Benefits of blood bank automation

In September 1956, the first automated blood analyzer was introduced at the first International Congress on Clinical Chemistry in New York City. Originally developed by the Pathology Department of Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the Technicon analyzer “took a small sample of blood and within 2.5 min measured the levels of urea, sugar and calcium.”ⁱ

Since that introduction, automated lab analyzers have evolved at a rapid pace, entering areas of the clinical laboratory many thought impossible to successfully automate. With the amount of available options on the market today, choosing whether to implement automation isn’t a simple “yes” or “no” proposition. More accurately, the question is “when?” “where?” and “how much do we need to automate?”

Automation in the blood bank promises many attractive benefits: increasing quality, reducing wasted time, optimizing blood product utilization, standardizing, reducing manual errors, freeing time for your personnel, and more. It can also present potential pitfalls—like increased downtime, higher upfront costs, and additional space considerations.

The decision to increase automation depends on many variables, including the physical size of the lab, test menu, staff, and their level of technical specialization. For a team whose time is already stretched thin, it can free people up to work on other critical value-adding functions. Additionally, second and third shift coverage can be managed without requiring scheduling a trained blood bank technologist. Lastly, filling open positions of retiring specialized blood bank technologists with automation removes stress for less experienced staff.

For many labs, automation is a journey, not a single step. On your own journey, it helps to learn from others that have recognized real improvements from integrating automated analyzers into their blood banks.

Regional medical center with 912 beds

• Saved 45 hours/month in sample loading
• Saved 23 minutes of direct labor and wait time for each antibody identification per month
• Reduced hands-on-time for antibody identification from 22 minutes to 4.5 minutes through automation

Large regional hospital with 1,100 beds

• Reduced QC by 21 run hours
• Recovered 13.5 daily maintenance hours
• Gained 15% faster results on antibody identification (ABID)
• 14% turnaround time (TAT) improvements
  

Large regional hospital with over 1,500 beds

• Over 4 minutes faster results on antibody screening
• 50% TAT improvements with ABD confirmations while running multiple test profiles
• 4.5% faster time adding complex ABID panels

VA hospital with 244 beds

• Decreased hands-on-time by 54%
• Better managed workflow with predictive and optimized turnaround times

ⁱ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2211068212455631
ⁱⁱ Studies conducted by a third party and commissioned by Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Full case studies available upon request