What are the issues with current blood sampling methods?
Producing a high quality sample is crucial to yielding an accurate test result. Its even more difficult when obtaining such samples from Infants, elderly and critically ill patients that require a venous micro collection.
Below are some common mishaps that occur in current blood sampling systems and a solution to improve safety standards and quality of care for both patients, health workers, and laboratory tests.
Two Methods Currently Used for Blood Sampling
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USA uses a minimal vacuum tube of 3ml, or draw by syringe and transfer to another tube or possibly more for equipment compatibility.
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Europe uses a manually generated vacuum syringe-tube (Sarstedt/Monovette). Special equipment is required for analysis.
Both Methods Have Problems
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Requires user to be skilled in drawing fragile patients
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Pre-applied additives require multiple SKU’s
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Vacuum tubes have excessive force to increase product shelf life; this may damage blood
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Vacuum tubes collect up to ten times the amount of blood needed for tests
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Increased danger of damaged blood (hemolysis) from systems that utilize manually generated force
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Samples must to be collected per the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Guidelines GP41-A6 (formerly H3-A6, 6th Edition) which include:
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Samples need to be collected in proper order
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Samples need to be manually mixed in proper procedure
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Samples are manually labeled and prone to errors
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Open systems require blood transfer, which creates additional risk of needle-stick injuries or blood splashing to technicians as well as potential for contamination
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Additional components may be required per patient needs such as smaller syringes and specialized pediatric tubes
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Mixing components from different manufactures can create a problem
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Current systems are difficult to draw multiple blood samples
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Preexisting vacuum or manually produced vacuum may be too strong for patients causing collapsed veins, nerve damage, hematoma, hemolysis, etc.
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Due to air in tubing of a wing-set, if used in connection with vacuum tubes, a discard tube needs to be collected first. This increases unneeded blood volume
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Present devices can not eliminate hemolysis, therefore instrumentation accommodates a certain percentage of hemolysis. A cleaner specimen will provide superiors results.
Introducing Automated Micro-Volume Collection System
The solution to improve safety standards and quality of care for both patients, health workers, and laboratory tests
The Micro-Volume Collection Device (AMVC) Resolves Current Problems
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Eliminates additional SKUs by using two generic micro-collection tubes
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AMVC Micro-collection tubes adhere to current CAP regulations of 300um to 1000um of volume
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Regardless of patient needs, no additional components are needed
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Each type of tube is customized with the appropriate anticoagulant or additive at the point of collection.
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The blood is mixed with the anticoagulant immediately, optimizing the specimen quality and eliminating the possibility of human error
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Vacuum is generated in the tube at the point of collection, accommodating patient needs and providing a cleaner specimen
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Generated vacuum eliminates the need for expiration dates and the resulting expense of discarded supplies
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The system is closed, resulting in samples sent straight to laboratory without the need for blood transfer. Resulting in a safer quality sample
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The device is interfaced with the Hospital and Laboratory Information systems, thereby ensuring positive patient identification
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This LIS/device interface also ensures that the specimens are collected in the correct sequence, without any interaction by the health care provider
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The collected specimens are labeled by the device before they can be removed, eliminating the possibility of mislabeling
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The collected specimens are fully compatible with all current laboratory instrumentation and are seamlessly integrated into the workflow without any special handling.
Results
For the Patient-
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Cleaner sample quality = better, more accurate results
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Minimal blood volumes are collected, thereby minimizing the possibility of hospital-acquired anemia and prolonged recuperations or other complications
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The AMVC system alleviates the need for repeat blood draw
For the Hospital-
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No waste caused by expiration of supplies, no need to rotate supplies, less room needed for storage of a variety of collection tubes
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Closed system keeping health care workers at less risk
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HIS/LIS interface ensures regulatory compliance and resulting patient safety
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Reduced exposure to liability claims due to the complete audit trail documentation for the specimen collection
For the Vendor-
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Reduced production costs
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Increased profits