Are you doing diagnostics—or logistics?

Is it possible to make truly significant decisions in a short amount of time? Because essential tasks in the high-stakes field of healthcare diagnostics typically require time and deliberate intervention. Manual procedures, subjective visual inspections, and valuable resource time are frequently involved in characterizing a patient sample — confirming its identity, assessing its quality, and guaranteeing its suitability for testing. This extended, hands-on involvement affects turnaround time and, most importantly, leaves room for human error. This is where automation goes beyond speed, especially with Advantaged Workflows. Automation involves enabling the lab to complete thorough sample characterisation in just three seconds with advanced intelligence that automatically reacts to challenges, supports quality, and enhances the consistency and clarity of diagnostic results throughout the process.

The hidden cost of errors: When diagnostic integrity falters early

Every step of the testing process is under tremendous pressure in the fast-paced setting of a diagnostic laboratory due to the sheer volume of samples, growing test complexity, and growing resource limitations. The journey to an accurate diagnosis frequently falters long before the sample ever reaches an analyzer, even though the analytical phase frequently receives the most attention due to its sophisticated methodologies and precision instruments. In actuality, the pre-analytical phase — that is, everything that takes place from the time a sample is collected until it starts analysis — is where a startling majority of laboratory errors occur — estimates suggest up to 70%.¹ Mislabelling, inadequate sample volume, improper tube types, and samples with an unidentified or inappropriate spin status are examples of these silent saboteurs.

In addition to re-draws and lost time, each error carries a hidden cost. A series of unfavorable outcomes could result from each inappropriate sample that passes through:

• Delayed results: Inadequate volume requires a re-draw, a mislabelled tube needs to be correctly identified, and improper tube prioritization can cause important results to be delayed. The timeline for diagnosis and treatment is postponed with each interruption.
• Inaccurate results: Clinicians may be misled in their diagnosis by an unflagged compromised sample, such as one with an incorrect additive ratio because of low volume or an inappropriate spin status.
• Increased workload and cost: Labs must spend more time finding mistakes, interacting with wards, and conducting re-collections and retesting, which require more labor and reagents.
• Patient dissatisfaction and anxiety: Repeated venipunctures can cause discomfort and anxiety and erode patient trust in the healthcare system.²

How can automation address these challenges? Automation is about doing things better, more consistently, and with a direct, positive impact on patient outcomes, especially by addressing the pervasive pre-analytical issues.

Protecting diagnostic quality from the start

To effectively address these complex and compounding challenges, a new approach is required — one that combines flexible instrumentation, scalable automation, and integrated, intuitive informatics solutions — all meticulously designed for laboratories to handle the nuanced demands of modern patient care. This powerful combination is essential for achieving what can be referred to as Advantaged Workflows.

How do Advantaged Workflows transform the laboratory's ability to actively combat pre-analytical errors? It begins with empowering automation with intelligent pre-analytical sample checks — a cornerstone capability applied right at the earliest possible stage. The seamless integration of scalable automation (for efficient sample handling) with sophisticated clinical informatics (for embedded intelligence) means that systems can proactively inspect a sample's integrity (details below), assess its suitability, and manage its journey. This intelligence precisely enables the prevention and mitigation of critical pre-analytical mistakes like mislabelling, insufficient volume, mis-prioritization, incorrect tube types, or inappropriate spin status, ensuring diagnostic quality from the outset.

Precision in seconds: Automation’s vigilance

Imagine a sophisticated automation system that actively and precisely inspects tubes in addition to transporting them. What might occur in a system like this in three seconds? In this moment, a top automation platform can complete a thorough, nine-parameter specimen check. Importantly, this comprehensive characterization takes place in a single multipurpose module before the sample is ever loaded onto the main automation transport line. This is very different from systems that might perform pre-analytical checks directly on the main transport line or spread them across several modules, which can result in needless traffic and bottlenecks. With the use of advanced optical sensors, integrated software, and camera technology, an automation platform can do the following:

• Verify identity and context: Rapidly read the barcode identification (ID) and retrieve critical patient, test, and priority information from the clinical informatics system(s). This immediately flags mislabelled or missing orders and establishes priority.
• Assess tube integrity and type: Detect the tube type (size, cap color, presence/type of gel separator) and intelligently cross-reference it with the ordered tests to identify incorrect tube types before analysis, preventing potentially invalid results due to improper additives.
• Check sample volume: Accurately stratify fluid levels within the tube (clot, gel, serum, air) to ensure sufficient volume for all requested tests, even detecting levels through multiple layers of paper labels. This immediately identifies low volume samples, saving valuable analyzer time.
• Determine spin status: Identify whether a sample has been pre-centrifuged or requires spinning, ensuring the correct spin status for sample processing. An unspun sample can be routed to an integrated centrifuge, eliminating manual handling and ensuring proper processing.
• Cross-reference data with algorithms: Algorithmically compare expected parameters (e.g., tube color versus ordered tests, volume versus required tests) to immediately flag any other non-conformities.

Real-time, comprehensive error detection — done before samples even hit the track, all in one place — changes the game for labs. Automation is not just moving tubes around anymore; it is actively protecting diagnostic quality. It spots and deals with unsuitable samples before they clog up the system, waste analyzer time, or skew results. As Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust observed after implementing Beckman Coulter’s DxA 5000 system, errors are shown upfront by the system, reducing the clinical risk of producing erroneous results for the patient, while improving the efficiency of quality control.³

Elevating the lab’s role: The lab as diagnostic gatekeeper

This kind of track-independent, pre-analytical approach lets labs reinvent themselves. They are not just processing samples — they are standing guard over diagnostic quality and taking on a bigger, more strategic role in healthcare. Instead of scrambling to fix errors after the fact, labs stop problems before they start. That shift frees up lab staff to focus on the work that really matters: complex analysis, critical decisions, and continuous improvement. It builds a culture centered on excellence and patient safety. And the ripple effects go way beyond catching a few mistakes:

• Patient safety, front and center: When labs cut down on bad results and speed up alerts for redraws, they slash the risk of misdiagnosis and delays. Patients get answers faster, with less anxiety and fewer repeat visits.⁴
• Operations that just work: By trimming manual steps, redraws, and troubleshooting, labs save serious time and money. One facility cut manual work and delays by 70%, saving over 250 minutes per batch of routine samples. They could put staff on higher-value work, too.⁵ Another site dropped non-essential manual steps by 43%.⁶
• Turnaround times you can trust: By preventing errors that would otherwise slow things down, and smart routing that prioritizes urgent samples, labs deliver results quickly and reliably. Take a UK hospital that saw a 91% drop in the variation of urgent sample turnaround times — clinicians could finally count on consistent, predictable results.³
• Smarter, data-driven improvements: Every tube gets a full, traceable history thanks to intelligent middleware. These data help labs find the real causes of pre-analytical issues and tighten up their processes, making the whole operation safer and more effective.⁴

No compromises: The future’s already here

With advanced automation and integrated informatics, Advantaged Workflows are rewriting the rulebook for diagnostic labs. This isn’t just about faster logistics — it is about building intelligence and vigilance into every step, especially the tricky pre-analytical phase. By checking each sample thoroughly before it even joins the main transport line, these systems cut out workflow bottlenecks and make sure only the right samples move forward, keeping everything running efficiently and reliably.

Labs that stay ahead of errors, deliver trustworthy results fast, and put patient safety first cement their place as essential partners in modern healthcare. That is what “care without compromise” looks like, and it is what I’m committed to delivering — helping power the moments that matter most for patients.

References 

1. Plebani M, Sciacovelli L, Aita A, Pelloso M, Chiozza ML. Performance criteria and quality indicators for the pre-analytical phase. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2015;53(6):943-8. doi:10.1515/cclm-2014-1124.
2. Bodley T, Chan M, Clarfield L, et al. Patient harm from repetitive blood draws and blood waste in the ICU: A retrospective cohort study. Blood. 2019;134(Supplement_1):57-57. doi:10.1182/blood-2019-127394.
3. Beckman Coulter, Inc. Advancing Patient Healthcare in Worcestershire: One‑Year Impact of DxA 5000 Track Installation. 2025. Available upon request.
4. Lippi G, Chance JJ, Church S, et al. Preanalytical quality improvement: From dream to reality. Clin Chem Lab Med. 2011;49(7):1113-26. doi:10.1515/CCLM.2011.600.
5. Beckman Coulter, Inc. Case Study: En Chu Kong Hospital, Taiwan. Maximizing Return on Investment With Future‑Proof Laboratory Automation Solutions. 2025. Available upon request.
6. Beckman Coulter, Inc. Case Study at Bethesda North Hospital. Breaking Status Quo: Continuing Success With Advanced Laboratory Automation. 2022. Available upon request.