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NorthShore Clinical Labs Under Investigation For Misconduct; Many Never Receiving Their Results

CHICAGO (CBS) --  One of the Chicago area's largest COVID testing labs Is currently under investigation as people who took their test at one of the sites never received their results.

If you never received your results, there's a reason why. CBS 2s Chris Tye found out the number of states who are now looking into NorthShore Clinical Labs.

This Chicago-based company has collected $1 million to test people from Illinois to Nevada.

Both states have begun investigations into misconduct of a company that so many have trusted with their COVID care.

Late last year the lines were long and demand sky-high for COVID tests. Up until today, they say they never received anything.

It was 34 days ago that Maritza Godinez's in-laws got swabbed -- and still no results.

"They didn't really go out with anybody because it was better to be safe than sorry," Godinez said.

They were safe, and now sorry they used NorthShore Clinical labs.

CBS2 has learned the federal agency that oversees the labs "is aware of several alleged instances of misconduct by this company's labs," adding, "Until NorthShore Clinical Laboratory has had the opportunity to respond to any findings, there are no reports or findings to release."

The company's website says they have: "...terminated all third party operation of COVID-19 testing pop-up sites, while we focus on improving processing and PCR result times during this period of extraordinarily high demand."

When we visited their company-run facility on the North Side, not a third-party operation — it too was closed.

CBS 2 has also learned that the company is under investigation in Las Vegas where they ran results for drive-through clinics.

In a statement to CBS 2:

"The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services told us it is conducting a state licensing investigation into NorthShore Clinical Labs. As this is an ongoing investigation, no further information can be released at this time."

The customers of the company that pocketed over a hundred million pandemic dollars have a message.

"If you can't keep up with the demand, don't let so many people in to do the test," Godinez said.

Late today the Illinois Department of Public Health also confirmed the investigation into NorthShore.

They are also investigating another major testing outfit in our area -- O'Hare Clinical labs.

Details on what they are investigating exactly were not made clear.

Late Wednesday, NorthShore Clinical Labs released the following statements:

Reaction to Patient Complaints
We regret that patients have experienced delays in getting their PCR test results back. We are communicating with all patients whose samples have been received at our lab. However, due to sample collection kits being damaged or improperly stored, some patients may not receive a result.

State Investigations
As a CLIA-certified lab, we are regulated by state and federal agencies. We are fully cooperating with all requests for information from agencies looking into patient complaints and other matters. Our goal is to reassure all clients, patients and regulatory agencies that the actions Northshore took to mitigate the volume of incoming test samples and work through the backlog was successful, and that we have resumed normal test processing that can provide results within 72 hours of samples arriving at our labs.

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