Photo By Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Molina | Katie Loftin, medical technologist for NMCCL's Laboratory Department, performs a...... read more read more
New medical equipment is helping Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune’s laboratory department increase and expand in-house testing capabilities. The recently-acquired Hologic Aptima Panther is a laboratory analyzer capable of detecting SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and has greatly increased the number of tests performed within the Medical Center.
“The Panther analyzer is a fully-automated laboratory instrument that provides a broad menu of tests on a single platform, which allows the ability to run more tests per full-time employee,” said U.S. Navy Commander, Leslie Councilor, director of Clinical Support Services. “The Panther analyzer is technology at its best.”
The Panther has aided NMCCL’s on-site COVID-19/Acute Respiratory Clinic.
“The main benefit of the Panther is that we are doing more [COVID-19] tests in-house every day,” said U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Reynaldo Gomez III, department head of the laboratory. “Previously, we could only test a subset of patients within 24 hours due to limited testing capacity. Now with the Panther, we have tripled our daily capacity without increasing our testing personnel. We are testing all symptomatic patients, all admitted patients, all transfers, and a number of other clinical categories, all in-house, within 24 hours.”
NMCCL received the Panther in January 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to the Panther’s arrival, NMCCL had other platforms of equipment capable of testing for COVID. According to Gomez, the Panther provides a higher throughput rate, capable of 900 tests in a 24-hour period.
“Previously, we utilized another analyzer…but three techs, working 24 hours-a-day could only do 200 tests per day, so the Panther greatly increases our testing capabilities,” explained Gomez.
There are other benefits the Panther brings to the Medical Center during the pandemic.
“Previously, symptomatic patients, who are more likely to actually be COVID-positive, those tests were previously sent out, and took two or three days to get results. Now we are able to get results on average 19 hours after submitted to the lab,” said Gomez.
According to Gomez, being able to get results faster helps speed up close contact tracing and the quarantine period, essentially limiting exposure to the healthy population. Gomez and Councilor hope with the Panther’s help, the NMCCL Laboratory Department will be able to do all COVID testing in-house.
Eventually, NMCCL will look to acquire the Panther fusion upgrade, a system which will further expand testing capabilities.
| Date Taken: | 04.15.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 04.15.2021 14:40 |
| Story ID: | 393954 |
| Location: | CAMP LEJEUNE , NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 237 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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