Automation will increasingly become crucial for clinical laboratories that want to achieve higher productivity levels and cost efficiency.
The following is an excerpt from a new report published by Kalorama Information (New York), “The Worldwide Market for Lab Automation”:
“The overused and sometimes misused solution in the quest for efficiency in the clinical lab has been automation. Automation in the laboratory usually means optimizing workflow to increase output, shortening turnaround time in reporting test results, and utilizing less labor. Attempts to accomplish these objectives have focused on applying instrumentation and computers. However, automation has not achieved for all laboratories the expected improvements in efficiency.
“Consequently, automation does not always mean replacing every manual activity in the laboratory. This problem is further compounded by the inability of instrumentation systems to accommodate changes in the daily workflow patterns of the laboratory. In addition, a thorough analysis of workflow patterns is generally neglected before attempts are made to enhance workflow. Automation will increasingly become crucial for clinical laboratories that want to achieve higher productivity levels and cost efficiency. Automation helps to streamline the workflow and results in a more reproducible process with less hands-on interaction, which can significantly reduce costs and errors, and decrease the need for skilled labor. Automation can help to alleviate pending labor shortages caused by retirement.
“One of the main motivators for harnessing automation in laboratories involves minimizing those non-value-added steps, including such processes as sorting tubes, decapping, centrifugation, loading analyzers, and prepping and sorting materials for storage. Non-value-added steps usually can be addressed by automated systems, which frees up a medical technician’s time. Because labor accounts for more than 60% of the cost of producing test results, automation and better information management systems can effectively reduce the manual, hands-on procedures in a lab and optimize the efficiency of labor in the laboratory. Automating a lab increases the available time for value-added steps (i.e., the tasks that technologists perform that help to make a difference in the quality of the test results and a diagnosis), such as reviewing critical results and deciding whether to rerun or perform reflex testing based on a specific result.
“Much of the talk about automation has focused on automating all lab functions, or total laboratory automation (TLA), which requires a major financial commitment (i.e., several millions of dollars) and the space for installing equipment. But TLA is not an affordable or practical solution for the majority of small to mid-sized hospitals and other diagnostic laboratories. The trend for most clinical labs, and for many automation system manufacturers, is toward modular automation, which includes consolidated and integrated analyzers, independent work cells or self-contained work stations, and automation for transport, handling, and pre- and postanalytical processes.”