Anew clinical lab being built by Nevada Health and Biosciences Laboratory in conjunction with University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (UMC) is expected to open in early 2027. The 34,000-square-foot lab will initially employ about 35 people and will significantly expand UMC’s current test offerings. Laboratory Economics recently spoke with Deb LaCava, Administrative Director of Laboratory Services at UMC.
Tell me about the new Nevada Health and Biosciences Academic Laboratory.
It’s located in the Las Vegas Medical District and will significantly expand UMC’s capacity while supporting education, research and future transplant-related services. When we first open, we will be moving our molecular and microbiology labs from the main hospitals into that building and expanding both. We’re having a BSL-3 lab built into that facility, so that will expand our capacity in microbiology. We’ll also be bringing in toxicology and drug testing. We’ll have mass spec, and we also are planning an HLA lab for transplants.
What was the impetus for the new lab?
Medical care is lacking in Nevada compared to our neighboring states. A lot of patient testing must be sent out of state to reference labs, and that really delays patient care. Our new lab will get results to patients in a couple of hours instead of seven or eight days.
Where is the majority of testing done now?
Routine testing is generally performed in the hospital lab. More specialized tests, such as NGS or specialized panels, are sent out to a reference lab such as Labcorp or Quest.
What geographic areas will the new lab serve?
Initially, it will serve the Las Vegas Valley. I’ve had calls from Arizona and California labs asking us to do testing for them, so once we’re set up and ready, we’ll expand our range. Some of it has to do with licensing. Not every state requires a license, but California does.
How many clients are you currently serving, and do you expect that to increase with the new lab?
Outside of the UMC hospitals, we have about 14 reference clients that send us testing on an almost daily basis. It accounts for about $1 million of testing per year. I anticipate getting more clients once the new lab is open. We anticipate increasing the testing for our UMC patients as well, as they represent the biggest client population for the lab.
Do you expect your volume to increase substantially?
Right now, our lab runs about 7.5 million tests per year—mostly inpatient testing. Between molecular and microbiology, we run just under 2 million tests per year. We’re hoping to initially add at least another 500,000 in that first year. I anticipate adding volume each year for the first three or four years.
How will the new lab improve turnaround times?
Right now, specialized testing is sent to a reference lab. Most of them are out of state, such as California, Arizona and the East Coast. This causes delays just for transit times. And because of batch testing, some of the labs may only perform a test two or three days per week. So right now, any testing that’s sent out of state is averaging five to 10 days turnaround time. If we do the testing here, we can give the physicians 24-hour maximum turnaround time with most test results reported in four to six hours.
What else will the new lab offer?
We’ll have a BSL-3 lab. We are already the designated hospital if there’s an Ebola case here in town. We’ll also be able to do tuberculosis confirmation and some other tests, such as Zika. The big part of this will be the HLA lab. Once that opens, we’ll be supporting our own transplant program. We’ll also be able to support platelet matching for patients who need blood transfusions and surgeries.
How will this lab affect workforce development in Southern Nevada?
We plan on adding several full-time employees when the lab first opens, and as we grow, we’ll likely add more. I think the biggest contribution to the workforce will be the training we’ll be able to provide for future lab professionals. They’ll be able to have hands-on experience in a state-of-the-art lab.
How many med tech students are you training right now?
We generally have four rotating through our labs at any given time. We train them for eight weeks. With the added space and staff in the new lab, we’ll be able to train 2-4 more per year.