Blog
Remembering COVID: LigoLab’s News and Notes Blog: Let’s Recognize Two of the Fastest Growing Labs in the Country
March 3, 2025
Editor’s Note: On May 11, 2023, the World Health Organization officially declared the end of the global COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. While many have moved forward, those in healthcare - especially in laboratory information systems (LIS software) and pathology lab management - must reflect and apply the lessons learned to better prepare for future infectious disease threats.
Learn More: End of the Federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Declaration
At LigoLab, supporting our lab partners throughout the pandemic remained a top priority. We worked diligently to understand their evolving needs, providing innovative LIS laboratory information system software solutions to help them navigate the unprecedented challenges of COVID-19. From rapidly enhancing laboratory workflow management to ensuring the safety of patients and providers, our efforts were driven by collaboration and a shared mission.
A key moment in this journey was capturing the many stories of resilience from our partners on the frontlines. As we reflect on these key moments and milestones, we honor the continued dedication of the healthcare LIS and laboratory communities. With these insights in mind, let’s take a moment to remember COVID-19 and revisit the following blog first published in April of 2021.
Celebrating Two of the Fastest-Growing Labs in the Nation
As we move into April, we at LigoLab would like to take a moment to recognize two client laboratories that rank among the fastest-growing in the country. Let’s take a few minutes to review how they got there and how other independent clinical laboratories and pathology groups can follow a similar path.
Northwest Laboratory Celebrates the Anniversary of its First Reportable COVID-19 Test
Just over one year ago on March 28, 2020, Northwest Laboratory (now known as Avero Diagnostics) reported its first COVID-19 test result. The laboratory, based out of Bellingham, Washington, has since surpassed 1.6 million COVID-19 tests for patients in 40 states and Canada, providing full-service and a state-of-the-art facility to a wide range of clients while expanding to nearly 500 employees. The laboratory operation can handle 25,000 COVID-19 tests per day - all while also providing swift turnaround times of 24-48 hours for patient test results in over 99 percent of the cases (learn more about the lab’s test directly results HERE).
Northwest was the first laboratory to embrace the TestDirectly direct-to-consumer lab testing portal to aid its collection, processing, and reporting of COVID-19 tests for all of Florida’s 4,000 long-term care facilities in the early days of the pandemic.
Following the successful completion of the statewide screening mission, the laboratory broadened its COVID-19 testing services to support long-term care facilities, drive-through and walk-up collection sites, hospitals, schools, universities, and the Washington State Department of Corrections.
With thousands of COVID-19 samples coming into the laboratory daily, Northwest also continues to benefit from its partnership with LigoLab for its lab information system operations, and specifically the LIS system’s customizable rule engine that largely automates client laboratory billing and claims reimbursement through the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) program.
Learn More: Process Thousands of HRSA Patients in Minutes with LigoLab
For more details on how it all started and how Northwest Laboratory was able to quickly scale to meet the testing demands of its community and beyond, check out these links:
Learn More: Northwest Laboratory Leads the Way with its 24-Hour Commitment to COVID-19 Test Results
Learn More: Northwest Laboratory Reaches COVID-19 Testing Milestone
Northwest Laboratory is a division of Northwest Pathology (NWP), a thriving pathology group providing a wide range of pathology services for northwest Washington for over 25 years.
Just over six years ago, NWP began a laboratory information system (LIS) partnership with LigoLab, and two-plus years ago it switched from its legacy laboratory revenue cycle management (lab RCM) vendor to LigoLab’s fully integrated LIS & RCM Informatics Platform.
LigoLab’s all-in-one medical LIS software and laboratory billing solution unites all LIS system and lab revenue cycle management workflow into one powerful pathology lab software infrastructure that eliminates data silos and enables the laboratory billing process to begin at order inception.
Learn More: Best Pathology Lab Reporting Software - 2025 Buyers Guide and Checklist
Just months into this new partnership, NWP was already witnessing sizable gains in efficiency, accuracy, and most importantly, net collections.
Click on the White Paper link below to see how the LigoLab platform leverages integration and lab RCM automation to reduce denials and audit risk for Northwest.
White Paper: Leveraging LIS & RCM Integration to Improve the Laboratory Billing Process
LigoLab’s LIS System Software Customer Featured in The Dark Report
A leading all-purpose medical lab has also used LigoLab’s fully integrated, comprehensive, and flexible medical laboratory information system software platform to support its technical and financial operations for two-plus years.
The medical lab quickly pivoted and added molecular testing (molecular lab software) to its growing histopathology business just as the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hit central Illinois.
To learn how the lab’s CEO and team transformed and expanded the pathology lab into a facility handling 15,000 COVID-19 samples daily, check out this LigoLab case study published just days after the lab surpassed one million COVID-19 tests.
As we write this blog, the lab is just days away from surpassing two million COVID-19 tests. It continues to serve hospitals, long-term care facilities, employers, schools, and government agencies like the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Corrections.
The lab has also used TestDirectly and TestDirectly.com to support its collection, processing, and reporting of COVID-19 specimens from multiple drive-through and mobile testing sites throughout the state.
Last October, we highlighted the lab’s partnership with the DuPage County Health Department, one of the many partnerships the lab has established with public health agencies to provide fast and accurate testing services.
The lab also recently achieved CAP accreditation with a perfect score and was among the first labs in the country to detect the B.1.1.7 COVID-19 variants.
This LIS Laboratory Information System Helps Labs Thrive and Grow, Faster
To learn more about LigoLab’s enterprise-grade LIS system solution and how it enables independent medical laboratories to differentiate themselves in the marketplace, scale their operations, and become more profitable, we invite you to schedule your personalized LIS software demonstration.
