About Us

A Collaborative Program of the Hamilton Health Sciences,
St. Joseph's Healthcare and McMaster University

A collective approach to the provision of laboratory services in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, began in 1972. The following objectives were agreed on at that time by the Hamilton General, Henderson General, St. Joseph's, Chedoke-McMaster Hospitals, and the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University:

• to provide service on a regional basis, rationalize the provision of expensive or complex tests and eliminate inter-hospital billing for tests:
  
• to coordinate and provide education in Laboratory Medicine for undergraduate and postgraduate medical training programs from McMaster University:
  
• to meet the laboratory testing needs of local community physicians through the Community Laboratory Services, a network of collection centres.
  
• to provide for hospitals and laboratories throughout Canada access to the comprehensive testing facilities of the regional system through the Laboratory Reference Centre

This was achieved by four independent Departments of Laboratory Medicine voluntarily agreeing to concentrate their resources, including capital equipment, at the appropriate hospital for sophisticated laboratory services, with the clinical and technical support personnel to provide and interpret these services.

In mid-1996, three of the acute care hospitals were amalgamated into a new corporation: Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation (HHSC). With the existing environment of reorganization of hospital and laboratory services in Ontario, a made-in-Hamilton strategic plan was developed. A planning group was established with representation from laboratory physicians, scientists, technologists and hospital administration. It was agreed to amalgamate all laboratory staff, resources, responsibilities, procedures and budgets into a single program, the Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program (HRLMP), accountable to both hospital corporations. This plan was approved by the Medical Advisory Committees and Boards of the Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation and St. Joseph's Hospital.

There are five disciplines, Clinical Chemistry and Immunology, Genetics, Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, Microbiology, Anatomical Pathology. Each discipline has a Director. Regular meetings are held for the laboratory physicians, scientists and senior technologists within these disciplines, to discuss the delivery of service, as well to plan and coordinate education and research in each discipline.

The creation of appropriate laboratory space, the installation of a single Laboratory Information System, the centralization of specialized tests, resolution of vitally important human resource issues to provide the flexibility needed for such an integrated program, are current challenges and they are clear indications that this is a work-in-progress.

The Hamilton Regional Laboratory Medicine Program is also participating actively in the explanation of opportunities to achieve an even greater collaboration and integration of the academic, community hospital and private laboratory services in the Central South region.

There is no interhospital billing for tests. The budget for the participating hospital laboratories is administered globally and new programs or relocation of test facilities are funded by budget transfer to the appropriate hospitals.

Each of four disciplines, Clinical Chemistry and Immunology, Haematology, Microbiology, and Anatomical Pathology, has a chairman. Regular meetings are held for the laboratory physicians, scientists, and senior technologists within these disciplines to discuss the delivery of service, as well as to plan and coordinate education and research in the discipline.