Shared Hospital Laboratory celebrates official opening

Shared Hospital Laboratory (SHL), the largest hospital microbiology lab in Ontario, celebrated its official opening today. The lab is a partnership between Sunnybrook, Michael Garron Hospital, North York General Hospital, and Scarborough Health Network, with support from the Ontario Ministry of Health and BD Canada, and houses state-of-the-art automation which has led to greater efficiencies and turnaround time.

Since the start of the pandemic, the lab has completed over three million COVID-19 tests, and can process up to 10,000 COVID-19 samples per day.

“The strong collaboration between the hospital partners has resulted in Shared Hospital Laboratory playing a leadership role throughout the pandemic,” says Dr. Kevin Katz, Medical Director, Shared Hospital Laboratory. “Not only does the lab support the health of Ontarians, but it supports major national and international surveillance networks active in sharing information about the spread of COVID-19.”

Physically located at the Sunnybrook’s Bayview campus, the lab also engages in training the next generation of lab clinicians from the University of Toronto, the Michener Institute of Education, Ontario Tech and Centennial College.

“We are proud to be a member of the Shared Hospital Laboratory team, and proud of the frontline staff who have shown remarkable resiliency during the stress of the pandemic,” says Dr. Andy Smith, President and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “The lab serves hundreds of thousands of patients across the Greater Toronto Area each year and ultimately contributes to better patient outcomes.”