Doctors view the working of the bar code system for testing samples at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai
| Photo Credit: Akhila Easwaran
The long queues of patient relatives waiting to hand over blood samples of their hospitalised family members and to collect the test results outside the biochemistry laboratory at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) have come down. The reason: doctors here, at the largest State healthcare institute in Tamil Nadu, can now access laboratory investigation reports on their mobile phones and in through a web portal, doing away with the need for patient attendants to wait outside the central laboratory to collect the reports.
RGGGH’s Institute of Biochemistry was the first in the government sector in Tamil Nadu to launch such a web portal allowing doctors to easily access laboratory reports. The institute has also introduced a bar code system that has made workflow smooth as well as hassle-free for patient attendants.
The institute receives around 1,700-2,000 samples every day. And following the introduction of the web portal a few months ago, there has been a 60% reduction in the number of persons queuing up outside the laboratory. In many cases, the turnaround time is two hours, say doctors. RGGGH Dean E. Theranirajan says a lot of reforms have also been initiated in the biochemistry laboratory. “Patient attendants need not come to collect the reports. This way, huge crowding outside the laboratory has been minimised.”
Pneumatic tube transport
Testing samples from the hospital’s emergency unit has been fast-tracked as the pneumatic tube system has been running full-fledged for the past six months. “Samples taken from patients arriving at the emergency ward located in Tower 2 are transported and dropped at the three central laboratories (biochemistry, pathology, and microbiology) in Tower 1 through the pneumatic tube system. These samples are immediately processed, and the results are available in 40 minutes,” says K. Pramila, Director, Institute of Biochemistry, Madras Medical College and RGGGH. RGGGH plans to expand this facility to all three tower blocks so that the process of receiving samples and issuing reports is made easy.
In fact, the institute has introduced point-of-care testing for cardiac biomarkers in the emergency department, facilitating rapid diagnosis of patients with chest pain, she says, adding: “When a patient arrives with a complaint of chest pain, cardiac biomarker tests are done at the bedside to quickly rule out myocardial infarction. This point-of-care testing facility allows clinicians to make a diagnosis within minutes.”
Therapeutic drug monitoring
This is not all. The institute has been conducting therapeutic drug monitoring for the past six to eight months in which patients who have undergone organ transplants (liver, kidney, and bone marrow) are monitored routinely to check whether the dosage of the immunosuppressant drugs prescribed are of the appropriate level. “If the dosage is low, it can lead to organ rejection, and if it is high, it could have toxic effects. Based on the reports, doctors can titrate the dosage while they are in hospital,” Dr. Pramila says.
The institute has also introduced testing for inflammatory markers for all patients with fever and sepsis for diagnosis and monitoring purposes, as well as anaemia profiles. “The laboratory also shares and highlights critical values identified in testing samples on a WhatsApp group, alerting the respective heads of departments and enabling doctors to take up required interventions immediately,” Dr. Theranirajan says.
Published – February 11, 2025 10:52 pm IST