‘Key stakeholders, key players’

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This article was published 09/08/2024 (530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the past 15 years, Dynacare has provided the vast majority of community laboratory testing in Manitoba.

And while the Brampton, Ont., company — a subsidiary of North Carolina-based Labcorp — is currently working on a one-year extension with the provincial government (its contract expires in March), it’s had lots of experience working in Manitoba without one.

“Seven of those 15 years have been without a contract. It’s not uncommon to operate without a contract, but it’s not the greatest feeling — for us or any business — not knowing beyond six months or a year,” company CEO Vito Ciciretto said Friday in Winnipeg.

The company, which, along with a few competitors that have consolidated the highly technical and capital-intensive community lab testing business across the country, is now one of the biggest players. With more than 400 employees in the province, Manitoba represents about 10 per cent of its national business.

Ciciretto insists it is an important piece, one Dynacare values and wants to keep. “I’m here a lot,” he said of his work trip to Winnipeg.

Sebastien Beauchamp, Dynacare vice-president of government relations, added: “We are not entitled to this work with the province, but we definitely hope we will keep operating here.”

Beauchamp said the company has heard from the province that patient experience is a key part of the consideration.

“When the previous (Tory) government cut lab services, our team heard the concerns of seniors who found themselves forced to travel miles to get their blood drawn. I do not want access to care to be a reason a senior or any Manitoban goes without care. Access to these services within communities is my No. 1 priority as we continue to evaluate lab services,” Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in an email when asked for comment on what the province is thinking when it comes to the future of its community lab test contract.

Dynacare said it has invested tens of millions of dollars in Manitoba, including a 35,000-square-foot centralized lab built about 12 years ago that houses all its testing in the province (about 100,000 per month).

It’s not something the company takes lightly, Beauchamp said.

When there are the rare incidents where service is less than excellent for whatever reason — its testing failure rate is less than one per cent out of more than one million tests per year — Ciciretto said, the company is known to call patients personally to make sure everything is worked out.

At the lab in the northwest part of the capital city — the company also operates 20 sample collection locations in the province, including 15 in Winnipeg — about 200 technicians work with highly complex equipment.

With the goal of having results in doctors’ hands within 24 hours for every test, from the most basic blood exams to more complex ones, it’s not surprising the central lab operates 24-7.

Dr. Jenisa Naidoo, Dynacare chief scientific officer, is based in Winnipeg and is also responsible for the operation of the Winnipeg lab (the company’s second largest, next to its 100,000-sq.-ft. facility in Brampton).

During a recent tour through the facility in the late morning hours, it had the look of a busy commercial lab. However, Naidoo said the 4 p.m. to midnight shift is when the action really picks up.

“Like everything else in the world, our business is more digitized and more automated. That allows us to be able to process samples as quickly as possible with the best quality control standard. The level of quality oversight that goes into a medical lab is very significant,” Ciciretto said.

“We see ourselves as key stakeholders and key players in the market.”

That sense of being part of the community encouraged it to start a program called Dynacare4Diabetes about five years ago; it has since provided tens of thousands of A1C diabetes tests at no cost to Manitoba Health.

It’s also started a scholarship program in association with Herzing College in Winnipeg to sponsor Indigenous students who might want to get into the well-paid career of lab technicians.

“We started small to gauge interest and we now know there is an interest,” Ciciretto said.

With eight labs across the country and operations in every province and territory, the company has plenty of experience working with all the unique health-care systems.

It has grown — and continues to grow — through acquisitions. Last year, in B.C., it acquired Valley Medical Laboratories and 15 collection sites throughout the Okanagan Valley.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca