LabCorp and Swedish Extend Laboratory Services Relationship, Providing Continued Access to High-Quality Diagnostics and COVID-19 Testing

LabCorp (NYSE: LH), a leading global life sciences company that is focused on advancing health and guiding patient care decisions, and Swedish, the largest nonprofit healthcare system in the Puget Sound region, today announced an agreement to extend their more than 20-year relationship. LabCorp will continue to provide laboratory services, both onsite and reference, to the Swedish main hospital campuses as well as the Swedish ambulatory network across the region.

“Our relationship with Swedish spans decades and represents the deep, personalized collaboration that LabCorp offers to our health system partners,” said Rajat Mehta, senior vice president of LabCorp Diagnostics’ West Division. “LabCorp is honored to serve Swedish patients and care providers with laboratory services, especially in this remarkable time of COVID-19, and to extend a relationship that has served the region so well for many years.”

The organizations’ joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic further illustrates their collaborative efforts to provide quality services to the communities they serve. The Greater Seattle area saw the nation’s first rise in COVID-19 cases and, in early March 2020, as LabCorp became the first commercial laboratory to launch diagnostic PCR testing for the virus, it focused testing in Seattle and other hard-hit areas. By the end of March, LabCorp began performing COVID-19 testing at its lab in the Swedish Cherry Hill campus, enabling results for high-priority patients within hours and for other patients the same day.

“Swedish had some of the first COVID-19 patients in the country and our organization had to adapt rapidly to an unknown and evolving situation,” said Dr. Guy Hudson, CEO of Swedish. “Testing was foundational to our response, and LabCorp worked tirelessly to make quality testing available. Being able to manage patient placement by having COVID-19 test results within hours helped us adjust our resources in real time, demonstrating the value of our close relationship.”

The new agreement between the two groups modernizes the organizations’ relationship, providing an innovative framework for both parties to advance quality and cost-effective strategies to provide enhanced laboratory services to Swedish patients. LabCorp and Swedish will use laboratory utilization data and care pathways to ensure medically appropriate use of testing. Swedish clinicians and patients will also continue to have access to participate in studies of new therapies through a Clinical Study Site Partnership with Covance Drug Development that has been in place since 2018. Eight studies are currently underway to evaluate potential new treatments for a range of oncological conditions.