Lab Services

Our attention is on you…

North Valley Hospital offers a full service Laboratory that is open 7 days a week and is available 24 hours a day. Walk-ins are welcome.

Regular hours are Monday to Friday 6am until 6pm.  On Saturdays and Sundays we are open from 6am until 2pm.  After hours the lab is staffed by an on-call technologist who responds to the lab within 30 minutes.

The laboratory at North Valley Hospital offers a full line of in-house testing, ranging from simple screens for Strep Throat to complex Cardiac Markers found during a heart attack.

The Microbiology department of the lab can set up and culture a wide variety of specimens from basic urine cultures to serious wound infections. When bacteria are isolated from specimens antibiotics specific for the infection are tested and a list of antibiotics for treatment are provided to the doctor.

Patients who are on Anticoagulant Therapy can have their “Coag” tests done here at North Valley Hospital. We offer both Protime/INR and PTT testing.

Tests available in the Chemistry department of the Lab include STAT tests that are usually performed in the Emergency Room such as Electrolytes, Kidney and Liver functions or Cardiac Enzymes plus a full line of screening and health marker tests like PSA,  Iron, Lipid Panels and Glycohemoglobins.

North Valley Hospital Lab is affiliated with the American Red Cross and uses only ARC Blood. The Red Cross regularly rotates a safe and secure stock of blood units through our Blood Bank.  Last year North Valley Hospital transfused 164 units of packed red blood cells.

The lab at North Valley Hospital is here to serve both inpatients and outpatients.  Outpatients from any doctors’ office are welcome to have their lab work done at the North Valley Hospital Lab.

In one year, North Valley Hospital’s Laboratory ran 44,548 lab tests for inpatients, outpatients, ER patients and Extended Care patients. If reference laboratory tests are ordered, NVH uses Pathology Associates Medical Laboratory in Spokane and samples are shipped by courier Monday through Friday.  In 2004, 738 reference lab tests were sent to Pathology Associates.  This shows that 98% of lab requests are completed right here in our own North Valley Hospital Laboratory Department.

Our laboratory professionals seek new ways to provide reliable, accurate, and cost-effective services to our clinicians.

The North Valley Hospital Laboratory is dedicated to providing laboratory services to meet the needs of patients, clinicians, and medical facilities in North Okanogan County.