Browsing Category
Main lab
Effective Wednesday, April 29, 2026, Schistocyte Review (LAB1231565) will be available to order across all Corewell Health Laboratories Hematology Departments.
This new orderable supports alignment across Corewell Health regions by standardizing schistocyte assessment practices, ensuring high‑quality testing, and delivering a consistent patient care experience system‑wide.
When ordering a Pre‑surgical Type & Screen, all required order questions must be completed accurately. These answers drive specimen routing, collection timing, and blood bank workflow in Epic.
Epic uses your responses to ensure testing is performed by the correct blood bank at the correct time. Incomplete or incorrect information can result in misrouted specimens, delays, rework, or redraws.
Chemistry, West Michigan
Specimen Type Change for Outpatient Chemistry Tests – Effective December 3, 2025
Updated: 11/26/2025
Effective Date: December 3, 2025
What’s Changing?
The preferred specimen type for most outpatient Chemistry tests will change from: Lithium Heparin Gel PST (mint green-top with gel) to Serum Separator SST (gold-top with gel)
Gray-top tube (Potassium Oxalate & Sodium Fluoride) will now be the preferred tube for glucose testing. Gold-top SST will remain acceptable for glucose testing and preferred for panels that contain glucose testing.
Why the Change?
SST tubes provide improved specimen quality and stability, supporting more accurate test results.
Gray-top tubes contain additives that prevent glycolysis, ensuring more accurate glucose measurements.
Key Points
Gold-top SST is now the preferred tube for outpatient Chemistry specimens.
Light green-top PST will still be accepted for the respective tests.
Gray-top is the preferred tube for glucose testing; gold-top is acceptable and should still be used for panels containing glucose.
Resources
Updated Preferred Tube Quick Guide
(Note: This change only impacts West Michigan; Southeast and Southwest Michigan sites already use gold-top SST tubes for many of these tests.)
Questions?
Use the Contact Us link above.
Effective Wednesday, July 30, 2025, changes to result reporting will be implemented across all Hematology Departments at Corewell Health Laboratories. These updates will help align all regions within Corewell Health Hematology Departments to provide a high-quality and standardize patient care experience.
The following are the most impactful changes for the Corewell Health West Michigan Region:
Effective June 4, 2025, Corewell Health Laboratories will include a preliminary result of >10000 mIU/mL for Beta Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG + β) (LAB142) specimens that require dilution. The preliminary result will provide a quick insight on the status of the βhCG quantification analysis. It is important to remember that these results are not definitive, therefore final interpretation should be made alongside the fully validated results.
Effective April 2, 2025, the Reflex HPV algorithm will more closely align with ASCCP recommendations. HPV testing will no longer be performed for a normal Pap result in patients aged 30 years and older when a provider orders HPV Reflex.
Specimens will qualify for HPV Reflex with a cytologic diagnosis of:
- ASCUS (Atypical Squamous Cells of Undetermined Significance) for patients aged 21 and older.
- LSIL (Low Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion) for patients aged 25 and older.
HPV testing will continue to be performed for all Paps, regardless of results, for patients aged 30 years or older when a provider orders Co-Testing.
If a provider wishes to request HPV testing on a normal pap for patients under 30, they must either place an electronic order at the time of the initial pap order or request an add-on test for:
- HPV High Risk Screen with HPV Genotype Reflex – Cervical Source (LAB1231770)
- HPV High Risk Screen with HPV Genotype Reflex – Vaginal Source (LAB1230721)
Updated Pap and HPV Testing Algorithm
Effective March 21, 2025, Corewell Health Laboratories will update the preferred specimen type for β-hCG testing from plasma to serum (mint green top, lithium heparin gel to gold top, serum separator-SST gel). The move to serum is mostly driven by the laboratory’s need to reduce assay performance problems that can occur sporadically with the use of plasma. Although serum is the preferred specimen type plasma will remain an acceptable container.
If you have questions regarding the preanalytical handling process and the optimum tube offering, contact the lab for support.
TEST INFORMATION