Services and our ability to offer great care to our patients,” said Kristie.

The future of HCA Healthcare Laboratory Services

With a Laboratory Services team that continues to grow, HCA Healthcare is committed to investing in technology, treatments and tools that improve more lives in more ways. On the heels of three centralized laboratories in Florida, the TriStar Central Laboratory is the first of a dozen or more central laboratories planned outside the Sunshine State in the coming years.

A cornerstone of that effort is Laboratory Services’ investment in quality. HCA Healthcare Vice President and Chief Laboratory Officer Dr. Heather Signorelli believes “the development of the quality team is crucial to support operations.” As HCA Healthcare colleagues work to “support each other across more than 180 hospitals, to share best practices, to share knowledge and to better support regulatory readiness, quality is the glue that holds all of our efforts together.”

High-quality patient care depends on our laboratory colleagues, and the collaboration and efficiency now possible at TriStar Central Laboratory is the next step in creating healthier tomorrows for our patients.