PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview

We are the nation’s leading provider of diagnostic testing, information and related services, providing insights that enable physicians, hospitals, managed care organizations and other healthcare professionals to make decisions to improve health. We offer patients and physicians the broadest access to diagnostic laboratory services through our national network of laboratories and patient service centers. We provide interpretive consultation through the largest medical and scientific staff in the industry, with over 300 physicians and Ph.D.’s around the country. We are the leading provider of esoteric testing, including gene-based testing, and testing for drugs of abuse. We are also a leading provider of anatomic pathology services and testing for clinical trials. We empower healthcare organizations and clinicians with state-of-the-art information technology solutions that can improve practice management and patient care. 

During 2003, we generated net revenues of $4.7 billion and processed over 130 million requisitions for testing. Each requisition form accompanies a patient specimen, indicating the tests to be performed and the party to be billed for the tests. Our customers include physicians, hospitals, managed care organizations, employers, governmental institutions and other commercial clinical laboratories.

We currently operate a nationwide network of approximately 1,925 patient service centers, principal laboratories located in more than 30 major metropolitan areas throughout the United States, and approximately 155 smaller “rapid response” laboratories (including, in each case, facilities operated at our joint ventures). We are the only company in our industry to provide full esoteric testing services, including gene-based testing, on both coasts through our Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute facilities, located in San Juan Capistrano, California and Chantilly, Virginia. We also have laboratory facilities in Mexico City, Mexico and San Juan, Puerto Rico and near London, England.

We are a Delaware corporation. We sometimes refer to our subsidiaries and ourselves as the “Company”. We are the successor to MetPath Inc., a New York corporation that was organized in 1967. From 1982 to 1996, we were a subsidiary of Corning Incorporated, or Corning. On December 31, 1996, Corning distributed all of the outstanding shares of our common stock to the stockholders of Corning. In August 1999, we completed the acquisition of SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories, Inc., or SBCL, which operated the clinical laboratory business of SmithKline Beecham plc, or SmithKline Beecham.

Our principal executive offices are located at One Malcolm Avenue, Teterboro, New Jersey 07608, telephone number: (201) 393-5000. Our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports, are available free of charge on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Our Internet website is located at http://www.questdiagnostics.com.