A long-standing challenge faced by clinical laboratories is the availability of enough qualified personnel to meet staffing needs. It can be difficult to fill open positions, which means that many labs struggle with being understaffed.
At the same time, an aging population means the need for laboratory services continues to grow. According to the CDC’s Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS), 70 percent of today’s medical decisions depend on 14 billion laboratory tests conducted annually. The importance of clinical laboratory testing to our healthcare system should never be underestimated.
The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) published an article titled “Is Lab Staffing a Matter of More than Just Numbers?” In addition to discussing the shortage of qualified personnel, it mentions the scarcity of training programs for medical laboratory professionals.
Current standards regulating staff training requirements are also a challenge, as they were implemented before the adoption of lab automation and limit flexibility in hiring. A reassessment of these standards could potentially benefit understaffed labs.
To help address the workforce shortage, the article also suggests building awareness of laboratory careers among the general population, as well as including laboratory sciences in current STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education programs.
As clinical labs continue to face unprecedented challenges with staffing, poorly performing or unreliable cold storage equipment is the last thing lab professionals should have to worry about. Helmer Scientific supports the efforts of clinical laboratories by providing reliable medical-grade cold storage products our customers can depend on.
GX Solutions professional medical-grade refrigerators and freezers provide reliable temperature-controlled storage for patient specimens, reagents, and controls. Powered by OptiCool™ technology, our next generation models pair variable capacity compressors with natural hydrocarbon refrigerants, delivering a reliable storage option to safeguard stored materials.
Only professional medical-grade laboratory refrigerators and freezers deliver optimized control in three important areas:
- Temperature management to safeguard stored products, including excellent uniformity, recovery, and stability
- Noise management to provide a more comfortable working environment for laboratory staff
- Energy management to reduce operating costs and support facility sustainability initiatives
- Within the GX Solutions brand, the i.Series® line offers monitoring with downloadable documentation, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual temperature checks
In addition, all Helmer products are designed and built to ensure they last for the long term to limit downtime and disruptions to workflow. During the design process for GX Solutions laboratory refrigerators and freezers, thorough Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) was conducted to ensure reliability.
ALT identifies and addresses possible issues before equipment is released for general use. It exposes units to very high levels of stress to challenge the system and ensures the unit’s design can withstand the rigors of daily use through a 10-year life.
OTHER BLOGS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN...
- Survey: Clinical Labs Expanding Use of Medical-Grade Refrigeration
- Short-Staffed Labs Can Benefit from the i.C3® Information Center
- Supporting Sustainability in Clinical Labs
- Protecting Laboratory Media from Temperature Excursions
Visit GX Solutions from Helmer Scientific for more information on the performance of professional medical-grade cold storage. We also have a white paper on the benefits of OptiCool™ technology.
