York Hospital Clinical Laboratory Science Program

About the Clinical Facilities

Department of Laboratory Services
The program uses the facilities of the York Hospital Department of Laboratory Services to provide much of the clinical experience for its students. The hospital laboratory performs more than five million billable test procedures each year. State-of-the-art instrumentation includes automated cell counters, programmable discrete chemical analyzers, blood cell separators for therapeutic and preparative procedures, micro-processor-based identification system for microorganisms, various chromatographic equipment and various equipment used in the molecular diagnostics laboratory.

The clinical laboratories are accredited by the College of American Pathologists and licensed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Transfusion Services and Blood Resources divisions are accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks and licensed by the Federal Drug Administration. The various divisions of the laboratory participate in proficiency testing programs as part of continuous quality improvement monitoring.

Laboratory administration includes eight pathologists, three pathologists' assistants, two doctoral scientists, an administrative manager and an operations manager. Each technical area of the laboratory is directed by a division manager. More than 300 technical and support employees staff the Department of Laboratory Sciences.

The laboratory is integrated with a hospital-wide computer system. The laboratory system handles patient data reporting, statistical compilations, workload organization, quality control functions and data retrieval. Laboratory patient data is compiled with data from other areas of the health system to comprise a clinical information system that is used by physicians and other caregivers to serve the needs of patients.

Most laboratory instrumentation is interfaced directly with the computer; this facilitates data reporting. Students as well as the laboratory staff use the laboratory computer system routinely.

Other Facilities
The Central Pennsylvania Alliance Laboratory (CPAL) is a regional reference laboratory located in York. Students are assigned to CPAL for brief rotations that provide an opportunity to experience additional laboratory instrumentation and procedures not provided in the hospital's laboratory.

Other resources for student use include the health system's library and the Emig Research Center. The Philip A. Hoover, M.D.Library houses many volumes of health-related topics, numerous medical, nursing and allied health journals, and on-line search capabilities.

The Emig Research Center involves facilities and staff to assist with research projects. Individual and group instructions, training, consultation and technical assistance are provided.

The student laboratory houses two computer workstations with Internet access, as well as access to a variety of other programs and applications. Some software programs are used as part of the instruction in various disciplines, while other uses include remediation and review.

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