Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories LLC and Bloodworks Northwest, of Seattle, say they’ve reached an agreement to explore ways to collaborate in hopes of improving patient care.

PAML President and CEO  Dr. Francisco Velazquez says PAML and BloodworksNW recognized a need to work together.

“Health care systems and processes are changing dramatically … we must identify new and better ways to strengthen our continuum of care,” Velazquez says in a press release. “We have always had a high regard for the laboratory and diagnostic services of BloodworksNW, and by working collaboratively, there is an opportunity to ensure quality patient care now and into the future.”

PAML and BloodworksNW signed a formal letter of intent to work together to deliver specialized diagnostics and clinical services, Velazquez says in the press release. He couldn’t be reached immediately for direct comment about the agreement.

PAML is among Spokane County’s 25 largest employers, with 764 full-time equivalent employees as of the end of last year, based on information it supplied to the Journal for a largest-employers list. 

BloodworksNW, formerly known as the Puget Sound Blood Center, serves patients in close to 90 hospitals throughout the Pacific Northwest.

“By combining our strengths, we can improve the efficiency and scope of clinical services, improve access to specialized transfusion and transplantation testing, and ensure that health care expenditures deliver the maximum value,” says Dr. James P. AuBuchon, of BloodworksNW, in the same press release.

“This letter of intent underscores the potential for synergy between our two organizations, and the role we both play providing specialized lab services to support the highest quality of patient care,” AuBuchon says. 

The two organizations plan to explore streamlining test menus to improve delivery of patient care, enhance information systems best practices, identify methods for delivering value-based care, and exploring complementary service enhancements for core competencies, the press release says.

Discussions between PAML and BloodworksNW are expected to be ongoing, they say.

In a separate recent press release, PAML says it’s offering a measles blood test for $45 to determine a person’s immunity for measles. The Spokane Regional Health District reported two confirmed cases of measles last week. The test measures the measles antibodies in a person’s blood. If the test result shows measles antibodies, then the individual is considered immune to the outbreak.