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The Siemens Centaur XP performs a variety of immunochemistries with the capacity to perform up to 30 tests. Analytes performed include cardiac markers, thyroid and hepatitis profiles.

Two years ago, Baton Rouge General Medical Center looked to the future and launched a $15.4 million health information technology project that will help support electronic health records.

But hospital executives were also looking backward when they decided to implement automated lab systems that now test 1 million specimens a year, said Cindy Munn, vice president, care management.

"Part of the other reason that this was very intriguing to us at the time was the fact that we looked at this not long after (Hurricane) Katrina, and we were having a very difficult time finding staff for our laboratory," Munn said.

The medical technologist shortage still exists, Munn said. But with the Siemens systems installed at the General's Bluebonnet and Mid City campuses – at a combined cost of $4 million – the hospital expects to triple testing volume in the next two years.

Most importantly, the hospital will be able to do so without having to add a lot more staff, Munn said.

Between them, the two labs have 100 workers, Munn said. That number would have to be increased substantially to handle twice the current volume, much less triple.

And the hospital hasn't even scratched the surface of the automated system's capabilities, Munn said.

"One of the things that we're proud of is it now makes us the most sophisticated laboratory in the region because of that automation," Munn said. "The automation helps us utilize the med techs that we have more efficiently in that it does a lot of the repetitive work."

Freed of the more routine tasks, the hospital's med techs can focus on adding new services, such as molecular testing, Munn said.

Technologists can devote more time to manual, complicated tests that usually involve patients that are sicker, spokesman Scott Miller said.

Munn said the system also means physicians get their test results faster, with more consistent turnaround times.

In addition, the system improves safety for lab workers, Munn said. The automated system features a decapper, a device that can unscrew the caps from specimen tubes, a chore where a tech is more likely to be exposed to whatever is in the specimen.

Lab manager Gerry Debetaz said when the system is completely implemented, hospital staff will be able to scan a patient's bar-coded wristband, and the test order will be printed on a label and attached to the specimen.

The specimen will go to the lab, where a technologist will load the specimen and others into a rack and put it on the automated track system, Debetaz said. The system's sample manager catalogs the specimen and sends it to be centrifuged, separating the sample into serum and cells, or directly to the proper instrument.

If the specimen has to be centrifuged, the sample manager sends that material to the proper instrument where the appropriate tests are performed, Debetaz said.

"If the testing meets all normal criteria, the results are offloaded to the computer system, auto verified and the results sent to the physician's office," he said.

If the results are abnormal, the technologist at the command center decides whether a repeat analysis is warranted, and if so, the test is repeated, Debetaz said.

The system allows Baton Rouge General to perform all of its general testing, from chemistries measuring glucose levels and triglycerides to complete blood counts and electrolytes, Debetaz said.

The labs performs 250 tests and test profiles.

Lab Information Services manager Jason Bouquet said the system allows one medical technologist to run five different instruments. In the past, the hospital had to have a person for each instrument, he said.

Debetaz said the system also maintains positive patient identification throughout the process.

By minimizing the physical handling of samples before, in between and after tests, the system reduces the possibility of human error, Debetaz said.

Bouquet said one of the slickest things about the system is that it can take the specimens that require testing outside the hospital and rack them.

The lab workers can easily access the samples and send them for testing elsewhere, Bouquet said.

Munn said the automated system's testing capacity allowed Baton Rouge General to partner with Laboratory Corp. of America, or LabCorp, and to begin performing tests for community physicians and other healthcare providers.

"This is a phenomenal opportunity for us, and we're able to do it because of this automation," Munn said.

Baton Rouge General's initial target for the automated labs is to boost the hospital's bottom line by $1 million to $2 million in the first 18 months, Munn said.

"That's going to be what should hit our bottom line after expenses," Munn said.

Tags:

automation, Baton Rouge General, health information technology, LabCorp, medical technicians, Siemens

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