St. Luke's Laboratory Services

St. Luke’s Laboratory Services provides high quality clinical and anatomic laboratory services at the Boise, Meridian,  Wood River, and Magic Valley hospitals and the Fruitland Clinic.. 

• St. Luke's Laboratory Services provides outpatient and inpatient testing services for a list of locations for blood draws click here to view the list.
• St. Luke's Laboratory Services has a comprehensive test menu.
• Click here for Lab Orders Epic/Sunquest Translation Table.

Overview of Laboratory Services

Chemistry and Immunology Services
St. Luke's Chemistry/Immunology department is organized to produce fast, accurate laboratory testing to meet the needs of acute care.  We are committed in providing high quality laboratory reporting and being a resource for proper specimen collection, processing and interpretation. The Chemistry lab has state of the art and sophisticated automation that performs a wide array of testing for cardiac, endocrine, renal, liver, and lipid function.

Hematology Services
St. Luke’s Hematology department is a comprehensive section providing a full range of testing in hematology, coagulation, and flow cytometry.

Hematology is the study of blood and its related disorders such as anemia, sickle cell disease and leukemia to name a few. Normal blood consists of erythrocytes (red blood cells), leukocytes (white blood cells), and platelets. In the Hematology department the morphology of the RBC’s, number of platelets and type of WBC’s (neutrophils, eosinophils, basophils, lympocytes and monocytes) are evaluated in a complete blood count (CBC).

Hemostasis (coagulation) is the combination of cellular and biochemical events that function in harmony to keep blood from clotting or hemorrhaging. When the hemostasis systems are out of balance thrombosis and bleeding can occur and may become life threatening if undiagnosed and untreated. The Hematology department investigates all of the major hemostasis systems to help predict, prevent, and diagnose hemostatic disease.

Microbiology
The testing menu for the Microbiology section of Clinical Pathology includes Bacteriology, Mycology, Virology, Parasitology, Mycobacteriology and DNA Probe diagnostic technologies. In conjunction with the Infectious Disease clinicians and the Infection Control and Epidemiology team, actions are taken to identify and control nosocomial (hospital-acquired) microorganisms and quickly track organisms resistant to antimicrobial agents and to coordinate those agents tested in the laboratory with those selected by St. Luke's Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and guidelines of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). 

Transfusion Services
The St. Luke’s Health System Transfusion Service’s main goal is to provide quality products to our patients by following safe transfusion practices. The majority of blood and blood products are supplied by our local American Red Cross (ARC). The St. Luke’s Health System transfuses over 13,000 products annually as well as providing specialized testing/products for neonates (NICU) and newborns, cancer patients, bone marrow transplant patients, specialized surgery cases such as cardiovascular, orthopedic, an active maternity center, and maternal fetal services.   We utilize semi-automated/automated testing processes, a fully computerized lab system, and Lean Six Sigma practices to develop policies and procedures.  We also act as a training institution for medical technologists in partnership with Idaho State University.

Cell Therapy
The Cell Therapy Lab performs autologous and allogeneic stem cell collections, processing and freezing for storage, and thawing of stored cells for reinfusion. 

Histology
The Histology lab examines tissue from a surgery, biopsy or autopsy. Histology prepares and stains slides for Pathologist review. It is an essential tool of anatomic pathology since diagnosis of tumors and other disease processes require histological evaluation.

Cytology
The cytology lab examines cells by preparing cells based on the site of origin, quality of specimen and the suspected diagnosis.  The laboratory then screens the slides to aid in diagnosis.