The CHU de Québec, among the biggest health care institutions in Canada, has installed the WASPLab specimen-processing system in its Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus, one of the five hospitals forming the institution.
WASPLab, is from COPAN Diagnostics Inc, Murrieta, Calif.
The system’s hardware was installed in less than a week, minimizing disruption to routine laboratory operations and ensuring the go-live time was dramatically shortened.
“The Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus is the first health care services provider to install and implement WASPLab in North America,” says Jean-François Gagnon, microbiology laboratory manager, Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus. “This technology allows us to be more effective and efficient in our lab, which is very important from a budget point of view. It also allows us to face the shortage of qualified staff and appoint them to value-added tasks.
“Like most microbiology labs, we have a limited amount of space but with COPAN’s WASPLab solution however, it allows us to bring in the latest technology for specimen processing, robotics, image analysis, and digital reporting without having to tear down our lab,” he adds.
The system allows standardization of planting, streaking, and specimen processing; decreases risk of errors; and lowers repetitive stress related to repeated movement for the hospital’s staff members, says Dr Alain Paradis, chief microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at the hospital.
Norman Sharples, CEO, COPAN Diagnostics, says the system moves microbiology from what was essentially a batch process to an efficient and continuous automated flow from sample processing to incubation, reading, interpretation, work-up, and reporting.
The system’s modular design and small footprint made it customizable for the hospital’s needs in terms of technology and lab space constraints. The high-efficiency footprint eliminates unnecessary track, increasing speed of positive culture plate availability, saving costs, reducing maintenance, and avoiding the artificial barriers extensive track creates within the lab, Sharples says.
COPAN will showcase WASPLab during AACC Clinical Lab Expo in Houston in July 2013, at booth number 3058.
[Source: COPAN]
