‘A Different World’ for This Norwegian Hospital

In a biochemistry department, it is not uncommon for additional tests to be ordered after a sample has been processed. Up until recently, the biochemistry staff in Drammen hospital used to spend a lot of time searching for samples with outstanding tests, as these are run at the end of each day. That is, until their new “best friend” came along.

The “best friend” is a PathFinder 350A Archiver robotic workstation. It is used for capping and archiving of sample tubes that have been processed by one of two Abbott Architect^® ci16200 Analyzers. The samples are loaded directly onto the 350A in the sample rack carrier trays from the Architect. The 350A is also used to archive some capped tubes that are presented in a separate input rack.

Lab Supervisors, Liv B. Larsen and Trine-Lise Kristensen, explain what their new Archiver means to them:

“It solved all our troubles, and it is super-easy to look up samples now! The entire staff has “fallen in love with it” and some of them call the 350A their “best friend’.”

Efficient Searching

The 350A is archiving about 1100 samples per day in Drammen Hospital. The location of every sample (rack and well number) is stored in the 350A’s in-built database, which is accessible from any PC in the laboratory’s network.

“Storing samples and searching for samples is much quicker with the 350A than before. It cannot be compared, it is a different world!”

Cost Saving

On the 350A, tubes are capped with a foil seal before they are transferred to a storage rack. This saves lab staff from work-related injuries and stress, since they don’t have to re-cap tubes. There is also some saving on the cost of caps, but the main saving is in time. Staff have been freed up, so they can now spend time on more productive tasks.

Easy Training and Setup

Ms. Larsen and Ms. Kristensen also commented that all staff found it “surprisingly easy” to train on. In fact, they enthused, “we have never had an instrument that everyone accepted and learned this fast before! We started it in routine straight after installation.”

Overall, the consensus from the biochemistry lab at Drammen hospital is that the PathFinder 350A Archiver is: “easy-to-use”, “fast” and creates “very satisfied laboratory personnel”.

Architect^® is a registered trademark of Abbott Laboratories.