With the acquisition of StreamLAB, the hospital is able to handle more tasks and at the same time, reduce errors. The hospital’s staff was managing 800 to 900 specimens daily and the numbers were rising. Palakorn Puttaruk, MD, head of the laboratory at the hospital explains, “After using the machine for the past two months, we saw a faster lab process with the turnaround time reduced from two hours to 54 minutes.” The system integrates preanalytical and analytical processes into a single workstation that delivers a lean process from receiving, centrifuging, and sorting for analysis by workstation. "This machine uses a single-tube transport system to facilitate sample routing. This could halve the use of blood serum and eliminate unnecessary time-consuming steps," said Puttaruk. The StreamLAB solution can also be integrated into the hospital's information system, enabling doctors to retrieve blood-testing results immediately.

Product Information: StreamLAB Automation Solutions

When questions arise over any given blood sample, the system’s software alerts and informs the operators of the issue so they can recheck the tube in real-time. This allows for more comprehensive screening, a clearer diagnosis and prognosis as well as monitoring of disease states. Additionally, when the doctor orders a retest or additional tests, the lab operator can easily search for the previous test samples in the system. This helps to reduce error rates and the need to redraw blood from the patient. “In the past, the hospital could hardly provide such a service due to its limited resources and massive workload. The automatic machine could increase its revenue and improve services for communities, elderly people in particular," explains Puttaruk.

Further Information: Bangkok Post: Less pain, more gain