Inside the lab are five key departments – accessioning, chemistry, hematology, microbiology, and blood bank. Here is a break down of what each department does: Accessioning: the area of the lab where blood, urine, and other body substances may be collected, given a barcode, received in the computer, and distributed to the corresponding area of the lab to complete the tests requested by the physician. Chemistry: the department that performs the actual testing on patient urine, body fluids, and blood in order to evaluate the health of a patient – sugar, lipids, electrolytes, prostate, thyroid, among hundreds of other tests. Hematology: the area of the lab that tests blood for a variety of conditions, like leukemia, blood parasites, blood loss from trauma, and amenia, to name a few examples. Microbiology: the area of the lab where professionals carry out the process of streaking and smearing patient specimens, like a swab from a leg wound onto special plates with media substances to encourage growth of microscopic organisms, like staph bacteria that can be identified and tested against specific antibiotics for the best treatment to cure the infection for a patient. Blood Bank (Transfusion Medicine): A crucial service for patients having surgeries that might cause blood loss or patients undergoing chemotherapy with low platelets may receive an infusion of platelets to help with blood clotting.