Northwell opens new lab for South Shore patients

Northwell Health Labs said it has opened a Patient Service Center in Long Beach.

The 800-square-foot office, at 303 E. Park Ave., will handle the collection process for a variety of diagnostic medical tests, including blood draws and urinalysis.

The office, which opened about two weeks ago, will be staffed by two phlebotomists.

Northwell operates 28 Patient Service Centers, including 12 on Long Island.

The Long Beach facility is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday; and 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. 

New Hyde Park-based Northwell last month launched LabFly, a mobile app that allows patients to schedule appointments to have their blood drawn at their home or workplace. 

Northwell said the “concierge health care” app offers patients an alternative to having their blood taken at a traditional lab clinic.

The LabFly app is available for download via Apple's App Store and Google Play for Android users. LabFly went live last week in Brooklyn and Staten Island. It has been available in Manhattan and Queens since last month.

To meet the increasing demand for lab testing, Northwell this year also opened a $59 million, 101,000-square-foot core lab in Lake Success with the largest automated testing line of its kind and a $47 million, 36,000-square-foot microbiology lab in Little Neck, Queens.

The fee for lab testing is covered by most patients’ insurers. There is an additional convenience fee of $19.99  for LabFly appointments  that patients pay out of pocket.

Laboratory testing is the single highest volume medical activity, with about 13 billion tests performed in the United States every year, according to lab accreditation bureau COLA.