The cost-effective, cloud-based middleware solution helps low-volume laboratories streamline processes and minimize costs

Beckman Coulter has announced the U.S. release of its DxONE Workflow Manager, the first and only cloud-based middleware offered by a major in-vitro diagnostics organization, designed to help low-volume laboratories deliver timely results for patient care by enhancing consistency, accuracy and efficiency. Laboratories today are under increased pressure to manage costs and resources, while balancing increasing test volumes. With a limited number of middleware solutions on the market available to support low-volume laboratories, DxONE Workflow Manager fills an industry need to help these laboratories streamline workflow and maximize staff time.

“DxONE Workflow Manager is very user-friendly with everything consolidated to one screen. Before going live, we had to sort through multiple tabs within our Laboratory Information System to review and release our results,” said Ali Cooper, lab manager, Jefferson Hospital, Louisville, Georgia. “Now, we can autoverify results which reduces our turnaround time and optimizes our limited resources, making it much faster to get critical information into the hands of our providers. In fact, we have seen a more than 27% improvement in turnaround time and a 23% reduction in labor associated with processing samples since implementing the system.”

With DxONE Workflow Manager, laboratories are able to standardize workflows, automate processes and consolidate information. Technologists can manage samples by exception using autoverification, meaning only those samples that fall outside predefined ranges require manual review. Standardizing autoverification rules and automatic reflex testing promotes consistency, and integrating quality control processes supports testing accuracy with less workflow burden.

“Middleware plays a significant role in using process automation to improve turnaround time and staff efficiency. Historically, there have been barriers to implementing middleware systems in low-volume laboratories, such as up-front costs and lack of IT infrastructure in both hardware and personnel,” said Erik Johnson, Beckman Coulter’s vice president and general manager of workflow and informatics. “Our DxONE Workflow Manager solution has made the benefits of middleware accessible to low-volume laboratories by leveraging cloud-based deployment. This enables laboratories to utilize their existing IT hardware while requiring very little support from hospital IT personnel. These benefits create a total cost of ownership that makes sense for low-volume laboratories given the significant turnaround time and efficiency benefits.”

The system features an intuitive interface designed for ease of use, featuring visual cues that facilitate rapid decision making. From a single screen, technologists get an at-a-glance view of ordering information and patient demographics. Comments and flags are readily visible, alerting users to required actions, based on laboratory-defined criteria. A sample-status overview feature directs immediate focus to items in need of attention. Patient-associated results are consolidated on one screen—organized in graphs and by historical data—strengthening the utility of information for operational and patient-care decisions.

With the integration of DxONE Workflow Manager into their critical functions, laboratories can standardize and automate workflows across Beckman Coulter’s chemistry, immunoassay and hematology platforms. The release of DxONE Workflow Manager builds upon Beckman Coulter’s middleware solutions, which include REMISOL Advance for higher volume laboratories, and expands the company’s DxONE portfolio—a suite of informatics solutions designed to help laboratories improve their operational efficiencies.

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