Automation System Brings LRMC’s Lab Services to New Heights for Enhanced Patient Care
Wednesday, October 26 2011
Lakeland Regional Medical Center is pleased to announce that, beginning October 27, its clinical laboratory will begin utilizing a comprehensive lab system which will fully automate three key types of testing: chemistry, hematology and urinalysis. The system will have a positive impact on patient care as clinical staff will experience faster turnaround times and an enhanced ability to diagnose and treat diseases more quickly and confidently.
By implementing this state-of-the-art system, a patient’s lab results will no longer require testing at numerous sites within the lab, a time-consuming process that requires a lab technologist to transfer a specimen by hand. Instead, once the lab sample is received, it is immediately placed onto a continuous-flow track system controlled by the technologist through a computerized “command center.”
Through this integrated system, the sample is screened for more than a hundred analytes, such as: glucose, cholesterol, white blood cell count, hemoglobin, hepatitis and potassium. Then, minutes later, the test results are placed in the hands of our physicians and care teams.
“To see this innovative automation system fully operating is impressive,” said Theresa Ohrmund, Lakeland Regional’s administrative laboratory director. “The most impressive quality, by far, is the fact that the expedited and streamlined process could potentially save a life.”
The American Society for Clinical Pathology says lab results influence more than 70 percent of the medical decisions doctors make. Through the lab automation system, our medical teams will receive quicker results because of the standardized testing process. By reducing the steps needed to sort, process and archive samples, the lab saves time and reduces the potential for error.
The lab automation system utilizes technology manufactured by Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics – a company with a long-standing reputation for providing effective ways to assist in the diagnosis, monitoring and management of disease.
“As the first in the country to fully automate its chemistry, hematology and urinalysis testing with Siemens’ single integrated automation system, we are proud to pave the way for other healthcare providers because of the impact it will have on patient care at Lakeland Regional and beyond,” said Ohrmund.