Yorkshire clinic first to install Siemens Immulite 2000 XPi immunoassay system

15 Sept 2010

The Yorkshire Clinic, part of the Ramsay Health Care group, has upgraded its immunoassay system to an Immulite 2000 XPi from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. This is the first installation in a private clinic in the UK.

 It will assist with the rapid turnaround of thyroid, haematinics, gonadotrophins and tumour marker testing.

The system has enabled the hospital to reduce the time it takes to obtain quick and accurate test results. This has aided the long-term strategy of the Ramsay Health Care group to develop the Yorkshire Clinic as its in-house centre for immunoassay testing.

“The upgrade to XPi with improved features such as AutoStart and Auto Rack Loader clearly demonstrated that Siemens had thought deeply during development stages about what would improve workflow and drive efficiencies for a time-pressured lab,” said Mark Harrison, Senior Biomedical Scientist at The Yorkshire Clinic. “AutoStart means that daily maintenance runs automatically — this helps me get 90% of my QC results by 10am meaning a faster time to the first patient result. This is a definite improvement.”

“We were happy with the reliability and functionality of the incumbent system so gaining benefits from the new analyser has been great. You get used to a way of doing things and then equipment innovation opens your eyes to what more can be achieved – this has inspired us to think to the future even more,” he concludes.

A new feature in the Immulite 2000 XPi is the Auto Start function which drives automated routine maintenance and Quality Control (QC) scheduling. This keeps the instrument in a ‘ready to run’ state at all times. The Automated Rack Loader further promotes a smoother workflow by enabling the user to load up sample racks without the need to pause the instrument. Following analysis the samples are then automatically ejected.

Abigail Wynne-Jones, Immunoassay Product Manager at Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, states, “The Yorkshire Clinic is a prime example of how laboratories can gain real business benefits from new equipment and instruments. We are delighted to see that the Ramsay Health Care Group has seen improvements not only in terms of workflow efficiency, but also through the quality of service that they are able to offer their patients.”