Denver Health Uses ASCP Grant For Major Training Lab Upgrade

For Denver Health School of Medical Laboratory Science students, a $2,000 grant from ASCP will help ensure that their training environment more accurately mimics the experience of professional laboratories they’ll encounter when they graduate.  

Bailey Hicks, MEd, MLS(ASCP)^CM, program director for the Schools of Medical Laboratory Science and Phlebotomy, who stepped into her role nearly a year ago, inherited both the programs and the grant application from her predecessor.  

Prior to obtaining the grant, her lab was relying on two 12+ year-old residential-grade refrigerators that fluctuated in temperature throughout the day. According to Ms. Hicks, that problem was more than an inconvenience. It directly affected the quality of the lab’s reagents and specimens. 

“With residential fridges, you get normal temperature swings as they cycle,” Ms. Hicks says. “When refrigerators fluctuate in temperature, reagents and specimens that are sensitive can degrade, leading to inconsistent or unexplainable lab results. This makes it difficult for us to know whether errors are due to student technique or simply improper storage conditions.” 

That uncertainty made it harder for instructors to teach and harder for students to learn. In some cases, it even risked the integrity of expensive reagents, stock organisms, and preserved specimens used in the program’s student labs.  
 
“Any day one of those old fridges could have gone down. If that happened overnight, we could have lost a lot of money,” Ms. Hicks says. 

The commercial refrigerator Denver Health purchased with ASCP’s support cost about $4,500, so the program contributed additional funds to complete the purchase. The new unit is taller than a standard residential refrigerator, holds more supplies, and keeps a steady, precise temperature throughout the day. That stability will help instructors pinpoint true technique errors and help students build confidence before entering clinical rotations. 

“We’re hopeful we’ll see a lot less variability in results,” Ms. Hicks says. “It gives students a more realistic and controlled experience that mirrors what they’ll see in an actual clinical laboratory.” 

For Ms. Hicks, the upgrade provides peace of mind on both the scientific and operational sides of the program. “This really helps us maintain the level of quality we expect from our students. Getting this grant from ASCP has given us the opportunity to enhance what we’re doing and better prepare students before they step foot in the clinical lab.”