HERSHEY, Pa. — A brand new, $1.5 million upgrade will increase fivefold the capacity of the powerhouse clinical testing lab at Penn State Health St. Joseph Medical Center.
The Beckman Coulter DxA 5000 system, which went live in April, can test 4,500 samples every hour, improving accuracy and alleviating issues related to limited staffing at the lab.
“It has the ability to grow the test volumes as well as expand the tests it can run,” said chemistry manager Osiris Urquilla. “Having this automation allows us to keep up with the needs of our health system and significantly expand what we can do in-house.”
The system received 501(K) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019. Linda Gallagher, regional laboratory director for Lancaster and St. Joseph medical centers, and her associates set their sights on purchasing it when it first came on the market. By 2022, they received approval — with the $1.5 million investment fully funded through philanthropic dollars and support guided by the development office at St. Joseph Medical Center.
What St. Joseph Medical Center’s lab does in-house already powers laboratory analysis for much of Penn State Health and beyond. The lab serves over 500 clients, including Penn State Health Hampden, Holy Spirit and Lancaster medical centers and many Penn State Health Medical Group outpatient locations.
“Our lab personnel will always be our most valuable resource, even with this new, automated system in place,” she said. “This system greatly reduces the number of rote tasks for our lab techs – going from 32 manual steps to just four required for sample processing. It will help us manage our ever-increasing productivity demands, reduce the risks of the most common pre-analytic errors and improve our lab’s performance. And all that creates a much more positive working environment for our team.”
The future of high-volume labs
The tracks of the Beckman Coulter DxA 5000 system are laid out in four lanes — resembling a futuristic mini-highway — that transport test tubes to different chemistry analyzers on the line. The new equipment can differentiate 100 tube types and uses artificial intelligence to determine the most efficient route to get a tube to its intended station.