MUNDELEIN, Ill., and WEST ALLIS, Wis., Jan. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Sysmex America and ACL Laboratories, today announced that they have signed a three- year Agreement with two optional 1-year extensions, according to John Kershaw, President, Sysmex America, Inc. Sysmex America will standardize hematology instrumentation, training, technical support, and service for 65 ACL hospital and clinic laboratories. Installation began in December 2005 with completion set for September 2006. The agreement follows ACL’s installation of Sysmex’s eCLAIR Physician Portal, an electronic test ordering and test results retrieval system, for their physicians and laboratory outreach clients. Aurora Health Care and Advocate Health Care, Wisconsin’s and Chicago’s largest integrated health systems jointly operate ACL Laboratories respectively.
“ACL currently performs 1.6 million CBCs (Complete Blood Counts) yearly. Sysmex instruments are designed to provide comparable results across all of their hematology instruments. With over 65 laboratories using Sysmex hematology analyzers, we look forward to obtaining the same clinical results on patients throughout our system, regardless of which laboratory is performing the testing. Additionally, our laboratory personnel will experience even greater work efficiency by having standardized operating procedures across all of our locations,” said Dr. Jay Schamberg, General Manager, ACL Laboratories.
“Sysmex was awarded this contract agreement based on technical merit and competitive pricing. Laboratories need to be concerned with uptime and instrument reliability, as the need for laboratory testing increases due to the aging baby boomer population. The proven track record of Sysmex instrument’s reliability was a critical factor in our selection of Sysmex hematology instruments,” said Carl Knauer, Vice President, Financial and Laboratory Operations, Assistant General Manager, Aurora Forest Home Center.
“We are very gratified to have been chosen by ACL to meet their needs for hematology testing and we believe that our analyzers will provide excellent clinical support for physicians throughout the ACL healthcare system. We also believe it will benefit the technologists who use the equipment by standardizing operations across all of their hematology laboratories,” said Kershaw.
Additionally, the installation of enterprise-wide MOLIS WAM middleware will bring added rules-based intelligence to ACL’s hematology automation lines by streamlining workflow and improving quality control.
About ACL Laboratories
ACL continues a 40-year tradition of providing a full range of lab services. It is a unique clinical laboratory that draws on the resources of two major health care systems while providing a complete range of analytical services, including drugs of abuse testing, molecular diagnostics and metals/environmental testing. ACL offers numerous around-the-clock collection sites and 24-hour turnaround on most routine lab tests, including toxicology, environmental and specialty tests. ACL is accredited by the College of American Pathologists and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and is certified in accordance with the Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act (CLIA) and the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Its staff includes board-certified pathologists, Ph.D. chemists and microbiologists, registered medical technologists/technicians, cytotechnologists, histotechnicians and specialists in information technology.
About Sysmex
Sysmex America, Inc., the U.S. headquarters of Sysmex Corporation (Kobe, Japan), is a world leader in clinical laboratory systematization and solutions, including clinical diagnostics, automation and information systems that elevate clinical laboratory medicine to first-line patient care. Sysmex America, Inc. focuses on extending the boundaries of in vitro diagnostic science while providing the management information tools that make a real difference in clinical and operational results for people worldwide. Additional information about Sysmex America, Inc. can be found at http://www.sysmex.com/usa.
Sysmex America, Inc.
CONTACT: Tammy Kutz, Manager, Media & Events of Sysmex America,+1-847-996-4531, kutzt@sysmex.com, or Carl Knauer, Vice President,Financial and Laboratory Operations of ACL Laboratories, +1-414-389-5989,karen.erb@aurora.org (Karen Erb, Administrative Assistant)
Web site: http://www.sysmex.com/usa/