Versiti Blood Center Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Background/Case Studies: Manual blood sample handling processes often involve repetitive, labor and time-intensive tasks that are prone to human error and variability. Efficient sample handling in high-volume laboratories is critical for quality and speed of analytical results. Automated sample handling (ASH) systems can remove manual risk factors, while offering increased efficiency and accuracy. To optimize workflow and integrity, a blood collection facility’s donor testing laboratory (DTL) implemented an ASH system to decap blood donor test tubes and move them from centrifuge cups into a destination rack. This study investigated the impact an ASH system had on time required for blood donor sample processing.
Study
Design/Methods: The total time elapsed (minutes) from tubes arriving in DTL, to completion of pre-analytical centrifugation, decapping, and tube inventorying process was recorded for 10 days pre and post ASH implementation (Dextra, iDetic Solutions, Doraville, GA). Time studies were performed on heavy sample volume days. A stopwatch was used to determine the time the first test tube of a shipment left the centrifuge until it was delivered to the testing platform destination. Tube count was determined by the packing slip. The number of staff performing the pre-analytical process and how many decappers or lanes of the ASH were captured to ensure consistency when the data was collected.
Results/Findings: The average tube count 10 days pre-ASH was 922 unique sample IDs with 4 tubes/ID, for a total average of 3,688 total tubes received. The average tube count 10 days post-ASH was 788 sample IDs with 4 tubes/ID, for a total of 3,152 tubes.
Average time for the first test tube leaving the centrifuge and delivered to the testing platform destination was 30.3 minutes pre-ASH and 36 minutes post-ASH, an increase of 5.7 mins.
The average completion time from the samples arriving in DTL until the entire pre-analytical process was complete was 1h 44min pre-ASH and 1h 27min post-ASH, a reduction of 17 min. (Table 1)
Conclusions: ASH implementation increased the time to complete initial steps in blood donor sample processing; however, further optimization could reduce this increase while maintaining or improving the total processing time. Overall, ASH demonstrated a time reduction of 17 mins, improving sample processing time in a high-volume DTL with promise for additional time savings.
