Michael Smith, MD (Host): Welcome. This is Conversations with MIT Health and I'm your host, Dr. Michael Smith. Today we are discussing MIT Health's laboratory services. I'm sitting down with Jonathan Pelletier, a medical laboratory scientist and manager of the Medical Laboratory at MIT Health. Hey Jonathan, welcome to the podcast.

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: Great to be here, Mike.

Host: Having a laboratory right, on site at MIT Health's care center, tell us what that means to the patient. It seems to me it's very convenient. easy access. Tell us a little bit about that.

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: Absolutely. I think you hit the nail on the head right there. It is convenience. for people who have gotten healthcare elsewhere, how often is it? You go see a doctor one place and then told, well, go to a different lab and then you gotta go somewhere else and, you're working, you gotta take some time off here.

With everything being located in one building, you know, you can see your doctor. He can say, alright, I need to check your lipids, I need to check this, that, or the other. You can come on down, an appointment can be made for the lab, and whatever fits your schedule. you can have your appointment. It also really helps with your turnaround times.

You can have it where, you know, you go to a reference lab, it can take a couple of days to get back. With basic tests that are performed on site, you know, your doctor can be drawn in the morning and by early afternoon, get those results back on certain testing. So it really helps the whole patient experience of you're not sitting there waiting.

Oh, why am I test coming back? Why am I test coming back? We really do a good job of turning over tests at about 24 to 48 hours for things that are done on site here.

Host: so it's almost like if somebody is seeing one of the physicians there and we need a test right away, they can go down and get it, but at the same time, they can make an appointment with you guys, right? And come back a little later, maybe closer to the next, schedule they have with that doctor. It works. It works both ways like that, right?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: Correct. So what we do here is we have appointments for the laboratory. What that means is, there are times where you know it's your annual physical coming up and your doctor's saying, well, You know what, getting up there a little bit, we need to check your lipids all the time, every year. And so you can have it where you book your appointment, the day before, the day of, and your doctor may have those results right when you walk in there and speak with them.

So instead of having, well, I gotta check these, let's see how they're doing, you can have it done beforehand.

So, what we do is, if you go onto the MIT Health Laboratory website, you're able to see what our schedule is and book an appointment. So, for your convenience, you know, maybe it's, hey, I want to get, I need some blood work done, but, I can't just be sitting down there forever.

it may be your student, maybe your staff member, and you're like, you know what, 1 o'clock, I can really head down there. So, you can look to see the schedule and schedule a 1 o'clock appointment, and you will be. Seeing, relatively close to that time. We do also have capacity for, you see your doctor and your doctor is really concerned about something, you can be seen pretty much right away.

You know, your doctor communicates, like, hey, Mr. Smith, I really need to see this, and we'll get it drawn real right away.

Host: So when it comes to scheduling an appointment. with The patients can either do that online, like you just mentioned, see the times there. I assume they can also maybe call you guys as well if they want to do it the old fashioned way,

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: If you call the main MIT line, you'll get to the call center and they'll help you book an appointment. Also, if you were to come to the front desk and kind of ask for an appointment, it's what's available. So that's the one key caveat there is, you know, if you show up and there's no appointments for three hours, well, you kind of, you know, you got to wait around for the three hours.

However, that's why we really encourage patients to call. to go online. Also, as you're getting checked out, you know, you can talk to, part of the checkout process would be working to book any sort of laboratory appointments. So it can be, you know, you see a doctor, you're getting ready to leave, they can say, alright, well, you need some blood work, when do you want that scheduled?

And they can kind of work to see what's available, so you don't have to show up down to the lab and be told, well, you're going to have to wait three, four hours maybe.

Host: You mentioned blood work, let's talk a little bit about the types of tests. that are offered at your laboratory. assume it's a wide range of things. So help us understand what, patients can expect, what's offered. I assume you're able to do most things right there, right?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: We're able to do a lot here on site. So the key, what we're doing is we target based on our population and who is our population, the MIT community. So there's certain tests that make sense for us to do. 'cause one, we'll see it a lot, we got enough volume to do it here. So that would be your basics. You know, your lipids, cholesterol, your CBCs to see, do you have anemia?

There's certain testing that well. It doesn't make sense for us to do. On campus, we have people who use beryllium in experiments. We don't test for that here. We send that out. so the rationale for a lot of it is, do we see a lot of it or is this that something that gets done once a year? there's certain testing that is very complicated that we just don't have, The staffing to do here. So we'll send it to LabCorp.

LabCorp is one of the largest reference labs in the United States. So fundamentally any tests that your clinician wants you to have done, you know, can be drawn here and it just may be sent out to a reference lab to actually be physically done.

Host: Yeah, no, that, okay, that's a major point to make. It's not like the patient is having to go elsewhere. They can come to you still. The blood draw can still happen. You're just using some third party labs once in a while in these rare cases to analyze that for you, but a vast majority of the time, You're doing it, right?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: The vast majority we are doing of your standard testing. So, you know, again, you get your potassium tested, you get your glucose tested, you get, your analysis, hematology, microbiology, Some of that is, a lot of it is done here. There may be certain tests where your clinician says, well, I need this, but we just don't do it here.

But for the patient, they're not really going to notice the difference. it will send it out. It'll be very seamless for them. They're not going to have to worry about, well, if it's done in the lab, where do I get my results? If it's done at LabCorp, where am I getting, if it's sent to somewhere else, where am I getting results?

Answer is, all the results get sent to your clinician, and then all of them will appear in the patient portal, so it's a very seamless, situation for the patient.

Host: A lot of people are interested in cost or, let's just say costs is important to a lot of people. What about insurance? How is all this handled there? there are so many different types of insurance. How do you manage all of it.

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: So what we have here is most of the patients will have the MIT insurance. so once you meet your deductible, that is the big point of it. Hit the deductible and then you're pretty much all set with healthcare costs. there are some patients that we do see that may have some. Medicare instead.

There are also some students who may, instead of having the MIT insurance only, may be on their parents, and those will be handled according with however those insurances are set up, but for most people, The MIT insurance, you're getting it done, you know, once you hit your deductible, you're good to go.

Michael Smith, MD (Host): You know, I wanna back up a little bit and talk about something. You know, it it really, to me, the laboratory services that you manage for MIT Health. Here's the thing that really stands out to me. It's the convenience factor. when you talk to patients and, talking about what their experience was like, how important is this convenience, this convenient access quick labs when they need it?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: Access is just paramount to healthcare in general. I mean, you have it where, where else is it that you can be a student and you get your lab work or healthcare done, a couple blocks down from where you take your classes. you know, if you're a staff member here, where else is it that, hey, you can go quickly on a break or a lunch break, get your labs done and then be back to work before you know it.

It's really an amazing feature that we offer this. it's not like you have to hop on the T to go to MGH or one of the other hospitals in the area. All of it's done on campus. So if you're on campus, this is the quickest way to get your labs drawn, get everything done in one location. It's really great.

Host: Now I know at MIT Health overall, Let's call it relationship based care is very important across the board. How is that applied to the MIT Health Laboratory Services?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: Well, with our services for a lot of people. The beginning and end of it is meeting with our phlebotomists, our CLAs. They are the ones who, when you go to see the lab, they're the ones you're seeing it. You know, the people performing the tests, the medical laboratory scientists, they're in the back, behind the door.

You're probably not going to see them. But it's the people performing phlebotomy that really maintain these relationships. There are members of our community who have been here, coming here 20, 30 years, and know phlebotomists by name. They have that relationship where it's, alright, hey, Jane Doe, how's it going?

We've had it where, they'll come in and ask, oh, hey, is Nicole here today? Is LaToya here today? Is Marie here today? one of the other things is, knowing our patient population, they really go the extra mile. They really know what it is to be a member of this community and the different challenges people may have.

For some, that are coming here for healthcare, they're an international student. This may be their first time experiencing healthcare in the U. S. For a lot of patients, this is their first time having health care without a parent present. So they really work to go that extra mile to build this relationship to make them feel comfortable.

You also can feel confident that, you know, it's part of MIT. If, you know, you're coming here from halfway across the country, you're not familiar with Boston. So it really takes that little edge off of from day one that you step foot on this campus that, I know where I can get my health care done and not have to worry about how am I going to find the doctor? How am I going to find the lab? It's just a really great, experience.

Host: Yeah. Jonathan, I can see you're very passionate about this and that's fantastic to see. I'm very happy that you're, you're doing what you do. And I think MIT Health should be very proud of you. Hey, in summary, and I always like to end the podcast this way. What's the key message? The key, take home word or phrase or whatever for the audience that you would like them to know?

Jonathan Pelletier, MLS: What I'd really like people to know is that We are here. oftentimes people may neglect health care. They may see their doctor, but not come to the lab. you know, we really make it a point to make patients feel comfortable who may be adverse to having a needle, blood draw. I mean, it's not comfortable. Getting a needle is not. However, it really is integral, having this testing done It's really going to give the clinician the information they need to make sure that you are in the best health that you can be. If you have an issue, they'll be able to detect it. having health care is essential.

And I would say having it easy access really makes it so there's no excuse. A lot of people, you know, if you're not getting it done here, it can be, Well, I don't want to take the day off to go to the laboratory. I don't want to go on the T. It's here. make the appointment and fit it in between classes, between meetings.

We are open Monday through Friday, 8 to 5. So there should be some time that will work for your schedule. We have a lot of people that love that 8 a. m. appointment where they come in, get that done, and then go off on their way. We also have it where people love the, you know, closest to the end of day. They leave work, come swing by, and then they're on their way. it should really be just a very painless process of getting your lab work done.

Host: Jonathan Pelletier, the manager of MIT Health's Medical Laboratory. Services, Thank you for joining me today. If you want to learn more If you'd more about the laboratory services at MIT Health, you can visit health. mit. edu slash services slash laboratory. I'm Dr. Mike. Thanks for listening.