Traceability is of paramount importance for patient safety – this is not a choice, but an ethical obligation. However, while most agree that chain of custody is pivotal in pathology labs to ensure patient safety, several steps in the anatomic pathology (AP) analysis process – from accessioning to specimen processing – are not fully tracked or are done manually. Manual scanning is a tedious, time-consuming, and error-prone task in which operators are required to scan hundreds of cassettes one by one. This bears the risk of tracking errors and – ultimately – misdiagnoses.
Milestone is committed to providing new tools to trace specimens across the laboratory. Milestone’s latest innovation, the R-Tracker, is an automatic rack scanner that replaces the laborious task of manually scanning each cassette by detecting both the cassette’s presence and the accuracy of its corresponding barcode. Through an innovative, patented double sensor technology, automatic scanning is completed within a few seconds – ensuring accurate cassette documentation and traceability and, therefore, contributing to patient safety. What’s more, the R-Tracker can save laboratories a dramatic amount of time by freeing up valuable operator time – up to 95 percent over manual scanning.
The R-Tracker is the first of a new kind of tracking devices designed to enhance specimen traceability and workflow optimization. It provides an all-in-one solution for scanning, checking, and tracking. Accurate documentation of scanned cassettes and codes is immediately available to the laboratory information system. The R-Tracker is also designed to go hand-in-hand with other current and upcoming tracking solutions from Milestone, such as the MileWATCH monitor and tracking system – enabling real-time data sharing and biospecimen traceability for OR and AP instruments.
The R-Tracker is a game changer for both lab workflow and operator efficiency. Most crucially, it represents a giant step forward for patient safety, thereby fully embracing Milestone’s mission of helping patients.
For more information, please visit: tp.txp.to/milestone.
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