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ROBOT TESTS BLOOD SAMPLES AT TUCSON VA HOSPITAL
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People no longer need to spin blood samples.
The robot is programmed to do it all.
Story here...
http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5759267&nav=HMO6HMaW
Story below:
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Robot tests blood samples at VA hospital
Southern Arizona's veteran's hospital is using a new automated robot to
improve veterans' care, and it claims it's the only hospital in the
entire country doing it.
Engen, pronounced "engine", is the Southern Arizona VA Medical Center's
new million dollar medical technologist.
It's a robot that handles blood samples.
Dr. Ron Schifman, chief of the medical center's diagnostic service,
says, "Once a sample is put into the robot, it pretty much completes the
entire testing process from the beginning to the end."
At Tucson's VA, people no longer need to spin blood samples, pull caps
off of blood vials, or carry the vials from test to test.
The robot is programmed to do it all.
Schifman says, "The Engen is about an hour faster on average than doing
it manually."
So, he says, doctors and patients get test results quicker with fewer
mistakes.
"We don't have patient sample mixups," he says, "We don't have lost
specimens that we can't find because it's smart enough to know exactly
where that specimen is."
The robot is so smart that it even recognizes when specimen test results
seem suspect and actually sets those aside to be rechecked.
The machine makes blood testing safer for staff.
"Risks such as broken tubes or splashes are reduced to almost zero,"
Schifman says.
Cindy Barger, a Medical Technogist at the hospital, says, "It's allowed
us to increase our workload with less staff and get the job done."
She's worked with and without it and she values her mechanical coworker.
She laughs, "When this instrument has maintenance, it's down for three
days, so we have to go back and then we cry because we want to know,
'Where's our technology?'"
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Larry Scott
