Columbus Public Health union asks city not to outsource lab testing.
Top headlines of the week, Oct. 17 2025
Here are some stories you may have missed this week in central Ohio.
- Columbus Public Health plans to close its in-house lab and contract with a Texas-based company.
- The union representing health department employees argues this will cause testing delays and not save money long-term.
- City health officials state the move will save over $250,000 annually and is necessary for a new electronic medical system.
- The change will impact four jobs and eliminate the local lab’s ability to provide urgent test results within hours.
The union representing Columbus Public Health employees is calling on the city to reverse course on its plan to close its in-house medical testing lab and contract with a Texas lab company.
Columbus Public Health conducted over 52,000 lab tests in 2024, including tests for HIV, pregnancy, drugs and sexually transmitted infections. Sending the bulk of those tests to a Texas company instead will cause delays in receiving results and will not save money in the long run, said John Henry Jr., president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2191.
Henry said this is not just about losing four public health jobs.
“The city may face an untested and untreated public or foot an astronomical bill that could have easily been avoided,” Henry told the Columbus City Council at its meeting on Oct. 20. “The loss of a STAT (urgent) testing facility in Columbus will harm the city of Columbus. Finally, CPH will no longer be able to provide STAT testing for STIs, or syphilis or HIV.”
According to AFSCME, its supporters have sent over a thousand letters to city officials calling for a rejection of the new contract. Henry came to the City Hall meeting to speak against council approving a contract with the Center for Disease Detection, a San Antonio-based company. Public Health has not brought the contract to the council yet, but has accepted the bid pending council approval and scheduled the city’s lab for closure after Nov. 14.
Columbus Public Health Director of Public Affairs Kelli Newman said it is unfortunate that this will affect four employees, but the department is a good steward of public funding. Newman said the department expects to save over $250,000 annually by contracting out lab testing.
“This plan to subcontract is necessary and critical to the health and safety of our entire community, especially as we move through times of uncertain public health funding,” Newman said in an email.
Henry said Columbus Public Health is being short-sighted. AFSCME alleges that the Center for Disease Detection underestimated in its $563,000 bid how many tests would be needed. The next lowest bid, according to Henry, came from the Ohio State University and was for more than $800,000. Two other national labs submitted bids over $1 million.
Newman attributed the discrepancy in the number of tests to changing protocols on who needs certain testing.
Henry said he believes that by year two of the contract, the Center for Disease Detection would be charging more than it costs to process the lab tests in-house.
According to AFSCME, subcontracting out testing will also increase the time patients wait to receive their results.
Henry said the local lab performs about 100 “STAT” tests monthly, which the lab turns around in one or two hours. With the Center for Disease Detection, most results would be available in one to two days, according to Newman.
Columbus Public Health is shuttering its lab as it moves to implement a new electronic medical system in 2026.
“Columbus Public Health is required to only have one reference lab for the electronic health system EPIC, which will be implemented in 2026 to better serve our residents,” Newman said. “This improvement on behalf of our clients — and the resulting budget savings — require us to subcontract lab services to an outside vendor.”
Newman said Public Health is confident this new lab contract will not cause any delays in care, and clients can access their lab results quickly via MyChart once EPIC is implemented.
Some simple tests that don’t require a lab, like pregnancy tests, will still be done in Columbus, Newman said.
Columbus City Council President Shannon Hardin told Henry that the council will continue to ask questions of Columbus Public Health as they look into the topic.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
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