Automation: New buzz word in Hospital Based Laboratories
Hospital Based Laboratories are evolving – of late, they are switching to automated track systems. Nestled in a busy locality of Central and North-West Delhi, BLK Super Speciality Hospital, is a 650-bedded tertiary/quaternary care facility dealing with thousands of patients in a day. Out of the many specialities that the hospital has, Laboratory Medicine is one of the busiest departments.
When it comes to medical advances, laboratory technology is usually at the forefront. New advanced testing techniques to diagnose or screen have made testing more efficient and automated. The rapid advancement in Lab Information System (LIS) has revolutionized the lab service and automation. Automated track system is the new buzz word in lab technology.
Few years ago, majority of instruments used in laboratories were smaller and had less throughput. For example, in haematology, we had five-part instrument and three-part instrument and the workloads were less. Technology was relevant but not advanced. Over a period of time, we upgraded our instruments from smaller ones to modular systems, and right now, redesigning the lab is our core concern. By the next financial year, we should put in place an automated track system. There are various reasons why the lab needs this transformation, viz lot of space gets occupied by bench top instruments, also, the instruments have become modular now – they are plug and play type. We are trying to remove these small cubicles and we will change it into an open lab concept with a track system where everything is automated and we don’t want anyone to carry the samples. We need this change primarily because we anticipate increased volumes as BLK Hospital subsequent to merger of BLK and MAX group of Hospitals. With automation in place, we are able to provide high-quality results at shortest possible turnaround time,” Dr. Handoo informs.
Adding to it, Dr Handoo said that our aim is imbibing latest technology and constant up-gradation. “BLK Hospital wants to increase the capabilities of the laboratory in terms of infrastructure, hardware and software requirements and make it user-friendly which is easily accessible and available,” he added. BLK Hospital is keen on the quality offered by the lab and do not compromise in the quality, this in turn showcases in our lab results. ”We truly believe that there is a patient, a human, behind every evacuated tube/sample, and would like to treat it the same way as we like to be treated ourselves.”