CORE Laboratory Operational Area Department Service

The CORE Laboratory forms part of the Biomedical Diagnostic Centre at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona. The CORE Laboratory has been operational since March 2001 and was created with the aim of centralizing, integrating and coordinating the most requested and automated healthcare activity in the Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Immunology Services. With this objective in mind, it maintains constant contact with these services in order to coordinate the clinical responsibility for the tests carried out there. The CORE Laboratory integrates most of the CDB’s healthcare activity into a single functional structure of an eminently healthcare nature, so that around 90% of the CDB’s activity is currently carried out in this laboratory.

The CORE Laboratory was created based on an organizational model founded on technological criteria and centralized process management. Its objective is to provide effective information to facilitate the prevention, diagnosis, prognosis and control of the treatment of diseases, to advise and collaborate in the interpretation of results, and to achieve an adequate optimization of human and technical resources.

The CORE Laboratory staff are made up of a multidisciplinary team of professionals with extensive experience in the development and implementation of analytical methods in automated analysers based on molecular spectrometry, chemiluminescent immunoassays, electrophoresis, HPLC, automated coagulometry and haematometry systems, as well as extensive knowledge of manual cytology in peripheral blood and biological fluids.

The CORE Laboratory is divided up into two areas:

• Scheduled activity area
• Continuous care and emergencies area. Which, in turn, is divided up into:
  • Villarroel Site Emergency Laboratory
  • Maternitat Site Emergency Laboratory
  • Plató Site Emergency Laboratory