One evening, almost nineteen years ago in March, 1995, my wife Karen and I, mulled over various possible names for our new laboratory. Boyle’s Lab, Georgetown Medical Lab, Andrew’s Medical Lab, The Medical Lab, and Scientific Medical Lab were all suggested names. During these brain-storming sessions and discussions, an advertisement about Eureka vacuum cleaner began to play on the television. We looked at each other and that’s exactly how it all began.
“Heureka,” of Greek origin means I’ve found it. This lovely word aptly describes several sentiments of persons who come in contact with our facilities. When our clients and patients find us they say “Eureka!” When the members of staff discover the origin of a particular infection or illness; “Eureka!” I have found my dream in establishing a laboratory that can provide quality and credible service to all. This has truly been my dream since those early childhood days in the Berbice River, my native home town; this is finally my major “Eureka!” moment. It is worthy to note that the Eureka Medical Laboratory (EML) is currently certified by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and has been re-certified on a continuous basis since 2001. The only instance when there was an inter-laboratory competition, EML won the spot of being the “Best Medical Laboratory in the country”. Our institution prides itself on having qualified, courteous and efficient staff who really do care. Most of the equipment used today at the EML are quite similar to those used in the established laboratories in the United States and are serviced by trained biomedical engineers. These servicemen are based locally and some are attached to one of our major service providers in Miami. The management and staff are extremely happy to be celebrating almost 19 years of unbroken, yeoman service to the people of the Caribbean in general and Guyana, in particular. We are extremely grateful to our doctors, relatives, friends and all who have contributed in any way to our success. Our pledge to our faithful patients is to continue to provide you with nothing but the best simply because you deserve it! Eureka prides it’s self by having one main branch (Georgetown) and seven satellite stations. New Amsterdam, Rosehall, Linden, Charity, Parika, Bartica, St.Vincent (West Indies) and Anna Regina. We have almost fifty (50) employees with a clear majority being females on our pay roll. We perform routine tests in the areas on Clinical Chemistry, Hematology, Microbiology, Serology, and Endocrinology. Food microbiology is done on a limited basis and we most certainly wish to improve out testing scope in this area. Special assays and exotic tests are performed at our overseas partnering laboratories in the USA. Those results are easily accessed through their lab information system which makes it very convenient. We do routine proficiency testing for some of our testing menu and periodic inter laboratory comparisons with local institutions. Most of our clients are referred to us by various physicians, hospitals, clinics, other testing centers or simply are walk-in cases. On an average we see about one hundred (100) patients per day but we are quite capable of seeing many more on a daily basis. It’s been with great privilege and extreme satisfaction for us, as a team, to have been providing quality service over nearly nineteen (19) years. As we strive to maintain and improve our services it is hoped that we will reach to higher heights. By: Andrew Boyle, Microbiologist/CEO
