UNION CLINICAL LABORATORY
The advancement in medical biotechnology has led to an increasing demand for special diagnostic examinations, for which reason the Union Clinical Laboratory was established in 1973. With the aim of giving quality service to people, we collaborated with experts from different aspects of the medical field and formed the laboratory renaming it Union Special Reference Clinical Laboratory (UCL for short). With guidance and full support from various clinical laboratories, UCL came to be known as one of the pioneers in special laboratory examinations. In 1993, UCL merged with the Medical Technology and Promotion Foundation and launched the radioimmunoassay for various hormone tests. In 1995, a mass screening test for neuroblastoma was conducted in cooperation with the Chinese Foundation of Health and completed the preliminary scheme for the study. UCL was also chosen last year by the Taiwan Provincial Institute of Family Planning to perform tests for their research study on health and biological markers among senior citizens. This year 1998, UCL collaborated with Chiu Hospital/Lih-Zen Clinical Laboratory, Ying-Huey Clinical Laboratory and Lih-Zen Clinical Laboratory in Kaoshiung, and joined hands in forming a new medical laboratory in Taichung, known as UML.
A good laboratory should be one able to provide complete results with utmost accuracy - this is what makes up the goal of service at UCL. We hope our efforts will meet your approval, support, recognition and most important of all - to be able to fulfill your needs and demands.
Our laboratory, staffed with a 55-member personnel glad to be of service to you, is composed of two main departments - administrative and technical departments. The technical department has 22 medical technologists working hand in hand. Aside from the routine tests, we have setup a research group to evaluate new test kits and other new special examinations soon to be available. In order to maintain our standard and continue to improve our quality, we have a strict internal quality control maintained by our medical technologists. Besides, we also join the quality control program given by the local Medical Technology Association, the international quality control by the Bio-Rad, Sysmex Company and also the College of American Pathologists (CAP) surveys under the effective leadership and supervision of Dr. Lai Min-Long, Ph.D.
The administrative department is headed by Mr. Robin Wang, MT. and Mr. Chen Pei-Tsair. Supervisor Wang, a 1971 graduate of B.S. in Medical Technology from Taipei Medical College, has been with UCL for the past 12 years, attending to the questions of patients and clients and better-coordinating the work system between the two departments. Supervisor Chen on the other hand, is responsible for communicating and negotiating with clients, while managing a unit of personnel to collect specimens from all around the island. Under the management of these two supervisors, 12 administrative and accounting personnel, and 18 specimen-collecting personnel, we hope that we can provide you with the most satisfactory service.
In areas accessible for us to collect specimens, we provide an ice box for storage of the collected specimens, keeping them under the safest conditions. Further, we provide paid postage for prompt delivery to our laboratory. And in special cases where there is need for specimens to be stored at low temperature during delivery, we provide a styrofoam ice box. Serum specimens are being stored in a frozen state for 10 days and whole blood specimens for 3 days at 4℃, in case of additional tests or when confirmation of results are being requested.
Our laboratory is equipped with fully-automated, semi-automated and computerized machines such as Sysmex NE-1500, Coatron Jr., Tosoh Glycohemoglobin Analyzer, Ciba-Corning 560 Express Plus, Beckman CX7 Delta, Cobas Core, Cobas Mira Plus, Integra, Electrophoresis equipments, Behring Nephelometer, Riastar Scintillation Counter, 96-well ELISA plate reader, Fluorescence plate reader, Abbott IMX, TDx, Axsym, MAST Allergy test, Automated Chemilluminescence System ACS-180, Fluorescence Microscope, CO2 incubator, Anaerobic Culture Equipment, Cell culture, High Pressure Liquid Chromatography System, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, IR Spectrophotometer, PCR, Chiron Hybridization system, and etc.
For cases that go beyond our laboratory‘s service, we refer them to the proper medical training institutes and make a follow-up of the results that will be done. To date, our laboratory offers more than 400 laboratory examination items, most of which are done within the day; some special tests are done once, twice or thrice a week. Requests for re-check or reconfirmation of results with the appropriate controls are done immediately at free of charge. All original records are kept for three months. Standard protocols are strictly followed and a daily record of internal control is kept. We see to it that machines are calibrated every day and maintained regularly. Waste disposal conforms with the systems designated by the Bureau of Health and the Bureau of Environmental Protection.
We, at UCL, gives you an assurance of accurate and high quality results, and in return, your continuous support gives us the inspiration towards achieving better and high quality system in patient care.