UR Medicine Cuts Ribbon for New Central Laboratory

As part of a large-scale laboratory relocation and consolidation project, UR Medicine cut the ribbon on a newly expanded and renovated building at 211 Bailey Road in West Henrietta that will serve as the new central laboratory for the health system.

Approximately 500 staff who worked at Strong Memorial Hospital and other UR Medicine Labs sites will relocate to the new site with more scheduled to move after this summer. Clinical lab testing will officially go live on June 24. All inpatient, emergency and on-campus clinics will remain at Strong Memorial Hospital.

“Consolidating our operations to a centralized facility will allow for sustained growth as we strive to become the laboratory of choice in our region,” said Bruce Smoller, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “I would like to thank our faculty and staff for coming together to make this effort a reality as we look toward the future.”  

Testing volume for UR Medicine Labs exceeded 8 million patient lab tests in 2018, and that number continues to increase as the health system expands its footprint locally.

Bringing different specialized labs under one roof is expected to encourage greater collaboration among technical staff. The spacious 130,000 square foot space will also accommodate new testing equipment built to handle heavy testing volumes.

Laboratory operations that are staying at Strong Memorial Hospital will be relocated to different space within the building that will also undergo renovation planned to go into early 2020.

“The relocation and consolidation of laboratory testing at Bailey Road will bring most laboratory personnel under one roof and allow those staying at SMH to move into renovated space in the next year so we can continue to provide the highest quality of care at all levels,” said Kathy Parrinello, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Strong Memorial Hospital.

The lab team is a large and integral part of patient care with UR Medicine. In terms of staff numbers, Pathology & Lab Medicine is the second largest group with more than 900 faculty, staff and personnel.

The construction for the Bailey Road project officially broke ground in 2017.