Turnaround time

24 to 48 hours from the time the specimen arrives at the laboratory. That holds across every service line — endocrine, molecular, toxicology and clinical chemistry.

From arrival, not from collection

The figure is measured from arrival at the laboratory rather than from collection, and the distinction is deliberate.

Transit time is not something Clinicore controls. A specimen collected on a Friday afternoon and shipped overnight arrives Monday; the laboratory’s clock starts then. Quoting a turnaround that silently includes transit would produce a number the laboratory could not hold to, and a practice would find that out the first time a courier ran late.

Planning around it

Two specimen constraints matter more to a practice than the turnaround figure does, because they affect whether the specimen is testable at all rather than when the result comes back:

• Pregnenolone is stable for 72 hours in a red-top tube, against 5 days for every other analyte on the endocrine panel. Collect early in the week, or use the Mitra microsample, which extends stability to 10 days.
• Molecular specimens are stable for 14 days in the collection tube, so transit is rarely the constraint.

Full stability and transport figures are on each collection page.

Delivery

Results are delivered to the practice’s preference. See results.