Upstate commercial lab, founded by Citadel alum, first in SC to test for COVID-19

Note: Kevin Murdock, the founder of Premier Medical Laboratory Services, is a member of The Citadel Class of 1992.

As seen on WYFF News 4 on March 25, by Taggart Houck

An Upstate commercial private testing lab is celebrating a big milestone in the fight against COVID-19.

Premier Medical Laboratory Services in Greenville County has been granted validation by the Food and Drug Administration to run tests for COVID-19, making it the first private commercial testing facility in South Carolina to do so. It’s part of an effort to help alleviate backlog from testing facilities in South Carolina and across the country.

The laboratory will increase its testing capacity to plan for 28,000 tests each week.

“Patients will go to their doctors or to one of the drive-thru clinics here in the state or nationally and have the test ordered and collected, then it’d be sent to Premier, where we’ll process that test and send the result back to the physician,” said Michael Conroy, Vice President of Compliance for Premier Medical.

Conroy said results should be processed within one to two days.

Jamie Short, general supervisor for Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics at Premier Medical, spent about three weeks, practically nonstop, working to make sure testing would be approved by the FDA.

“It is so important to know who has this and to hopefully shorten the quarantine times and the spread,” she said.

Kevin Murdock, founder of Premier Medical Laboratory Services, said he’s proud of his company.

He said he’s also planning to hire some people laid off from local restaurants and businesses, using them to help compile data and organize testing kits.

“We are trying to hire local people that can help fill in the gaps where we need them and try to support our community in this pandemic time,” he said.

Hospitals and physicians offices can provide COVID-19 testing by clicking on the following link for easy account activation with PMLS: www.premedinc.com/covid-19