Lam Choong Weng, Jacob Edward
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Alexandra Hospital, Singapore.
J Lab Autom. 2012 Feb;17(1):16-23. doi: 10.1177/2211068211430186.
Laboratories today face increasing pressure to automate their operations as they are challenged by a continuing increase in workload, need to reduce expenditure, and difficulties in recruitment of experienced technical staff. Was the implementation of a laboratory automation system (LAS) in the Clinical Biochemistry Laboratory at Singapore General Hospital successful? There is no simple answer, so the following topics comparing and contrasting pre- and post-LAS have been explored: turnaround time (TAT), laboratory errors, and staff satisfaction. The benefits and limitations of LAS from the laboratory experience were also reviewed. The mean TAT for both stat and routine samples decreased post-LAS (30% and 13.4%, respectively). In the 90th percentile TAT chart, a 29% reduction was seen in the processing of stat samples on the LAS. However, no significant difference in the 90th percentile TAT was observed with routine samples. It was surprising to note that laboratory errors increased post-LAS. Considerable effort was needed to overcome the initial difficulties associated with adjusting to a new system, new software, and new working procedures. Although some of the known advantages and limitations of LAS have been validated, the claimed benefits such as improvements in TAT, laboratory errors, and staff morale were not evident in the initial months.
如今，实验室面临着越来越大的自动化运营压力，因为它们受到工作量持续增加、需要削减开支以及招聘经验丰富技术人员困难的挑战。新加坡总医院临床生物化学实验室实施实验室自动化系统（LAS）是否成功？没有简单的答案，因此探讨了以下比较和对比LAS前后情况的主题：周转时间（TAT）、实验室误差和员工满意度。还回顾了实验室经验中LAS的优点和局限性。LAS实施后，急诊和常规样本的平均TAT均有所下降（分别下降了30%和13.4%）。在第90百分位数TAT图表中，LAS上急诊样本的处理时间减少了29%。然而，常规样本在第90百分位数TAT上没有观察到显著差异。值得注意的是，LAS实施后实验室误差增加了。需要付出相当大的努力来克服与适应新系统、新软件和新工作程序相关的初始困难。尽管LAS的一些已知优点和局限性已经得到验证，但在最初几个月，TAT改善、实验室误差减少和员工士气提高等声称的好处并不明显。
