Talk about testing the competition in Southwest Florida.

Having detected the nation’s first case of anthrax and stepped into the

national spotlight, Integrated Regional Laboratories has opened up shop in Fort

Myers and Bonita Springs.

The company is vying for physician offices, nursing homes

and other small labs as clients. And so far, IRL has contracts with nearly a

dozen physician groups, says executive director Richard Thomas, who would not

disclose the names of clients.

IRL, a $45 million enterprise, conducts nearly 5 million lab

tests a year. The Brentwood, Tenn.-based business is a joint venture between

Toronto-based MDS Inc., an international health and life sciences company, and

Nashville-based HCA, which owns and operates Southwest Regional Medical Center

and Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers. The area’s growth and the HCA connection

were major factors in the expansion decision, Thomas says.

Some of IRL’s area competitors are NCH Healthcare System

affiliate DSI Laboratories and Laboratory Corp. of America. As the changing

health care industry has seen hospitals get out of the laboratory business, “it

left a void. We felt we were the logical people to fill that void,”style="mso-spacerun: yes"> Thomas says.

IRL’s biggest selling point, Thomas adds, is its rapid

turnaround time. That has become a focus for laboratory companies as patients

have demanded health care information at a quicker rate. The tests are sent via

courier daily across Alligator Alley to IRL’s main lab in Fort Lauderdale,

which typically returns the results to the doctor the next day, Thomas says.

The company is planning to offer online test

results soon.

IRL’s staff in Southwest Florida is small and likely will

remain that way. One employee handles the Bonita Springs office, which opened

in late September in Bonita Bay; and another employee works in the Fort Myers

office, which opened in July on Evans Avenue. IRL also has a full-time

salesperson and courier based in the area.

The anthrax scare pushed the company briefly into the

national spotlight, with exposure in newspapers and magazines, including the

New England Journal of Medicine. Coming into a new market, “some people did

recognize it and ask us about it,” Thomas says, proving that a cataclysmic

event can have far-reaching and unexpected consequences.