By Kelley Weiss
Kansas City, MO – The University of Kansas Hospital is using a fully-automated lab now to process blood tests. Hospital officials say this improves accuracy, saves time and cuts costs. KCUR's Kelley Weiss reports.
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The University of Kansas hospital is using a fully-automated lab now to process blood tests. Hospital officials say this improves accuracy, saves time and cuts costs. KCUR's Kelley Weiss reports.
The robotics and conveyor belt system scans bar codes on blood specimens, puts it in a centrifuge, tests it and evaluates the results without a human ever touching it.
Dr. Lowell Tilzer, KU's medical director of clinical laboratories, says the automated system cuts the processing time in half, from a couple hours to a half hour.
Dr. Lowell Tilzer: "Since there is no human intervention and since the automated equipment is so quick that the length of time can be shortened easily."
Tilzer says the more efficient system allows the medical technologists overseeing the process to focus on analyzing samples instead of running the equipment. This, he says, means patients get results faster. Tilzer says KU is the first hospital in the area to have a fully-automated lab like this but he expects many hospitals to soon adopt this technology because of the benefits.
Funding for health care coverage on KCUR has been provided by the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City.
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