Successful community-based laboratory services program for long-term care facilities, Part 1

Hagerstown Medical Laboratory, Inc. (HML) is a regional reference laboratory in Hagerstown, Maryland, that provides laboratory services to more than 50 long-term care facilities (LTCFs, or nursing homes) in Western Maryland and West Virginia. HML also operates the rapid response laboratory at Washington County Hospital and performs house calls for homebound or bedridden patients through its Nursing Home Program (NHP). This article relates HML's successful experience with an outreach program that provides laboratory services to LTCFs.