Bristol Health on Monday will be moving its Route 6 lab and blood raw services to a location that better fits its growing base of patients.
The old space, located at 641 Farmington Ave., was scheduled to close early Friday in anticipation of moving a number of things over to the new location, at 594 Farmington Ave., in time to open first thing on Monday. Though the lab is usually open Monday through Saturday, it will be closed this Saturday for the move.
“We couldn’t afford to have a gap in between,” said Al Lamptey, administrative director of diagnostic services.
Bristol Health, which also has lab services in Southington, Terryville and at the Brewster Road Hospital, has had its Outpatient Lab and Blood Draw Services on Route 6 for over 10 years. The new location is essentially just across the street from the old one.
“We’ve grown a following in the community,” Lamptey said.
Because so many people use the services on Farmington Avenue, Bristol Health officials explored the possibility of changing locations as the lease on the old building came to an end.
“We wanted to stay in the community,” Lamptey said.
“This location is central to the town of Bristol and located just minutes from Bristol Hospital. This service center is in the heart of the local shopping centers allowing patients to have blood drawn and run errands immediately before or after,” said Dana MacDonald, laboratory operations manager at Bristol Health. “For patients who have been fasting prior to their blood draw, local restaurants and grocery stores are right next door.”
Despite the new location having less square footage, the space that is available is able to be “better utilized,” Lamptey said.
The new space, which underwent about three months of renovations, has the capacity for four blood draw rooms, as opposed to the three the old location housed. There’s also space for additional rooms that will not be used for blood drawing, but will help move services along quicker.
“The new blood draw location has a central hallway that leads directly from the waiting room to the four blood draw rooms,” MacDonald said. “This is an increase from our previous location and will allow us to service our patients more quickly and decrease their wait time.”
The renovations to the new space and the move costs totaled about $200,000, Bristol Health officials said.
“This was an empty shell,” Lamptey said, standing in the new location just days before its expected opening. “It was just concrete.”
Beginning Monday, the Outpatient Lab and Blood Draw Services will once again be open Monday through Friday, from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and Saturday, from 7 a.m. until noon.