LONDON, ONT. -- The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has dramatically increased its COVID-19 testing capabilities.

The hospital says its Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PALM) team has reached a milestone in COVID-19 testing volumes.

The hospital-based laboratory first began processing COVID-19 test swabs in mid-March with the goal of increasing from 50 tests per day to 3,000 per day.

The PALM team has now surpassed that milestone and continues to expand testing capacity, hospital officials say.

"We have been steadily increasing our testing volume capacity over these last four months and we are thrilled to have reached what we view as an important marker in our COVID-19 journey," says Glen Kearns, integrated vice president, diagnostic services and chief information officer at LHSC.

"Reaching this figure is a representation of much more than an increase in processing tests. It is the culmination of significant efforts behind the scenes to add new equipment, create newly renovated laboratory spaces, on-board new team members, and integrate various IT systems."

PALM has been regularly meeting a 24-hour turn-around time for COVID-19 testing results, while increasing capacity to 60 times the initial volume, using digital solutions, the hospital says.

Working together with the hospital's information technology services team, PALM has also developed online test ordering tools as well as connectivity between the various health information systems.

These technologies benefit all hospitals and assessment centres across southwestern Ontario, speeding up testing and ensuring quality results every time, hospital officials say.

"Our labs have always held the view that our work is greater than simply processing a large volume of tests in a short amount of time," says Kearns.

"We wanted to ensure we were considering the entire process from test ordering to delivery of the results, and have worked to improve the structure of our processes with that larger framework in mind."

PALM is a joint venture of LHSC and St. Joseph’s Health Care London.