Thanks to a recent donation, OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital's emergency team is now receiving lab results more quickly, allowing for faster patient care. A grateful patient's family funded the purchase of the Tempus system, a tube transport technology that swiftly moves blood samples directly to lab analyzers. Riverside Methodist Hospital is only the second hospital in the United States to use this system, which has already significantly reduced turnaround time.
“Because it went right to the machine and to the technician that's in that area, it decreased turnaround time by 68%,” said Warren Yamarick, MD, medical director of Riverside’s emergency department. “When you have 87,000 people, a majority getting lab, this really improves our turnaround. Just one piece of the puzzle to get our patients more efficiently through the system.”
The emergency department at Riverside is among the busiest in its region and deals with complex and high-risk cases across the Midwest. Quick and accurate lab results are crucial for treating conditions such as bleeding, infections, or strokes.
“You get the results back faster when a patient's waiting for their lab, waiting for an answer,” Dr. Yamarick stated. “It just gives it that piece that we need. So it's very helpful to make a decision which way we're going to go.”
Simon Bisson from OhioHealth Foundation highlighted the importance of such donations: “Any gift to the health system helps fuel innovation,” Bisson said. “It helps drive new technologies, new equipment, especially gifts from grateful patients and their families are especially meaningful to us.”