The gynaecology emergency room and assessment unit at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust is using a new tool to improve the diagnosis of conditions that cause pain and bleeding in early pregnancy.
The trust is using Radiometer’s AQT90 FLEX to carry out rapid βhCG testing.
Ward manager, Joanne Jennings, said: “We treat up to 20,000 patients a year for pain and bleeding in early pregnancy, and βhCG testing is a crucial tool in helping us provide accurate clinical diagnoses. Because we are a specialist acute hospital, we used to send patient samples to a neighbouring hospital for testing. The resulting delay meant patients either had to be sent home to await results or, in high risk cases, they would be admitted until results were available. We wanted to establish point-of-care βhCG testing in order to improve our patient care.”
Staff are now able to get βhCG results in 18 minutes. Ruth Stubbs, matron for gynaecology, said: “Point-of-care testing has significantly improved the experience for our patients. We are now able to talk through the results with the patient almost immediately, and this face¬-to-¬face discussion helps to reduce anxiety and improves understanding. Being able to perform this test within the department has also reduced the administration burden for requesting and reporting, giving staff more time to care for patients.”