MES contract improves laboratory workflow at London trust
Deal between Abbott and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust ensures service continues
The Division of Infection and Immunity at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has entered into a managed service contract with Abbott covering laboratory solutions.
Consultant virologist Mark Atkins said of the move: “The trust has a catchment of almost 1.5 million people and so it is vital that all our equipment functions as it should, or a backlog will quickly develop. The full automation offered by the ARCHITECT platform and other systems gives us the throughput and flexibility to deliver a high-quality, efficient service for our clinicians. The lab simply wouldn’t work without them.”
The benefits of the contract were demonstrated during the recent merger of microbiology, virology and immunology services into a single blood sciences group within the trust.
”Our Abbott facilities manager was instrumental in this merger, co-ordinating the transfer of equipment so that it did not interrupt services or have an impact on patients,” said Atkins. “The team also helped us to develop more efficient combined workflows, listening to our needs and delivering solutions that matched our requirements. For example, we are now running syphilis assays on our ARCHITECT systems, meaning all antenatal samples can be run on a single analyser, and we can also run a high-performance HIV test on this platform.”
Rebecca Stalham, marketing and contracts director at Abbott, added: “A managed service contract provides trusts with a cost-effective, guaranteed service, allowing laboratory staff to focus on high-value work which ultimately leads to better patient care, and we are happy this model is working so well for the trust.”