Butler Health System | Health Link | Fall 2020

Top-notch testing The future is indeed bright for the Butler Hospital Laboratory. At the beginning of the year, we were working hard on modernization plans that had been set in motion years before—when we searched the U.S. and Europe for equipment that would prepare us for future challenges. As a result, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we already had four instruments that could test for the virus in our own laboratory. Although nationwide supply issues made getting testing materials for the machines difficult, we were able to get enough to ensure in-house testing for all of our patients and health care providers in the hospital. This was an essential piece of keeping our community and staff as safe as possible during the pandemic. First in the nation We were proud to recently unveil our new Beckman DXA 5000 Automation Laboratory Line, another one of the projects we continued to work on during the pandemic. It is a best-in-class system, and Butler Memorial Hospital is the first hospital installation of this system in the U.S. It was built to our exact speci- fications in Munich, Germany, and then reassembled here. The line also includes new state-of-the-art chemistry, immunology and hematology analyzers. See for yourself! Watch our video at ButlerHealthSystem.org/Video-Library/Pathology . Robert B. Patterson, MD, MPH; Chairman, Department of Pathology; Medical Director of Laboratory for testing to be done the fastest. If there is a problem with the sample, this remarkable system identifies it within the first few seconds. Laboratories that have used the system overseas have reported that testing times have been reduced by up to 25%. The overall benefits to patients and the community include reduced wait times in the emer- gency room and faster diagnoses with reduced length of hospital stays. Also on the horizon is the third phase of our modernization plan, which includes technology to dramatically reduce the time it takes to accurately diagnose infections, such as blood stream infections (sepsis). Stay tuned for more! So what does this automation line do for us? Quite a lot, actually. Using robotics, cameras, lasers and artificial intelligence, it reduces testing times, improves patient safety by dramatically reducing possible manual errors, and makes our highly trained medical technologists more efficient with their time. Fast and accurate When a tube of blood is placed in the system, within the first three seconds it will detect the tube type, read the cap color, measure the amount of blood in the tube, weigh the sample, scan the barcode label and know all of the tests that have been ordered. It also determines which machines to send the blood to first e Giving blood The need for blood doesn’t go away during a pandemic. It doesn’t take much time, and every donation has the power to save up to three lives. To find a donation center near you, visit vitalant.org . Source: AABB ButlerHealthSystem.org | 3