Beckman Coulter has launched the first workflow automation solution for medium-sized laboratories in Europe, enabling them to benefit from solutions once only available to large facilities.
The company’s DxA 5000 Fit automation system is suitable for mid-sized laboratories that process fewer than 5,000 tests a day. It delivers rapid and consistent turnaround times, reduces manual steps and provides intelligent routing within a modular, connected system that performs pre-analytical steps including identification of sample condition, centrifugation and decapping. It’s flexible design can be adapted to meet a the lab’s space and infrastructure constraints
Afruj Ruf, managing director at Integrated Pathology Solutions LLP, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “When we look at automation for our labs it's a balancing act between system throughput capacity, test menu and footprint of the system. At the Harrogate District Hospital site, we knew that a large automated system will be too large and excessive and a standalone system doesn't give us the streamlined workflow we want. What we needed was a compact automation system that reduced the number of steps, requiring minimum human intervention and generated a valid result at first pass so that our lab professionals are not moving samples around but performing the valuable scientific tasks they are trained for.
“From its compact footprint and minimising manual work by 80%, to intelligent routing that makes sure our acute patients get their results faster than routine ones, the DxA 5000 Fit was just the right fit for us."
In a survey of lab directors and managers, staffing (26%), and turnaround time (23%) were identified as key challenges being faced in hospital laboratories. Automation plays a key role in helping to address such issues while enabling precious resources to focus on high-value, clinical tasks – this has proven particularly true during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Susan Enciso, System Supervisor of Chemistry, Excela Health, said: “For large laboratories, TLA is a reality today. However, for medium-volume labs like ours that process fewer than 4,000 tests per day, comprehensive workflow-automation solutions haven’t been an option.
“Beckman Coulter’s DxA 5000 Fit solution is the right fit for us. It has a flexible design which is important in a lab like ours where space is a precious commodity, and reduces our manual process steps by up to 80%, helping us meet today’s unprecedented need for COVID-19 and routine tests.”
Dr Hervé Vermeulen, lab director at Centre Hospitalier de Calais, added: “We chose the DxA 5000 Fit because it offers us end-to-end automation and will automate a lot of the pre- and post-analytical routine work our skilled technologists spend their time doing.
“We look forward to lower, more consistent TATs and significant efficiency gains from the industry’s most comprehensive pre-analytical sample-quality assessment combined with automated pre-analytical sample processing and connected chemistry and immunoassay analysers.”
“At Beckman Coulter, we believe that medium-size labs should be able to leverage the benefits of automation to address their challenges. Just because your lab is not processing a higher number of samples, doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the benefits of intelligent laboratory automation and settle for a marginally automated workcell-plus solution,” said Dr Peter Soltani, senior vice president & general manager, haematology, urinalysis & workflow information technology solutions at Beckman Coulter.
“This is why we have launched DxA 5000 Fit, the first compact workflow automation solution that’s the right fit for mid-volume labs because automation should be for all labs.”
Learn more about Beckman Coulter’s family of automation solutions and the DxA 5000 Fit by CLICKING HERE.
