For Immediate Release

February 11, 2004

Mercy Robot Revolutionizes Safety in Blood Tests

Oklahoma City—With a new fully automated lab system-the only one of its kind in the state-Mercy is now able to provide blood test results with greater accuracy.

"Automation means fewer people are handling blood specimens fewer times and that means there is a much less chance for misidentification of a patient's blood," said Sally Carter, MT (ASCP) SC, Mercy medical technologist and chemistry supervisor. "The robot reads the bar code on every tube of blood over and over again, more than five times, whereas before technologists could only physically read it once."

With the 24-hour Bayer Diagnostics automated system, there is only one bar-coded tube to track versus multiple tubes. "Before, we had to hand-pour blood into various tubes then re-label each tube if we needed to perform tests on more than one analyzer," said Carter. "Now a robot places one bar-coded tube on a conveyor belt and the tube is sent down a track as mechanical arms dip into the blood to do different types of tests at various intervals along the track."

Besides providing blood, urine and other bodily fluid tests quicker, the Bayer system can provide more than 100 tests per test tube and can test up to 400 samples per hour. But one of its best features is the robot's ability to run tests on blood after the fact, when a physician later decides he needs additional tests on a patient.

"This is what's absolutely space age," said Carter. "Without any human intervention, the robot goes and finds the tube, puts it back on the track and sends it to the correct instrument for additional tests. Before, we had to take the written order and physically find the tube in our walk-in refrigerator, then run the tests. With our robot, it takes half the time and for our patients in an emergency situation, every second counts."

The system's efficiency will allow Mercy lab technologists to do what they were trained to do-develop new tests that they previously didn't have the time or manpower for. Several years ago, Mercy was one of the first healthcare facilities in the nation to provide limited automated hepatitis tests. Today, Mercy can provide hepatitis C and hepatitis B antigen and antibody tests within an hour. Most facilities require 24 to 48 hours. In the near future with Mercy's new robot, Mercy will be able to do full hepatitis B and HIV testing within an hour, in contrast to anywhere from two days up to a week for most facilities nationwide.

"With this new Bayer technology, our chemistry lab is now 80 percent automated," said Dr. Damien Kistler, pathologist and medical director of Mercy Lab. "We combined many steps into one. We previously had nine different workstations, but now we have one. For patients, it means greater accuracy with their tests and the analysis of their blood."

Mercy Health Center is a member of Mercy Health System of Oklahoma and the Sisters of Mercy Health System-St. Louis.

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