Clinical Laboratory Submission to State and Local Public Health Laboratories

Background

Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 441A.235 requires clinical/medical laboratories to submit microbiological cultures, subcultures, or other specimens or clinical material to the State Public Health Laboratory or other laboratory designated by the health authority for confirmation or further testing (https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nac/nac-441a.html#NAC441ASec235). In an effort to standardize the specimens or isolates that must be submitted to a State or Local Public Health Laboratory, the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH) has developed a reference document that can be found here.

State and Local Public Health Laboratories

In Nevada, there are two public health laboratories, the Nevada State Public Health Laboratory located in Reno, Nevada and Southern Nevada Public Health Laboratory, a local public health laboratory, located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Clinical laboratories that submit specimens or isolates to the State or Local Public Health Laboratory should work with the laboratory within their jurisdiction. If the Public Health Laboratory within the appropriate jurisdiction is unable to perform the required testing, the Public Health Laboratory is then responsible to submit that specimen or isolate to a laboratory that is able to perform the testing, such as, a Public Health Laboratory in another state, the CDC laboratory, or other designated reference laboratory.

Questions:

For updated guidance, please review the DPBH Technical Bulletin website and Nevada’s health response website regularly. Email dpbhepi@health.nv.gov with questions.