omation mbers - Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening

9:00 am Wednesday, February 4 Clinical – POC Room C1
Louis Dunka
LifeScan
1000 Gibraltar Drive
Milpitas, California 95035-6314
ldunka@lfsus.jnj.com
Clinical Outcomes From Point of Care Connectivity
Several studies have been reported which demonstrate the benefits of Point of Care Connectivity in the areas of
workflow, regulatory compliance and financail outcomes. Efforts over the past few years have resulted in standards
for interfaces for Point of Care devices. At the same time, multi-analyte vendor nuetral data management systems
have become available. The confluence of these events has resulted in a an opportunity to look at data at both
the data manager level and the Lab Information Sytem level to understand how better patient outcomes can be
achieved. Examples of these efforts to turn data into actionable information include examination of insulin dosing
practices on patients with diabetes at two hospitals, using data from the LIS, resulting in a significant simplifaction
of standard practices, resulting in better patient care. In another example, data was extracted from the LIS to
compare lab glucose results to results obtained on patients home blood glucose monitors within a 10 minute
period in an outpatient clinic. This allowed an assessment of the comparability of the results and a retraining of the
patient or replacement of the blood glucose monitor, where necessary. A third study looked at when glucose tests
had been performed by the lab and by fingerstick at the patient’s bedside within 15 minutes of each other. Analysis
of the data allowed a change in standard practice which allowed the hospital to minimize the number of times a
patient is tested.
9:30 am Wednesday, February 4 Clinical – POC Room C1
Frederick Kiechle
William Beaumont Hospital
3601 W. 13 Mile
Royal Oak, Michigan 48073
fkiechle@beaumont.edu
Compliance, Connectivity, and POCT
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Co-Author(s)
Leana Salka
Recently we implemented POCT connectivity using the Remote Automated Laboratory System (RALS Plus),
which linked 61 glucose testing sites, 120 glucose meters, and 3,500 operators to a data management system. To
determine the impact of connectivity on the glucose POCT program, software features such as operator lockout,
quality control lockout, and the labor cost for the POCT coordinator were evaluated for a period of 3 months
before and after its implementation. Operator and quality control lockout decreased nursing labor costs by $45.44
every 3 months and POCT coordinator labor costs by $760.89 every 3 months. RALS Plus software reduced
the labor cost of managing the Inform glucose meter database. The POCT coordinator’s labor cost to download
updated data manually from the laptop to the Accu-Data GTS was reduced by $1,043.79. RALS Plus was
interfaced bidirectionally with the hospital information system. When the Inform database is docked in the base
unit, the results download automatically using an infrared sensor to the hospital information system, thus reducing
clerical errors associated with manual result entry and labor costs to nursing by $32,627.90 every 3 months and
to the POCT coordinator by $468.24 every 3 months. In conclusion, POC connectivity reduces error, increases
program compliance, and decrease POCT coordinator and nursing costs. POC connectivity resulted in a total
annual cost savings of $119,095.00
PODIUM ABSTRACTS