Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, BETHESDA, MD  –  
Walter Reed’s medical laboratory professionals play a critical role in ensuring the readiness of service members and the wellness of all patients at The President’s Hospital every day. They collect, test, and report results related to a range of medical evaluations and screenings.

“Our main focus is always patient safety, quality, and standardization,” explained Dr. Shilpa Rungta, department head for Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. “Those are our pillars. Anything that comes out of the lab, whether it’s a test, biopsy result, or what have you, it has to be accurate. We do quality control for every test we do,” she added.
Rungta explained that the lab team’s accuracy and integrity of each lab test are essential for providers to make critical decisions and deliver safe, quality care.

“We have multiple aspects of the lab, including clinical pathology, anatomic pathology, chemistry, the blood bank, and other areas,” Rungta continued. She said all work together as a team to enhance the care delivered at Walter Reed. “We cannot do what we do in silos.”

Rungta also explained that the blood bank stays “mission ready” with its inventory prepared to support transfusion medicine at Walter Reed. In addition, biopsy and other test results ensure service members are properly diagnosed, receive the care they need, and are ready to deploy.

In addition to clinical lab services such as chemistry, hematology, urinalysis, serological testing, and providing diagnostic information to medical staff, Walter Reed lab professionals also provide reference services to other military medical treatment facilities, including histopathology, molecular, and immunopathology support.

“When COVID came, pathology and laboratory medicine was at the forefront of all the testing,” Rungta said. “We just have to be ready at all times,” she added.

Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Ladarion Jones is one of Walter Reed’s lab professionals focused on providing critical services and vital information to ensure the readiness of service members and the health of their families.
“We take blood products and human tissues to analyze for various anomalies that can happen with the human body,” he said, adding that this is important in diagnosing different conditions.

“About 85 percent of clinical decisions are based off of lab results,” Jones added, explaining the significance of what he and his teammates do each day at Walter Reed.

“We’re pretty much the heartbeat of the hospital,” Jones said. “We have a hand in each and every patient’s treatment, and that’s rewarding as you see their [health and wellness] improve, which tells a story of how the treatment is going in the hospital. We’re just honored to have a part in that effort and a part of the treatment team here.”

From a readiness standpoint, Jones explained that many of the tests required to ensure service members are ready to deploy go through the lab.

“Not only that, our transfusion services and blood donor team are really impactful, providing blood products to our patients here, and also for the entire fleet and services around the globe,” Jones added.

U.S. Army Capt. Bikesh Shrestha is the clinical laboratory officer at Walter Reed, serving as service chief for the phlebotomy clinics and overseeing incoming and outgoing shipping of lab specimens from across the National Capital Region.

“It’s rewarding being able to help patients. When people come to the hospital for care, very rarely is it for something good,” Shrestha added. “We try to make their experience less painful as possible while ensuring they have the best care. Being able to make a difference, and get them the results they need for care, is very rewarding.”

“A lot of [the] diagnoses providers make depend on lab results, and it’s very important that the results are accurate and provided in a timely manner,” Shrestha said.

“We work in the background and are rarely seen, but we make a difference as a vital part of the health care team,” the captain added.
Most tests performed at Walter Reed are completed and reported to health care providers within 24 hours of the lab receiving the sample for testing, according to lab officials. It’s estimated that Walter Reed lab professionals perform more than three million reportable lab tests annually as a regional and enterprise reference laboratory.