Integrating Lean and Automation for Enhanced Serology Diagnosis Efficiency in Tertiary Healthcare Microbiology Laboratories

Healthcare services and institutions are focused on providing the most appropriate medical service in terms of patient safety and satisfaction outcomes. According to Lean methodologies, effectiveness and efficiency can be improved by assuring value-added processes. This article presents a joint approach for the development and implementation of Lean techniques combined with Total Laboratory Automation (TLA) for serology diagnosis in a microbiology laboratory in a tertiary-level hospital. The results obtained show an improvement in the process efficiency and its key performance indicators. In particular, for the HIV and COVID tests, the process Turnaround Times (TAT) were decreased by up to 87.3% and 19.3%, having a direct effect in the diagnostic response time. The process added-value for HIV tests increased by 81%. This meant a cost reduction per test, a higher number of diagnostic tests and clinical samples processed and laboratory resource optimisation. The implementation of TLA also enabled the reallocation of skilled labour towards value-added tasks, increased the process quality and reduced sample waiting times. This work opens up new opportunities for their deployment in other laboratory areas and sample types, directly influencing the overall quality of patient diagnosis in the context of tertiary healthcare facilities.