2025 Lab of the Year Runner Up: NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
NYU Langone Hospital Long Island Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is one of the recipients of Medical Laboratory Observer's 2025 Lab of the Year Runner Up Awards! NYU Langone's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine consists of 15 laboratories (10 clinical and 5 anatomic pathology). Quality, point of care, and central processing/critical call departments are also part of NYU Langone. Together, their 200 plus staff members process over 1.5 million samples every year.
NYU Langone Long Island is stationed in Mineola, New York.
Education and training
NYU Langone Long Island’s dedication to leadership excellence was one of the reasons they were in the top three running for Lab of the Year. To enhance its leadership, they launched a Leadership Development Program in 2023. The program has decreased employee turnover and raised their engagement scores. Inspection results have also improved due to this program.
The lab also launched a Hematology Academy to answer the question “How do we continue to thrive when the world as we know it shifts overnight?”
The academy has three levels of leadership:
- Foundation- This beginning level arms participants with crucial skills and comprehension of how the lab functions. This section of the academy focuses on managing reagent inventory, maintaining lot-to-lot consistency, overseeing daily workflows, ensuring quality control, instrument maintenance, and optimizing operations.
- Advanced- Once participants are ready, they progress to the next level of academy. The advanced level gives them more experience in the technical and managerial sides of leadership. They focus on growth, SOP validation, QC validation, conducting correlation studies, purchasing, instrument calibration, and training employees.
- Executive- Throughout the top level of the academy, participants focus on the highest level of laboratory leadership. They learn to make strategic decisions, develop tests, take initiative in planning and inspections, recruit employees, etc.
Omiba Rama, MHA, MLS, Hematology and Special Hematology Manager said, “The Hematology Academy is more than a program, it’s a commitment to the future of our lab.”
Productivity
NYU Langone Long Island started a Critical Call Task Force after noticing they met their 30-minute critical value reporting time most of the time, but not 100%. This group is a collaboration between healthcare providers and the lab, improving workflow and communication. The new team saw a 7% jump in the first two months after utilizing medical record enhancement software “First Provider.”
The lab also sought to streamline their inspection day documentation filing, so they started using MediaLab’s InspectionProof software. They received positive feedback during their next CAP inspection. NYU Langone Long Island said, “The use of InspectionProof contributed to an 80% decrease in the number of deficiencies and a 60% decrease in the percentage of checklist items cited when comparing 2021 and 2024 inspection performance.”
Overcoming challenges
NYU Langone Long Island was a victim of the July 19th CrowdStrike attack that affected millions. They described the night as a “high-stakes crisis.”
The following systems were affected by the outage:
- The clinical laboratory system
- The hospital pneumatic tube system
- Point-of-care
- Blood gas analyzers
- Hemovacs
“Despite the disruption, the response from lab operations was quick and effective, ensuring continuity of services and minimizing downtime,” said Nicole Adler, MD, FACP, FHM, Chief Medical Officer, NYU Langone Health- Long Island. She described how the laboratory information system (LIS) went into downtime mode early during the outage and how the lab had to prioritize samples.
The LIS was functioning properly by 8AM and the team had all backlog cleared by 11PM that day. “Throughout the event, clinical laboratory services remained uninterrupted thanks to the quick actions and dedication of the team. Despite the challenges of the CrowdStrike outage, the lab minimized interruptions and maintained continuous services, demonstrating the resilience and agility of our operations. The successful response highlights the importance of contingency planning and the ability of our teams to adapt to unexpected disruptions while ensuring patient care remains the top priority,” Dr. Adler emphasized.
NYU Langone Long Island was also affected by the BD blood culture bottle shortage. When the shortage was first announced, the lab only had a 34-day supply of the blood culture bottles left, causing the need for a quick solution. The team implemented interventions that helped reserve supply. They were able to explore alternative bottle vendors, validating alternative bottles compatible with their current incubator, and evaluating load-sharing across the health system.
Teamwork
Another area of improvement NYU Langone Long Island worked on was the Mislabeled Specimen Reduction Project. It was inspired by an analysis of the lab’s 2022-2023 Patient Safety Intelligence Reports (PSIs) that recognized mislabeled blood gasses as a pain point. This project required dedication and teamwork from Respiratory Therapy (RT), Point-of-Care Testing (POCT), Information Technology (IT) and Laboratory Quality. The team first sought to understand how mislabeling specimens can be prevented and applied those best practices. NYU Langone Long Island changed their manual blood gas patient verification process to a technical one. The team utilized Epic positive patient identification (PPID), an electronic solution that optimized their blood gas testing process.
NYU Langone Long Island said, “This simple, no cost solution, produced a 67% Reduction in Mislabeling Errors which has since been sustained. Prior to PPID implementation, an average of 4.2 mislabeling errors per month were documented. Post PPID go live, two or fewer mislabeled events have been recorded.” The team is continuously monitoring the process and expects the error rate to decline even more.
Strategic outlook
NYU Langone Hospital Long Island launched a digital pathology program in January 2025. Many groups worked together to make sure the implementation of digital pathology was smooth. According to NYU Langone Long Island, they “acquired four SG300 scanners, for permanent slide imaging, and two Glissando Slide scanners, for frozen sections.” They remodeled spaces in the laboratory in collaboration with IT departments to make space for the new equipment.
NYU Langone Long Island is also implementing MALDI-TOF to advance patient care and clinical decision making. They said, “Here at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to deliver patient care that goes beyond standard practices. By embracing these technological advancements, we’re enhancing both the speed and accuracy of diagnostics, which directly benefits our patients. This commitment to innovation and excellence means that we’re not only supporting better health outcomes but actively contributing to the fight against antimicrobial resistance. As we move forward, we’re excited to set a new standard in microbiology and patient care—one that’s driven by technology, precision, and a dedication to excellence.”
