Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust has acquired five Advia Centaur immunoassay analysers linked by a CentraLink data management system from Bayer Diagnostics
In order to standardise immunoassay testing across the city's two main hospitals, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust has acquired five Advia Centaur immunoassay analysers linked by a CentraLink data management system from Bayer Diagnostics.
Three of the analysers have been installed at the Northern General Hospital (two in clinical chemistry and one in virology), with a further two at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital where staff in the clinical chemistry department already had prior experience of the system.
The Advia Centaur analyser met the trust's criteria for a high-throughput analytical solution with a broad assay menu which would fully satisfy the requirements for automated testing at both sites.
Having five identical analysers ensures that there is ample back-up for each individual system, and the laboratories now have sufficient analytical capacity to cope with substantial increases in annual workload.
"Advia Centaur is a lot more flexible than our previous analyser (from another manufacturer), as it allows us to access samples even after they have been loaded", says Northern General's senior clinical scientist in clinical chemistry, Rachel Stokes.
"We can also top up reagents and perform other maintenance functions while the system is running, which allows us to get straight on with processing samples first thing in the morning without any down-time.
"What's more, staff in the laboratory really enjoy using the analyser.
"It's very user-friendly and easy for them to learn".
"We have not been disappointed in any way", adds consultant biochemist Brian Morris.
"The Advia Centaur analysers are powerful pieces of kit which literally 'eat' our workload, and the CentraLink data management facility gives us the ability to view quality control data across the two hospital sites.
"Our contract with Bayer offers the prospect of substantial cost savings over the next five years", he continues.
"We have also been very impressed with Bayer's professionalism throughout the whole procurement and installation process.
"They have performed extremely well in response to our requirements."
