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Investing in cutting-edge technology can seem costly at first glance, and often there’s more than the sticker cost to consider. When purchasing a CBC analyzer, it’s crucial that you look beyond the cost per test or the cost of the machine and instead calculate the total cost of ownership.
So, what exactly can you expect with CBC analyzer prices and their total cost of ownership?
Multiple factors go into financing laboratory equipment that can drive up the total cost of ownership per year. Obvious requirements like supplies and service plans are expected quantifiable line items. But unseen factors like staffing requirements, maintenance, outages, and quality checks can chip away at a department’s time and resources.
Here are four additional factors to consider and how the HemoScreen from PixCell Medical can help balance the budget compared to competitors.
Consumables associated with traditional analyzers include lysing agents, diluents, cleaning solutions, and other expensive reagents. Machines must be frequently sanitized and recalibrated to maintain strict quality control standards.
Reagents come in all sizes from 500mL vials to 20L barrels – and all have a set expiry date after opening. Depending on the product, expiration is typically between two weeks and two months. Labs must discard unused supplies and account for the wastage during budgeting and ordering.
Facilities require personnel and time dedicated to assessing inventory for expired items and ordering replacements, adding yet another cost to consider when calculating CBC analyzer prices.
You can expect HemoScreen to streamline the inventory management processes. Each HemoScreen cartridge is single-use and disposable. They require no external reagents, cleaning chemicals, or diluents. Everything you need is contained within the cartridge, which simplifies ordering and accounting and prevents the waste of unused reagents. You can replace barrels of reagents with HemoScreen’s single-use pre-calibrate cartridges for fast, easy, and accurate CBC analysis with 5-part WBC differentials.
According to CLIA’88 (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988), the laboratory must test, at a minimum, two levels of external QC materials each day it performs a moderately complex test. As CBC is considered a moderately complex test, labs across the US perform usually 3 (levels) additional tests as part of the QA process. Running an external control does not end by just performing the test but requires analyzing the results often re-running some of them and documenting it. This requires experience and some technical skills and therefore training.
Due to the high turnover existing in lab technicians training and retraining take up significant operational resources. The same applies to maintenance procedures such as cleaning, calibrating, and setting up/warming up a CBC analyzer which can quickly add up, wasting valuable time.
HemoScreen is the only hematology analyzer that qualifies for an Individualized Quality Control Plan (IQCP). IQCP is a recent CLIA QC procedure that offers labs an alternate QC option eventually reducing QC frequency significantly. As the HemoScreen requires no maintenance procedures or calibration that require running QC as well as employing dozens of internal electronic controls, an IQCP plan can be adopted by each lab after performing a comprehensive risk management analysis. Consequently, it is possible to reach a QC run frequency of once a month with this unique analyzer.
HemoScreen virtually eliminates downtime for errors, maintenance, and troubleshooting. Staff can immediately resolve most processing errors by loading a sample into a new cartridge and re-running the analysis.
HemoScreen’s small size and portability also allow it to be relocated without re-calibration. The device can be moved throughout multiple departments, clinics, or facilities without adding to operational costs.
Qualified and properly trained staff are essential for all types of analyzers. Generally, CBC analyzers are classified as “moderately complex” by CLIA.
High-complexity testing requirements encompass several areas, including facility administration, personnel qualifications, quality assurance, proficiency testing, and more, which can contribute to the device’s total cost of ownership. This is especially true during medical technical shortages.
As a moderately complex CLIA device, a variety of medical professionals are eligible for HemoScreen training and use. This versatility allows for flexibility in staffing considerations, which affects department overhead and resources.
Qualified staff can be trained to use HemoScreen in as little as 30 minutes, and groups of up to 4 staff members can complete training in about an hour. HemoScreen only requires half the time for initial training compared to other analyzers.
Annual refresher training for HemoScreen aligns with most facility competency requirements. Training can be easily integrated into an internal education management system for simplified competency renewal and tracking.
CBC analyzers are typically subject to additional expenses related to annual service fees and preventative maintenance contracts. Instrument service plans are essential to maintaining QC compliance for typical lab machines. Any planned downtime for regular serving causes delays in test processing, and unforeseen issues requiring service by a technician could result in catastrophic disruptions to patient care.
As a cartridge-based device, HemoScreen’s unique system design makes service and maintenance for quality control easy and infrequent compared to other hematology analyzers.
Are you curious how HemoScreen can impact your department’s budget and resources? If you are weighing CBC analyzer prices and trying to decide what is the most strategic choice for your facility, HemoScreen’s unique cartridge-based platform can cut operational costs by reducing the overall quality control, inventory, administrative, and workflow burdens in busy emergency departments, laboratories, and clinics.
Contact PixCell Medical for a demo and let us walk you through calculating the exact cost of ownership! We will show you how investing in a single new machine can reduce costs associated with staffing, inventory, training, quality control, and more.
(*) Please note: training must be defined by local, state and federal regulations. In the USA, training is defined for CLIA moderate complexity devices.
