Checklist7 Signs Your Instrument Is No Longer Serving You
Clinical laboratories face substantial pressure to produce test results quickly and accurately while operating with limited resources. Diagnostic analyzers are an important component of laboratory operations and can greatly affect the laboratory's ability to meet the needs of healthcare providers. It is crucial to evaluate current analyzers well before the contract expiration date to determine if they are still meeting the laboratory’s needs in terms of operational efficiency, cost, and patient care. This foresight allows clinical laboratories to ensure that they have the best solution available.
Consider these indications that it may be time to explore alternative solutions before your existing contract expires.
1. Excessive Analyzer Downtime and Testing Failures
Analyzer downtime causes significant testing delays and workload challenges for clinical laboratories. This may require technologists to perform time-consuming troubleshooting and costly retesting. Additionally, prolonged downtime may necessitate the outsourcing of testing to external reference labs to meet demands. Mitigate the operational costs of testing failures with analyzers that offer remote support and enhanced QC capabilities.
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Remote Support
Analyzers that feature remote support capabilities enable expert technical support teams to troubleshoot analyzers remotely, without burdening clinical laboratory staff. This also allows field service engineers to access troubleshooting data remotely, ensure they arrive prepared to provide prompt service and repairs. Remote support significantly reduces analyzer downtime.
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Enhanced Quality Control Capabilities
Multiplex technology enables quality control capabilities that complement traditional QC testing by providing real-time monitoring of assay parameters. Integrated quality control technologies help detect testing failures before batch QC testing is performed. By identifying errors immediately, these technologies help quickly resolve issues and minimize the need for costly retesting.
2. Excessive Maintenance Activities
Routine analyzer maintenance — daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or as needed — can strain limited laboratory resources. These hands-on activities can disrupt testing workflows and reduce the overall productivity of clinical laboratories. To streamline operations, some modern analyzers offer automation of maintenance processes.
Automated Maintenance
Analyzers that operate with minimal maintenance requirements and feature automated maintenance capabilities can improve workflow efficiency. By reducing manual tasks, technologists can focus on value-added activities that improve the overall productivity of clinical laboratories.
3. Inadequate Turnaround Times
The demand for diagnostic testing continues to grow, while the number of qualified technologists remains limited. This places substantial pressure on clinical laboratories to deliver the expedited testing results necessary for clinicians to provide high-quality patient care. Clinical laboratories often rely on an array of different analyzers to meet testing needs, further complicating workflows and lengthening turnaround times.
Analyzers that improve result throughput and reduce the demands on staff can enable laboratories to meet growing workloads and turnaround time requirements. Key analyzer features include high-throughput automation, extensive test menus, and multiplex technology.
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High-Throughput Automation
High-throughput analyzers with full automation capabilities can significantly improve result turnaround time while minimizing the pressure on limited staff.
Multiplex Technology
Analyzers that use multiplex technology can generate multiple results with a single test. This means that test panels and reflexive algorithms can be completed in a single step without requiring additional sample processing. This significantly reduces the testing workload for laboratory staff and speeds up result turnaround times.
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Extensive Test Menus
Analyzers with extensive menus and large test capacity can enable clinical laboratories to consolidate multiple methods onto a single high-throughput platform. This can streamline workflow efficiency and improve result turnaround times.
4. Excessive Hands-On Time
When describing diagnostic analyzers, the term “automation” is relative. Many automated analyzers require significant manual processes or hands-on time, creating workflow inefficiencies and increasing the risk of costly human errors. However, with advanced technologies such as full automation and multiplexing, laboratories can further relieve staff, streamline testing, and improve productivity.
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Full Automation
A fully automated analyzer minimizes manual sample and reagent handling processes, including preparation, pipetting, loading, disposal, and data management. By eliminating manual processes, full automation maximizes technologist walk-away time.
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Multiplex Technology
Multiplex technology allows analyzers to generate multiple results from a single test, effectively reducing testing processes. The reduction in individual tests, calibration runs, and QC runs alleviates testing workloads and enhances operational efficiency.
5. Excessive Training Requirements and Limited Proficiency
Due to the diverse array of test methods used by clinical laboratories, reaching optimal staff proficiency levels can be challenging. Difficult-to-use analyzers necessitate additional training to achieve staff competency. These extensive training requirements can strain laboratory staff, complicate labor versatility and utilization, and increase the risk of operator errors. To alleviate these issues, laboratories can invest in easy-to-use automated analyzers that help improve staffing competency.
Automated Analyzers
Easy-to-use automated analyzers simplify testing and minimize training requirements. This accelerates technologist proficiency, which alleviates the demand on training resources, enhances staffing versatility, and improves operational flexibility and efficiency.
6. Dependence on Reference Laboratories
Analyzers with limited test menus or inadequate test capacity require clinical laboratories to rely on reference labs to meet testing needs. However, send-out testing is costly and requires laboratory staffing to perform additional sample handling and administrative tasks. Furthermore, send-out testing can slow result turnaround times, which can hinder clinicians’ ability to diagnose and treat patients promptly. To improve patient care and reduce costs, laboratories can invest in analyzers that expand in-house testing capabilities.
Expanded Menu Capacity
Analyzers with extensive test menus allow clinical laboratories to expand their in-house testing and reduce reference laboratory expenses. Additionally, a comprehensive test menu enables the consolidation of multiple different methods onto a single automated platform, which streamlines testing and enhances productivity.
7. Incompatibility with Total Laboratory Automation Systems
Total laboratory automation (TLA) track lines are a major infrastructure investment with the potential to deliver substantial workflow and productivity benefits for clinical laboratories. However, these benefits are diminished when laboratory analyzers lack the ability to integrate with track lines, leaving laboratory staff to manually perform patient sample handling processes. Analyzers that offer TLA integration can significantly improve workflow efficiency and maximize the overall return on investment.
TLA Integration
Analyzers that integrate with TLA track lines streamline testing and data management while reducing hands-on processes and the risk of human errors. TLA integration maximizes automation capabilities and improves result throughput and turnaround time.
Analyzer Contract Expiration: A Strategic Opportunity
The expiration of analyzer contracts provides an opportunity to evaluate the direction of the clinical laboratory and adjust to evolving diagnostic needs. Although renewing an existing contract might appear practical, it is crucial to evaluate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of your current instrument to assess whether it is the optimal solution for your lab.
It is equally important to consider the advantages alternative solutions may provide by enhancing workflow efficiency, reducing demands on staff, and expediting result turnaround time. Laboratories should evaluate all solutions based on their ability to align with goals and address future testing needs.
