Spokane Valley laboratory Incyte Diagnostics, which operates under the entity Incyte Pathology PS, has acquired Yakima, Wash.-based pathology group Medical Center Laboratory (MCL). 

Kim Hagerty, spokeswoman for Incyte, says the acquisition closed on May 1. She declines to disclose the terms of the transaction, but she says MCL will be rebranded as Incyte. 

Incyte will continue to operate MCL at its current location in Yakima. Three of the laboratory’s four pathologists will be staying on after the acquisition, and a fourth is retiring. With the addition of MCL, Hagerty says Incyte will employ a total of 233 people. 

The company decided to acquire MCL as part of its expansion plan, she says, adding, “It’s part of our long-term strategy to become a regional pathology center.” 

Incyte also is assuming the medical laboratory directorships for Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, Yakima Regional Medical & Cardiac Center, Toppenish Community Hospital, and Sunnyside Community Hospital, which previously were overseen by MCL.

 In a medical laboratory directorship, Incyte’s pathologists work in a hospital’s labs and oversee those lab procedures.  

Accredited pathology laboratories also are regularly inspected by the College of American Pathologists, Hagerty says, to ensure the laboratories are following the correct procedures. When Incyte is contracted as a medical director for a hospital’s laboratory, it’s responsible for maintaining that accreditation, Hagerty says. 

Hospitals around the Pacific Northwest contract with Incyte for these directorships; Hagerty says that about one in five hospitals in Washington uses Incyte for that service. Private physicians also contract with Incyte for pathology services. 

MCL has provided clinical and anatomical pathology services in the Yakima area for 40 years. Clinical pathology usually has to do with bodily fluids, while anatomical pathology addresses the body’s tissues.

Incyte, which was founded in 1957, is owned by a group of pathologists. In addition to the new Yakima location and its Spokane Valley headquarters, Incyte also has laboratories in three other Washington cities: Pullman, Walla Walla, and Bellevue.