This is a companion article to the feature, “Implementing Laboratory Automation.”
Clinical labs seeking to implement new or upgraded automation can benefit from taking a stepwise approach that incorporates the following key elements.
- Align the project plan to meet the business, strategic, and clinical goals of the automation initiative.
- Understand the lab’s current productivity—what it does well, what it needs to improve, and what potential exists for all aspects of automation to help the lab achieve its goals.
- Engineer the best solution, considering all of the above factors to best meet the lab’s goals.
- Manage people and processes to the plan.
- Stay on track by monitoring and managing to specific milestones.
- Measure the achievements of the project against its goals beginning on Day 1; continue measuring to identify further opportunities to improve workflow as well as the reliability and accuracy of clinical results.
