PAML joins forces with Utah system

Spokane-based Pathology Associates Medical Laboratories (PAML) will expand its reach by forming a joint venture with a hospital system operating in Utah.

It’s the latest move for rapidly growing PAML, which now has 1,300 employees, including 900 at work in its Spokane headquarters. The company is a subsidiary of nonprofit Providence Health and Services, the same health care group that operates Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital.

PAML has formed a half-dozen joint ventures that provide testing and analytical services, along with billing, business strategy and reporting, said chief marketing officer Noel Maring.

The new Utah business will be called MountainStar Clinical Laboratories LLC. It will be governed by a board of directors appointed by managing partner PAML, and MountainStar, a division of Hospital Corporation of America. Specifically, the joint venture will provide services to St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City and Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah.

While most of the joint venture work will be performed by Utah employees, some of the tasks will be handled by PAML employees in Spokane.

“That’s the nice part for Spokane. A certain portion of the business is based out of here,” Maring said.

PAML’s first joint venture was PacLab Laboratories, which provides lab work throughout Seattle and Western Washington.

Maring said the Utah undertaking has been in the work for several years. PAML earlier bought two small laboratories, expanded their services and reach, and then proposed the joint venture with MountainStar.

It’s a business model that has worked in other communities, and one that PAML anticipates will help the joint venture double in size within the next few years.