Urinalysis Customer Profile - Kaweah Health

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Kaweah Health Medical Center—a busy regional acute care hospital and level III trauma center in Visalia, California—delivers comprehensive care to the community, including emergency services, advanced cardiac care and inpatient and outpatient surgeries. Supporting this commitment is Kaweah Health Laboratory Services, a fully CAP-accredited facility equipped with state-of-the-art technology providing fast, accurate and comprehensive diagnostic testing. Serving inpatient and outpatient populations, the laboratory empowers clinicians with timely, reliable insights to guide informed decisions, improve patient outcomes and enhance quality of life.

The Problem - Limited Urinalysis Automation

Before April 2025, Kaweah Health used an integrated urinalysis system that combined urine chemistry strip testing with image- based particle analysis. While partially automated, the workflow had low auto-verification rates and the additional manual preanalytical steps for certain specimens made the process labor-intensive.

Although the system could auto-release results to the Laboratory Information System (LIS), Kaweah Health struggled to fully leverage this capability. High review rates required operators to manually verify and frequently reclassify urine elements before releasing results, slowing turnaround times and limiting standardization.

As Jeanette Sanchez, CLS and Laboratory Section Chief for Hematology at Kaweah Health, explains these limitations created productivity bottlenecks and constrained testing throughput.

The Solution - Elevating Urinalysis with the Sysmex UN-Series™

Kaweah Health knew it was time for a change—and they didn’t settle for incremental improvements. Their goal was clear: streamline workflows, cut hands-on time and deliver fast, reliable and objective results. After careful evaluation, they chose Sysmex Urinalysis— and never looked back.

In April 2025, Kaweah Health introduced the Sysmex UN-3000™ Automated Urinalysis Solution, a high-throughput, fully integrated platform built for the demands of modern laboratories. As Sanchez noted, the benefits are undeniable: true automation, high diagnostic accuracy, fewer manual steps and unmatched consistency—all driving efficiency and elevating patient care.

The UN-3000 didn’t just improve performance—it simplified operations. Sanchez explained, “We have the Sysmex hematology automation line, and our staff appreciates the familiar screens and menus. The UN-3000 offers the same intuitive design, making training much easier.”

The Kaweah staff praised the UN-3000’s fluorescent flow cytometry technology and user-friendly interface. Because Kaweah Health already used Sysmex hematology automation, the transition was seamless and go-live was described as “surprisingly easy.”

Key Outcomes: Efficiency and Confidence

Before the upgrade, more than 70% of the daily UA samples required operator intervention, with technologists manually verifying flagged results and reclassifying images in many cases. Suspected bacteria, crystals or sperm often meant additional manual microscopy—making workflows time-consuming.

The UN-3000 changed that. Its seamless integration, standardized reporting and automated reflex capabilities significantly reduced manual reviews, freeing staff to focus on other critical tasks. Sanchez emphasized the impact: “During correlation studies, staff immediately noticed a dramatic improvement— particularly in image quality—which validated the performance of the UN-3000’s technology and imaging. This has led to significantly higher auto- verification rates and greater trust. For most samples, there’s no longer a need for the technologist to question, or double-check images using a manual microscope.”

Conclusion

Kaweah Health’s decision to implement the Sysmex UN-3000 is more than an upgrade—it’s a transformation. By automating urinalysis with cutting-edge technology, the lab now delivers faster, more consistent results while freeing staff to focus on what matters most: patient care.

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