POSITIVE IMPACT OF AN AUTOMATED PRE-ANALYTICAL & POST-ANALYTICAL WORKFLOW SYSTEM IN A TERTIARY HIGH-VOLUME REFERRAL CLINICAL LABORATORY

Abstract

Context: Handling of biological samples in a laboratory is labour intensive complex process and automation has become a necessity for optimizing health care costs, reduce medical errors and to aid in safety of healthcare workers. Biological Sample handling in the sample reception area involves sample tube de-capping for ready processing, sorting section-wise, scanning the sample to track its progress, distribution to various analysers and archival for storage. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the positive effects of an automatic pr Objective: e analytical automation in our clinical laboratory workow. We recently installed Beckman Automate 2550 analyser for our wor Design: kow pre & post analytical automation.This preanalytical unit processes blood specimens through automated specimen sorting, centrifugation, de-capping, labelling, aliquoting, and placement of the processed specimen in the analytical rack. We analysed the system by processing samples to test the salient features of this system. Turnaround time with increase in volume of tests with no additional manpower was analysed pre & post automation. The turnaround ti Results: me (TAT) of various laboratory processes demonstrated a signicant improvement. The number of errors experienced in tube sorting with manual processing, sorting mislabelled tubes, unlabelled tubes, specimen lost, wrong destination entered for tubes and tube mismatch was decreased post-implementation of the system. Also, increased workload was handled by the sorter efciently. Conclusions: Reduction time in pre analytical processing and sorting of samples led to signicant improvements in TAT and specimen processing after automation. The manual errors & manhours associated with sorting, labelling, aliquoting the blood samples also reduced. These results conclude that automated sample sorting improves specimen accessioning and processing workow.