Planning Underway for URMC's Anatomic Pathology Move Offsite

The third phase of the Bailey Road project, which will relocate many of URMC's anatomic pathology (AP) services offsite to our central lab, officially kicked off in September. Design is being led by HDR Architects, the same firm that designed the building where the majority of our clinical pathology testing moved in 2019.

HDR is meeting with all AP groups to determine what services will permanently move out of Strong Memorial Hospital. The goal of these meetings is to collect input from faculty, staff and stakeholders to best determine the scope of this next phase of the project. Once this is established, the work of designing space can begin to pave the way for construction at Bailey Road, expected to begin next summer (2022).

Vice Chair for AP, Christa Whitney-Miller, M.D., said the move offers an opportunity for Surgical Pathology to grow into its already booming service. “We have experienced record growth in AP volumes across the board due to growing partnerships with our affiliates, which is exciting," she said. "Our current space at URMC does not allow us to keep up with this growth, so devising how to best maximize our service lines offsite will allow us to advance care into the future."

As with prior moves, our AP teams will retain a footprint at Strong that will include some faculty and essential operations for acute patient care needs: Accessioning, frozen sections and cytology, to name a few. Histology and immunohistochemistry are among the service lines that are earmarked to move to Bailey.

Others, like Point of Care Testing (POCT), Flow Cytometry/HLA, and Education may move to different space within the hospital. Because we are in the early phase of planning, the plan for some labs is still undecided.

The plans will also address new ways to gain efficiencies, and solutions for much needed storage for paraffin blocks that have resulted from growing volume. The current timeline is for all relocating groups to move in late 2023 with all operations commencing at Bailey Road in January 2024.

Bethany Bushen | 9/29/2021

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