About the Lab

No medical facility or health care providers could address our health care needs without the diagnostic information provided by a first rate clinical laboratory. Each year the Maine Coast Memorial Hospital Laboratory supports the majority of the area’s health care providers.

This 24-hours-a-day comprehensive facility uses the latest in automated equipment and is staffed by a highly trained team of technologists. The highest rating has been given to the hospital’s laboratory by the Joint Commission on Healthcare Organizations. Whether to help with an emergency surgery, inpatient or outpatient monitoring, the clinical laboratory is always ready.

The laboratory is open for walk in lab work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, Saturday  8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and not open on Sunday and holidays.

Services

Some of the services at our laboratory include:

• Bactec 9050 – A continuous blood culture monitoring system to detect bacterial sepsis. This important new service from the microbiology laboratory cuts detection time in half thereby decreasing patient stays and cutting hospital costs.

• Troponin Testing – Troponin is a protein found only in the heart muscle. Troponin appears when chest pain is caused by a myocardial infarction. This new test brings greater accuracy to the diagnosis of heart attack and its successful treatment.

• CEA Test – This new test is used for follow-up care of patients who have had tumor surgery. Increase in CEA levels may be the sign of tumor reoccurrence. This test is used to manage and monitor cancer therapy. Having this new test in-house permits same day results instead of the three to five day wait when the test was sent out.

• PSA Testing is now done right here at the hospital laboratory. This accurate test is used for early detection of prostate cancer and the follow-up care of those recovering from this disease, which is the second most life threatening health problem in men.