NHS Trust Chooses Mass Spectrometry-Based Microbial Identification Platform

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust is the first centre in the UK to put bioMérieux’s VITEK MS mass spectrometry-based microbial identification platform into routine use, and is already beginning to see the benefits for patients, clinicians and laboratory staff. Helena Kilgariff, Microbiology Laboratory Manager, has overseen the introduction of the system and explained its benefits to the laboratory: “From a management standpoint, the main advantage of the VITEK MS is improving efficiency and streamlining workflow; it offers greater flexibility and adaptability without increasing staffing levels. The switch to a mass spectrometry-based method has significantly reduced turnaround times, as well as increasing our throughput capacity.”

Nathan Reading, Senior BMS in the laboratory, added: “The VITEK MS is very easy to use, offers very accurate IDs for most organisms we encounter, and provides us with a more efficient way of working. We have been able to reduce the number of parallel tasks which need to be performed by each member of staff, and automation has eliminated a lot of repetitive processes while improving reproducibility. Results are also available far more quickly – a day earlier in most cases – and this offers huge potential savings in terms of improved patient management; freeing up beds and reducing the cost of unnecessary or inappropriate prescriptions. Having these results available sooner means patients can receive the most appropriate treatment more quickly, and any benefits to how the laboratory works really are secondary to this; it is all about the patient at the end of the day.”