Great Neck, N.Y.-based Northwell Health will soon take over day-to-day operations of the lab at Coney Island Hospital after the hospital's lab failed state inspections, according to a Crain's Health Pulse report published on Northwell Health's website.
The lab's trouble dates back to 2013, when a patient died after receiving the wrong type of blood during a transfusion. Since then, the Coney Island Hospital, which is part of NYC Health + Hospitals, sent blood samples off site for testing, but the lab continued to operate otherwise.
Now, it appears the two systems are building on a prior lab-related partnership — Northwell and NYC H+H are building a joint lab, the Clinical Laboratory New York, slated to open in 2018.
"Over the past month, the leadership of Northwell Health Laboratories has been providing on-site assistance to Coney Island Hospital, as it works to address laboratory-service needs in blood banking and transfusion medicine," a Northwell spokesperson told Crain's. "We are now negotiating a management agreement with Health + Hospitals that will further strengthen our relationship, specifically as it relates to both the blood bank, transfusion medicine and general laboratory operations at Coney Island Hospital."