Laboratory Services

The Laboratory Services Department at Auburn Community Hospital is responsible for providing comprehensive and high quality Clinical and Anatomic Laboratory services for the community. Through the years, the laboratory has developed strong relationships with other hospitals, physician’s offices and other healthcare providers and performs more than 1.2 million tests annually. Our facility is an accredited and inspected laboratory of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH), the Joint Commission of Hospitals and the State of New York.

Our Team

Our team is comprised of a Medical and Technical Director, Pathologists, Medical Technologists, Phlebotomists, Blood Bank Specialist, Cytotechnologists and a Histotechnologist. Together we are dedicated to providing a professional and compassionate level of care to all patients and physicians utilizing our services with accuracy and rapid turnaround times. All members of our technical staff are New York State licensed and have years of experience and expertise. Additionally, we have been, and continue to be, benchmarked among the best laboratory providers in state and national surveys.

  • Christopher Gerlach, D.O. – Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
  • John Bagenski, MT (ASCP) – Technical Director of Laboratory
  • Paula Biggs, MT MLT (ASCP) – Assistant Technical Director of Laboratory and Blood Bank Supervisor
  • Jessica Giacona, MLS (ASCP)cm – Core Laboratory Supervisor
  • Lori Betancourt, MT MLT (ASCP) – Microbiology Supervisor
  • Marissa Smithler, CT (ASCP) – Cytology Supervisor

Clinical Laboratory Services

Auburn Community Hospital’s Clinical Laboratory provides the following services:

Routine and stat laboratory tests

  • Chemistry
  • Hematology
  • Coagulation
  • Blood Bank
  • Blood Gas
  • Microbiology
  • Diagnostic Immunology
  • Cytology
  • Pathology Services

Phlebotomy (Blood Draw) services at convenient outpatient sites

We also offer Physician consulting services in Surgical Pathology, Cytopathology Fine Needle Aspiration, Hemopathology and Immunohistochemistry.

Our Technology

Notably, our laboratory was the FIRST in the country to obtain the Abbott Alinity h-series Hematology System after its recent FDA Approval in August of 2023. We are also proud research partners with Abbott’s Scientific Affairs Team.

The state-of-the-art technology within our laboratory, such as Abbott Alinity ci-series Chemistry Analyzers and Abbott h-series Instrumentation, enable us to deliver the utmost accurate test results as well as:

  • Deliver turnaround times for morning blood work for inpatients by 7:15 a.m.
  • Deliver Hematology results in less than 5 minutes from receiving an order