DLO Expands COVID-19 Testing Efforts

Diagnostic Laboratory of Oklahoma (DLO) began offering COVID-19 testing in Oklahoma on March 9 through Quest Diagnostics. As a joint venture of Quest Diagnostics and INTEGRIS Health, DLO is utilizing Quest’s laboratories in Dallas, Texas and San Juan Capistrano, Calif. DLO is now in the process of expanding its efforts by bringing up its own COVID-19 testing at its central laboratory in Oklahoma City to deliver more testing capacity to the state of Oklahoma.

“DLO employs 700 of the finest employees in Oklahoma and they are all working hard and are involved in taking the necessary measure to keep DLO safe and healthy, so we can continue to provide vital laboratory testing services to all parts of Oklahoma,” said DLO CEO Dennis Hogle.

Last week, DLO and the Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) announced a public-private partnership to send some OSDH tests to DLO for processing to meet the high demand. Nearly 500 test specimens were shipped to Quest’s Dallas lab on the first day of the partnership and additional tests are being sent daily.

“As an Oklahoma-based company, DLO is pleased to partner with OSDH to serve Oklahomans during this crisis,” said Hogle. “As DLO and Quest continue expanding our COVID-19 testing efforts, we are in a position to provide quality lab tests and improve the turnaround time for results.”

While DLO has 45 patient service centers throughout Oklahoma and provides clinical laboratory testing for all 77 counties in Oklahoma, Hogle said it’s important the public use their healthcare providers for COVID-19 specimen collections.

“Our patient service centers do an excellent job of collecting specimens for testing,” said Hogle. “However, this test is to be performed only using respiratory specimens collected from individuals who meet CDC clinical and/or epidemiological criteria for COVID-19 testing, and only a healthcare provider can collect the specimen necessary to test for COVID-19. Our DLO Patient Service Centers do not collect COVID-19 specimens and patients suspected of having COVID-19 must not enter a DLO Patient Service Center.”

For more information on DLO’s response to COVID-19, visit dlolab.com/covid-19.