Vitamin D Testing Now Offered In-house

Gamma Healthcare is pleased to announce the addition of total Vitamin D testing to its in-house test menu.

In 2009 the Archives of Internal Medicine reported that 77% of adults in the United States suffered from Vitamin D insufficiency resulting from limited exposure to the sun and diets deficient in Vitamin D.  Studies indicate a correlation between deficient Vitamin D levels and health conditions.  These factors have produced a dramatic increase in requests for Vitamin D testing.  To meet this demand and improve service to both our client and our patients, on November 7, 2011, Gamma Healthcare began offering total Vitamin D testing in-house.  This service will decrease turn-around-time from 72 hours to less than 24 hours in most cases.

Two types of Vitamin D have been identified:  Vitamin D₂ (ergocalciferol) from plants and Vitamin D₃ (cholecalciferol) from sunlight and fatty fish such as herring and mackerel.  Measurement of total Vitamin D (D₂ and D₃) is necessary for aiding correct interpretations of a patient's status.  Not all Vitamin D assays available on the market measure total Vitamin D.  Gamma Healthcare employs the ADVIA Centaur XP Vitamin D Total Assay by Siemens, which does measure total Vitamin D aiding correct patient assessment.

The emerging evidence associating Vitamin D deficiency with serious health conditions is making it critical that the general public know how to maintain and monitor adequate Vitamin D levels.  Gamma Healthcare in conjunction with Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics - both leaders in clinical diagnostics - are playing a role in helping people achieve good health by employing performance-driven solutions, which assist in diagnosing, treating and monitoring disease.  Following these four tips will help in maintaining healthy levels of Vitamin D:

• Know your number
• Get some sun
• Eat more Vitamin D-rich foods
• Consider supplements

Contact the Gamma Healthcare Customer Service Center for further information regarding test method, specimen requirements or turn-around-times.

July 20, 2011

Re: Clostridium difficile Testing Procedure

Valued Client,

Gamma HealthCare, Inc. will be offering a new molecular diagnostic test for Clostridium difficile starting August 15, 2011.  Rapid identification of toxigenic Clostridium difficile in the stool samples of patients showing signs and symptoms of C. difficile infection can be critical to patient care and management.

We will be offering the Meridian Bioscience, Inc., illumigene™ C. difficile Assay.  This is a qualitative, in vitro diagnostic, molecular amplification test that detects the pathogenicity locus by targeting the tcdA target region which is found in all A+B+ and A-B+ toxinotypes.

By providing this test we can offer you:

• Superior diagnostic accuracy that eliminates the need for additional or repeat testing of patient samples,
• Quicker identification of infected patients that will enable you to manage infected patients more rapidly.

illumigene™ C. difficile Assay utilizes Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) to detect toxin gene sequences associated with toxin producing C. difficile.   The assay has been evaluated to provide a sensitivity and specificity of 95.2% and 95.3% respectively when compared directly to the gold standard of toxigenic culture.

Additional literature is available from the laboratory.  Please contact us if you have any questions.

April 21^st, 2011

Dear Client,

To increase the quality of occult blood testing for our patients we have updated our testing option for Occult Blood, Fecal.  The new test is Fecal Occult Blood-Immunochem; test code 10317. This immunochemical test provides several advantages over the Guaiac method including greater specificity and sensitivity for human hemoglobin, ease of collection, reduction in the number of samples needed (only one required), and no dietary or medicine restrictions.

Due to significant improvement over the current guaiac method, as of May 1^st, 2011 we will no longer offer Occult Blood, Fecal by guaiac methodology; test code 201. Any specimen received on a card or sterile container will be rejected.  All specimens for occult blood testing must be collected in the specific collection container provided and according to collection instructions for the updated test FOB-I; 10317.   The container will be forwarded to our main laboratory where the result will be determined by our OC-Auto 80 analyzer, removing subjectivity from the analysis.

Handling/Draw Instructions:

SAMPLE CONTAINERS ARE PROVIDED BY GAMMA HEALTHCARE.   USING SAMPLING PROBE SCRAPE THE SURFACE OF THE FECAL SAMPLE. COVER THE GROOVED PORTION OF THE PROBE COMPLETELY.  CLOSE THE SAMPLING BOTTLE BY INSERTING THE SAMPLING PROBE AND SNAP CAP TIGHTLY.  DO NOT REOPEN.  ONLY ONE SAMPLE DESIRED; SERIES OF THREE NOT NECESSARY.

Specimen Requirements:

TRANSPORT:  COLLECTION VIAL TO GAMMA HEALTHCARE.

REMARKS:  STOOL SHOULD BE PUT INTO COLLECTION DEVICE IMMEDIATELY AFTER COLLECTION.

            Specimen Retention:

STABILITY:  STOOL WITHIN THE COLLECTION DEVICE:  AMBIENT: 15 DAYS; REFRIGERATED: 30 DAYS.

If you are interested in purchasing FOB guaiac kits for your own use they are available from supply at $32.25 per 50 cards with developer or $64.50 per 100 cards with developer.

Click the link below to read the article in the Andalusia Star Newspaper on Gamma's new lab coming soon to Andalusia, AL!

http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/2011/01/06/30-new-health-care-jobs-coming

Press Release:

December 15, 2010

Jerry Murphy, Chairman and Owner of Gamma HealthCare, Inc., would like to announce the construction of a new state of the art Clinical Laboratory located inside the Physicians Park Building in Andalusia, AL. 

This new facility will allow Gamma HealthCare, Inc. the ability to expand its clinical laboratory services to the state of Alabama and the entire Southeast.  "This project will provide the city of Andalusia and the surrounding areas with a choice for their laboratory testing needs," says Mr. Murphy.  According to Mr. Murphy Gamma HealthCare, Inc. has been looking for the right opportunity to expand in this region.  He continued by saying, "Andalusia will be a vital part of our growth strategy in the Southeast.  We will be able to service Southern MS, Alabama, Western Georgia and North West Florida from this location."

Olin Harden, Marc McIntyre and Dr. Tim Day of  HDM Group LLC are building the new Physicians Park located on South Three Notch Street in Andalusia, AL.  "We are excited to have Gamma HealthCare, Inc. as a laboratory provider for our community.  They will be able to provide high quality healthcare services to the local physicians and the citizens of the communities we serve," said Mr. Harden

Gamma HealthCare, Inc. is headquartered in Poplar Bluff, MO.  Gamma employs approximately 400 employees throughout 11 different states.  They provide Clinical Laboratory services to individuals, Physicians and Long Term Care Facilities throughout the Midwest and Southeast.  Gamma also provides Mobile Radiology Imaging and Medical Waste Disposal services to the areas they serve. 

You may wish to follow the progress of this construction project at www.gammahealthcare.com.  Completion of this project is scheduled for late summer 2011.  

Urodynamics is the new service that Gamma now provides.  Only Gamma HealthCare offers Long Term Care facilities Urodynamics services with the Midwest.  What is Urodynamics?  It involves a collection of studies that help to evaluate the lower urinary tract including the bladder and urethra.  If the patient demonstrates certain symptoms such as urinary frequency, urgency, incontinence then they may be a candidate for our program.

Up to 50% of nursing time is spent managing urinary incontinence and its conscequences taking time away from other duties.  With our program the nursing staff is able to focus more on the residents' primary care needs.

The leading provider of onsite technology for the treatment and disposal of medical waste and the destruction of confidential documents and related media, today announced it has signed a distributor agreement with Gamma Healthcare, Inc./Danner Medical Waste Management Services, a premier provider of medical diagnostic services that include laboratory, portable digital radiology, urodynamics, along with medical waste transportation and disposal services. This agreement will enable Gamma Healthcare to expand its service offerings and to provide integrated onsite medical waste disposal and onsite document destruction technology and services as complementary services to its existing medical waste transportation line of business. The structure of the agreement enables both companies to collaborate on and target their integrated technology and services to the more than 700 large quantity medical waste generators and the nearly 2,500 medium quantity medical waste generators in the seven-state region.

"We are pleased and excited to partner with a first-class organization such as Gamma Healthcare, including its Danner Medical Waste division," commented David Laky, President and CEO, MedClean Technologies, Inc. "This partnership provides considerable expansion to our distributor network, which now covers 13 states. Gamma currently has 11 office locations with sales representatives servicing its region who already possess significant established relationships with ideal target customers across the Midwest. Our job is to provide the Gamma team with the technology and services required to support rapid expansion of its medical waste disposal line of business."

Mr. Laky continued, "This opportunity represents a significant milestone for MedClean Technologies as well. Our goals and targets communicated earlier in the year included building a distributor network consisting of at least five new distributors as well as other strategic partners. Gamma represents our fourth and largest distributor, with all four signed prior to the mid-year mark. Our distributors and partners combine to span two countries, over 5,000 targets, the VA Health System, and over one third of North America. We expect the combination of Gamma's regional excellence and MedClean's technology and services to result in new business yielding up to $2 million in revenue for each company during the first year of the partnership, as we believe Gamma has the potential to achieve significant revenue and rapid expansion in the first year."

"The MedClean product line is a natural addition to our current business model, as well as for our plans to expand our medical waste hauling and confidential document destruction and recycling business," added Jerrod Murphy, President and COO of Gamma Healthcare. "We are now in the position to establish processing facilities throughout our region utilizing various configurations of the MedClean Series of equipment. This flexibility will enable us to further evolve to a full service provider to meet the wide array of our clients' needs. We will also be able to expand our target medical waste customer base through servicing customers no matter how small or large their volume of medical waste as well as possessing the ability to meet their waste treatment preferences."

"We are excited and looking forward to our relationship with MedClean Technologies, Inc.," commented Jerry Murphy, Chairman and CEO of Gamma Healthcare, Inc. This partnership will give us the ability to expand the services that we currently offer and allow us to reach new business relationships within our current market territory."

BETHEL, Conn., July 22, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- MedClean Technologies /quotes/comstock/11k!mcln (MCLN 0.01, +0.00, +20.17%) ,