New laboratory automation system opens

DOHA: A new Laboratory Automation System was officially opened by Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari in Hamad General Hospital (HGH) yesterday.

The system handles and analyses a large volume of specimens and can accommodate up to 96,000 tests a day.

The computerised control system allows more functionality such as quality control monitoring, auto verification of results and the ability to collect data for further improvements.

“The new system will improve efficiencies, reduce turnaround time for tests to be returned and, more importantly, ensure high quality patient safety is maintained, thanks to the automation process,” said Dr Al Kuwari.

“This is another example that shows HMC’s commitment to improve the care patients receive by developing excellence in healthcare in Qatar through high quality and an efficiency of service, something that was recently recognised when HMC became the first healthcare system across the globe to have all of its hospitals accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI) under the Academic Medical Centre programme,” she added.

The new system, in place since September 2015, also allows add-on orders to be completed electronically without human intervention and includes a compartment with a capacity of 15,000 tubes for storing varied specimens.

This extra capacity is proving very useful when coping with the high number of blood test requests received from all over the country.

“As the population grows, we are receiving more and more requests for tests and this type of analyser allows us to perform up to 110 types.

“The new system ensures we provide a very efficient service for our patients and our external partners such as Army clinic, Police clinic, Medical Commission, Qatar Petroleum, Aspetar Hospital, Primary Health Care Centre and private hospitals.

“This also means we can reduce the time it takes for tests to be competed from 24 hours to an average of three for routine orders,” said Dr Ajayab Al Nabet, Chairperson,  Department of Laboratory, Medicine and Pathology, HGH.The Peninsula

New laboratory automation system opens