Windsor and Mississauga, ON, Canada, November 5, 2013 – Windsor Regional Hospital, a multi-site community hospital that provides acute care services to Windsor and Essex County, and Sysmex Canada, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sysmex America, Inc., today announced the addition of the new state-of-the-art Sysmex® XN-Series™ Hematology Analyzers in Windsor’s clinical laboratories. This multi-site standardization enables new capabilities in lab services that benefit patients, physicians and the surrounding community.  Windsor is an early adopter of this advanced hematology technology in Canada.

 

“As a world class treatment centre, it’s all about the patients and what we can do for them,” said Marion McChesney, Director, Regional Laboratory Services for the region.  “This powerful new platform enables us to offer a whole new level of testing sophistication and quality. No doubt, it can positively contribute to enhanced patient care for the Southwestern Ontario region now and long into the future.” Operating as one service in three locations, the Integrated Hospital Laboratory Services of Windsor Essex (IHL) offers a full range of laboratory services for more than 400,000 people and processes approximately 215,000 complete blood count (CBC) hematology tests annually. 

 

According to McChesney, Windsor was not interested in merely ‘replacing’ their hematology analyzers, but rather sought to maximize the technological performance and standardization of the lab to address quality healthcare goals. Today Windsor can provide a CBC from a blood sample and analyze body fluids, doing it more efficiently and timely in keeping with true patient-centered care.

 

“These new hematology analyzers are designed to allow laboratory technologists to use their skill, judgment and knowledge where it is needed most -- on review of abnormal results. They also make workflow improvements and improve turn-around time providing rapid, reliable results that physicians count on when they make a critical diagnosis and manage a wide range of diseases,” says McChesney.  Windsor expects the investment to greatly benefit its programs in such areas as cancer, renal disease and neonatal care.

 

The hospital acquired two Sysmex XN-3000™ Automated Hematology Analyzers equipped with the RU-20 Reagent Delivery System for each campus providing ‘mirror’ throughput capacity for the Windsor Regional Hospital, as well as an XN-1000™ for Leamington District Memorial Hospital. The analyzers are connected by WAM™ Decision Support Software for the Clinical Laboratory, hematology-specific middleware designed to enable rules-driven auto-validation, management reporting and paperless hands-free processing of clinical diagnostic tests.

 

“Windsor took a giant technological leap forward in order to yield more robust clinical reporting that is tailored to the needs of our individual hospitals and patient populations while meeting the highest Quality Management Program-Laboratory Services’ (QMP-LS) standards for quality care,” said Carl Rocha, General Manager, Sysmex Canada.
 
QMP–LS performs proficiency testing on all licensed medical laboratories in Ontario, as well as accredits them to the OLA 15189Plus™ standard, which is based on ISO 15189. The program uses the principles of quality management to help labs improve their processes—and the accuracy of their test results. QMP–LS’ services are also available throughout Canada and internationally.

 

In addition to patients, Windsor also strives to serve the best interests of their employees. The RU-20 Reagent Delivery System uses concentrates to make the diluent used to count and identify cells.  This reduces the total number of reagent containers for easier and less frequent handling by technologists. This eases the physical strain and risk to employees. They also save space and labor while streamlining inventory management and minimizing the production of greenhouse gases.

 

“The demands on our technologists are ever increasing, and we prefer they don’t move around multiple heavy reagents so this made so much more sense,” said McChesney. “With the use of concentrated reagents, the overall weight benefit coupled with fewer changes, why wouldn’t we move forward on something like that?”

Sysmex Canada, Inc. is the Canadian headquarters of Sysmex Corporation (Kobe, Japan). Sysmex is a world leader in clinical laboratory systemization and solutions, including clinical diagnostics, automation and information systems. Serving customers for over 40 years, Sysmex focuses on extending the boundaries of diagnostic science while providing the management information tools that make a real difference in clinical and operational results for people worldwide. For more information about Sysmex, please visit www.sysmex.ca.

 

Windsor Regional Hospital is a multi-faceted, health services organization operating from two main sites, the Metropolitan Campus and the Ouellette Campus.  Windsor Regional Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in the Province of Ontario. It is a regional provider of advanced care in areas that include complex trauma, renal dialysis, cardiac care, stroke and neurosurgery, intensive care, acute mental health, family birthing centre, neonatal intensive care, paediatric services, regional cancer services and a broad range of medical and surgical services required to support these specialized areas for more than 400,000 people in Windsor and Essex County.