Consider this: you go to your doctor’s appointment with some concerns about your health, and they order you blood tests. You finish at the doctor’s office, but you have to wait days, maybe even weeks, for the results of your blood tests, all the while sitting at home, wondering what could be wrong.
That was the reality for some patients of TCMH up until a couple of weeks ago. But no longer.
The TCMH lab received a new analyzer, the Ortho Vitros 5600 Integrated System, through a placement program. With this new analyzer, lab processes and patient care will be more efficient and overall improved.
The new analyzer is replacing a 13-year-old chemistry analyzer and will replace the amino assay analyzer by the end of this year. It processes 10 new tests TCMH previously had to send outside of the hospital for processing. While sending out specimens may not seem like a big deal, it prolongs the time to receive patient test results.
Although the new analyzer is currently running 10 brand new tests, it has the potential to run a lot more if needed in the future.
TCMH sponsors several health fairs throughout the year. At those events staff members perform blood draws for several hundred area residents. Quite often, TCMH has to send those specimens outside of the hospital also because of the quantity and types of tests. With this new analyzer, TCMH will do it in-house, getting the results to the patients much faster.
The hospital received the new analyzer a couple months ago and performed several weeks of validation testing to make sure it was running properly. As of Aug. 20, the Ortho Vitros 5600 was fully functional and is processing lab specimens.
“This analyzer uses three different methodologies,” said Evania Ryan, TCMH lab director. “The previous analyzer just used one methodology, and the amino assay analyzer uses one.
“This will also help the lab to run more smoothly. Instead of splitting the lab specimens between multiple machines, analysts will be able to put the entire specimen in one machine, but get the same results.”
Ryan said the Ortho Vitros 5600 runs about 30-60 seconds faster per specimen than the previous analyzer. While this does not seem like a lot for one specimen, it makes running multiple specimens at the end of a clinic day much quicker.
The swiftness and multitude of tests the new analyzer offers will help improve clinic processes and keep some patients from having to drive to see another doctor to help manage their healthcare.
“We were limited on what we could do without the right resources as far as managing disease processes and problems,” said Jonathan Beers, DO, TCMH chief of staff, said. “Rather than sending patients somewhere else to receive care and faster lab results, we can now keep them here.”
Beers said some of the tests that had to be sent out before would have a five to six day turnaround time, but in a larger institution with more resources, those results would be available within a few hours.
“Now TCMH has some of those same capabilities as the larger hospitals, our turnaround times have improved greatly as well as the variety of tests that we can process here,” Beers said. “Our medical staff is comprised of a broad group of talented professionals, and they are managing a wide variety of diseases right here at this community hospital. Now we are able to help manage our patient’s diseases much more effectively.”
Additionally, the analyzer is e-connected and is considered predictive technology. It means that Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, the company that makes the analyzer, will have access to the inner workings of the analyzer, and can catch potential issues before they become problematic.
The predictive technology will help keep the analyzer running smoothly and will help eliminate mechanical issues.
“We are excited to see the advances in the lab here at our hospital that keep TCMH in line with the same technology that large laboratories across the country use,” Ryan said.
“We should be on the cutting edge as much as we can within our budget,” Beers added. “Our small town can now catch up with the big referral centers in terms of technology.”