“A ROBUST METHOD FOR REDUCING SAMPLE RETRIEVAL TAT IN CLINICAL LABORATORY SETUP AT ZERO ADDED INVESTMENT.”

Background: The concept of Total Laboratory Automation (TLA) is shifting towards the automation in individual process i.e., Task Targeted automation (TTA). Sample storage is one of the key areas in the Total Testing Process (TTP), hence we developed a robust method to reduce the TAT for blood sample retrieval in clinical biochemistry laboratory with zero added investment. We compared the sample retrieval time (TAT) improvement in sample retrieval with the old conventional and the new method of sample storage. Material and method: study was conducted at a medium-large scale lab with average sample of 1000-1200 per day. The blood sample vacutainers are stored in the refrigerator at controlled temperature for the duration of 48hrs as the lab policy. We requested the technicians to retrieve 10 patient samples from the storage for the duration of 5 days, with different person allotted each day. The samples for day were stored and retrieved the requested sample by conventional & new method. Result: our new method has shown a good improvement in the TAT for the retrieval of the stored blood sample for the retesting or the added parameter for testing on request. The conventional method had an average time to identify and retrieve sample was 9.2mins, which was significantly decreased to 1.4mins with the new method of sample storage and retrieval system. Conclusion: Study emphasis this procedure / process will help the small and medium scale laboratories in having a robust method of sample storage and retrieval at a very short TAT with a minimal or no extra investment.