HORIBA Medical has recently upgraded the haematology analysers at the pathology lab of Synergy Health Laboratory Services (SHLS) in Abergavenny, Wales to 3 larger ABX Pentra 120 Retic systems. As a specialist provider of outsourced healthcare services covering a range of routine haematology, microbiology, virology and toxicology analytical services, SHLS has seen its workload increase significantly over the past 4 years and identified a need for haematology analysers that could handle peak workloads of up to 1,300 samples a day. With the new ABX Pentra 120 Retic's in situ, the laboratory at SHLS is able to happily process up to 3,000 samples a week with the spare capacity to expand and take on more! 

Installed 6 weeks ago, the ABX Pentra 120 Retic's replace 3 existing ABX Pentra 80 analysers. "Our ABX Pentra 80 analysers were ideal when we were managing 500 samples a week", explains Andy Walker, National Laboratory Services Manager, Synergy Health. "However, they could not cope with our increased workload and we needed to upgrade to gain the speed and throughput necessary. Having had HORIBA Medical analysers in our lab for a number of years, we knew we could trust the company to find a suitable solution, with technology and instruments we already know work well."  

The new ABX Pentra 120 Retics's allow for increased throughput capacity to achieve an even quicker turnaround time. As part of their analytical services, the lab at SHLS provides haematology testing for occupational health and environmental screening as well as supporting the safety monitoring of patients for pharmaceutical companies. This requires results to be available the same day they are processed in order to enable dosing decisions to be made by physicians. Patient samples are received by post and are therefore at least 24 hours old when they are processed. With a robust differential, the ABX Pentra 120 Retic analysers are performing well for the laboratory even with aged samples up to 72 hours old.  

The ability to handle sample degradation as a result of delays incurred with postal and courier deliveries and still ensure that the daily workload can be processed and results provided by the end of the day was an essential factor in choosing new analysers. "On average we receive 700-800 samples a day, but there are peaks where we can have up to 1,300 samples to process. Our technicians work from 8.30am to 5pm and our shiny new ABX Pentra 120 Retic's enable them to complete their work and go home on time, everyday", explains Andy Walker. "Our bottle neck is no longer with queuing for the analyser, but at sample reception. We can't open the post fast enough!"  

By connecting directly and smoothly with the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) data is easily available following sample analysis. "Since the ABX Pentra 120 Retic's use the same interface as the previous ABX Pentra 80's, installation at SHLS was as easy and pain free as swapping out the old for the new. This is the first time this has ever genuinely happened in my experience." 

"With the ABX Pentra 120 Retic haematology analysers in place, we have the throughput capacity to increase our workload but also, with the reticulocyte mode, we can increase our analysis repertoire and broaden our capability offering." concludes Andy Walker. "The team is extremely happy, singing the praises of the ABX Pentra 120 Retic and HORIBA Medical who worked so well with us."

For further information please visit www.horiba.com/uk/medical