Spokane Valley-based pathology services company Incyte Diagnostics has launched a new clinical testing laboratory to serve hospitals and clinics throughout the northwestern U.S. 

The clinical lab tests for everything from allergies and standard bloodwork to cancer and expects to have antibody testing available for COVID-19 within the next month. 

Located at 15912 E. Marietta in Spokane Valley, 2 ½ miles east of the company’s headquarters on Mansfield Avenue, the new 13,000-square-foot clinical testing lab will serve five states, including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Alaska.

“The main decision to open up a clinical lab was really based off of physician and hospital inquiries,” says CEO Patty Sipes. Currently, most tests are sent out of state and take several days for results to return, and Sipes contends with Incyte’s new lab, turnaround could be completed in a matter of hours on some tests.

The $3.2 million remodel and setup took under 10 months to complete, Sipes says. The site has space to accommodate expansion as the company grows.

Cory Moss, project manager, adds the company concurrently established four Spokane-area patient service centers where doctors can send patients to get their blood drawn, and the company is working on developing such a center in Coeur d’Alene.

Down the road, the company anticipates establishing centers in high-traffic areas in all five states it serves. 

Gary Gemar, chief operating officer, says Incyte Diagnostics primarily is an anatomic pathology business, meaning the company mainly tests tissue samples, but the new clinical lab expands the company’s capabilities to include clinical pathology, or the testing of bodily fluids. 

Currently, the lab has more than 100 clinicians signed on with the lab, Gemar says.

Sipes adds, “There are many more to come. These were just ones with a high volume. Many (of the current clients) are OB/GYN offices and general practitioners.”

The company has established a new clinician interface system and billing system to streamline processes.

Lab manager Pat Burke, says the facility, which opened on March 23, will operate around the clock with the capacity to run over 3,000 tests daily.

Burke says, “Anything anybody will send us, we can accommodate.”

Sipes adds 90% of the tests offered by Incyte are done at its lab, while the other 10% are sent to Mayo Clinic Laboratories.

The lab currently has blood bank, immunology, chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, urinalysis, coagulation, microbiology, and molecular systems, Burke says.

“As we expand to more specialties, we will certainly add the test menus,” Sipes adds. “We are specific to certain areas to begin, because we had to have some type of limit to start, and we’ll expand from there.”

Gemar says he anticipates the next phase for the lab will be COVID-19 testing.

“Daily, on the news, you hear in order to open up the economy, we need testing. It’s a combination of the viral load test and the antibody test, so we’re trying to get a reliable source with a good test to do antibody testing,” he says.

Once that’s up and running, the lab expects to be able to run 600 antibody tests an hour, Gemar asserts.  He adds that shortages in testing supplies also have slowed progress on establishing how many in the area have contracted the virus. 

A viral load test determines if you currently have the virus, while an antibody test determines if you have previously had the virus.

Sipes adds that the company believes it has found a good testing source and anticipates having such tests by mid-May.

Burke adds that the lab has applied for accreditation through the College of American Pathologists.

“We want to build this lab on quality and customer service, not on somebody else’s somewhat tarnished reputation,” she says. Inspections for accreditation are currently delayed due to the virus outbreak, but Burke says she anticipates the decision by September.

Overall, Incyte has over 350 employees, 12 of whom currently are based at the clinical lab. Gemar says the goal is for the lab to grow to over 50 employees within the next five years.

Incyte Diagnostics, established in 1957, is headquartered at 13103 E. Mansfield, where it occupies over 26,000 square feet of space. The company also has operations in Richland and Bellevue, Washington.