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Accelerating Testing Processes: KGMU to introduce automated sample transport system
“This will help speed up tests for patients. We shall begin implementing this system in the trauma centre, where serious patients are treated and admitted,” said KGMU vice chancellor Prof Soniya Nityanand.
As King George’s Medical University (KGMU) prepares to modernise the transportation of pathology samples from the on-campus ward, attendants accompanying patients can now expect a smoother and more efficient process with the shift from manual to automated systems.
A pneumatic tube system (PTS) will soon transport lab specimens from the ward to the lab with the help of a vacuum tube set up between the lab and other areas of the hospital. This system facilitates the immediate transport of samples, which, in a manual system, can take time, sometimes up to an hour, as staff only pick up samples at designated times.
“This will help speed up tests for patients. We shall begin implementing this system in the trauma centre, where serious patients are treated and admitted,” said KGMU vice chancellor Prof Soniya Nityanand.
The KGMU trauma centre receives over 400 patients in a 24-hour period, and almost every patient requires pathology tests, often needing multiple tests. Attendees typically visit for the first time, so they can be seen wandering with syringes or vials filled with samples from one floor to another in search of the pathology department. Delay in delivering samples to pathology can spoil the samples.
Under the new system, a vacuum tube is installed along the walls (from wards to pathology) with openings at pathology and other designated wards. Samples are placed in specific-sized boxes and positioned at the mouth of the tube in the ward. At the press of a button, all samples are lifted by vacuum pressure and transported to a point in pathology, where staff immediately retrieve and process them. The reports are then uploaded onto the computer.
The system can transport all samples from the ward to pathology.
