Making it convenient to get blood tests and follow-up patient care blossomed into a business for Danita Smith, a nurse manager who retired from BJC after 18 years to create a mobile blood draw service, My Blooming Health.
Smith saw the need for her business during her last job at BJC as a hospitalist manager, where one of the goals was to focus on and reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions.
“When I started to evaluate why they keep coming to the emergency room unnecessarily and so frequently, it’s because when they go home, they don’t have the resources,” Smith said. “They didn’t get their follow-up appointments, their doctor’s appointments. They don’t get their lab work done, and they don’t get their radiology test done.”
Smith and her team, which includes another nurse and four phlebotomists, take the blood draw service directly to individual patient homes and other locations of their choice to collect blood draws to send for lab analysis, from follow-up blood testing to DNA paternity analysis.
“Some people have called us to their job to do their blood draw; they don’t have to leave work,” she said. “It’s convenience as well. People like for things to be done quickly.”
She works with the elderly, disabled and anyone with physical difficulties getting out to their lab appointments. It started out as a hobby to help the community and give information to decrease the need for emergency room visits, she said, but it soon grew into a fulltime business four years ago.
“Instead of you actually having to leave the house, to go to a clinic or a doctor’s office to get your blood drawn, we come out to you. Your insurance is covered for the most part, so that means no out-of-pocket expense to use our service,” Smith explained.
For individuals and employers, the mobile lab provides onsite drug testing.
“We also offer vaccinations through the employer and employee wellness support.”
In addition to greater patient follow-up, she also sees a need for community preventive care and health education. She said the need for this type of service is growing.
“Especially as our baby-boomers continue to get older; and actually, unfortunately, our younger people are falling ill and having different ailments that are preventing them from getting out,” Smith said,” and then of course, the convenience of not having to go to a lab . We are in and out of your place in about five to 10 minutes to get your blood draw.”
Smith earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from Webster University and bachelor’s degree in Nursing at McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois.
Prior to becoming a registered nurse, Smith was a CNA and LPN and worked in nursing homes and hospitals.
“As a nurse, I always felt like I could not do what I need to do to help support my patients and offer what they needed to do better for themselves to take care of themselves,” she admitted. “You are always limited – time constraints, allowed charting, a lot of running around and I felt incomplete as a nurse in a hospital, which is why I continued to move into management. Then still, I felt not complete because you still are not the decision-maker.”
The business is headquartered in her basement for now, with plans to expand in clientele and into its own building. Right now, My Blooming Health takes most blood samples to other labs for analysis. They do have the appropriate regulatory waiver to process some lab results onsite, Smith said.
“Being able to expand My Blooming Health to where it is now, not only do I offer the blood draw, I have all these other services available and I have an unlimited toolbox of resources for any patient that we touch.”
My Blooming Health operates throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area, including Illinois.
