Modernisation of the blood test platform
Our laboratory, which has been centralised at the Belval site since June 2015, is fitted with the finest high-tech equipment. These facilities ensure we can offer patients and doctors ever increasing reliability, security and speed of results.
The relocation of our laboratory provided the opportunity to modernise the equipment on our blood test platform, which handles more than 4,000 tubes every day.
The new automated track system developed by GLP Systems (Germany) stretches across 200 m and covers all three levels of the laboratory, which are linked by a spiral system so that the samples can travel down. Nineteen analysers are connected to the track to perform tests and two refrigerated cabinets, each with 10,000 slots, are used to store the tubes. This investment has made Ketterthill the fourth laboratory in the world to acquire such advanced equipment, as well as the first and only laboratory in Luxembourg.
Automation of the Bacteriology Department
Since 2011, a number of the analysis techniques used by our Bacteriology Department have been automated, as is the case for identification of bacteria using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. This technique significantly reduces growth time, while identification is achieved in a mere 30 seconds, compared to four to eight hours using traditional methods.
The Bacteriology Department is now also home to a new automated track system developed by Kiestra (Netherlands), which automates the seeding, incubation and interpretation processes.
Technology committed to mankind
Even though automation plays a key role in laboratories today, human intervention and the professional expertise of our technicians and biologists remain pivotal. They are present in particular at the crucial stages of analysis checking and interpretation of results.
This automation of procedures has helped the laboratory in a number of areas:
- Reducing repetitive and tedious tasks
- Increasing technician safety
- Boosting the quality of our results through greater uniformity of practices
- Significantly reducing analysis time to offer patients an improved care experience
More than 30 technicians and 7 biologists make up the laboratory’s medico-technical team