Mediwell Clinic South Korea

Transcription

1 Mediwell Clinic South Korea Dr Hong, Director The Mediwell Clinic and Roche passionate about the value of early diagnosis

2 Private clinics such as the Mediwell are very common throughout South Korea and they provide an invaluable local service for patients who find the location of the larger public hospitals less convenient. This, coupled with high quality medical services and a personal approach to patient care, combine to earn the Mediwell Clinic a reputation that enables its growth, thus expanding improvements in the quality of living of patients suffering from endocrine diseases.

3 Mediwell Clinic, South Korea Private hospital laboratory 3 beds 100,000 Clinical Chemistry results per year 45,000 Immunochemistry results per year

4 Local, personal, but above all, expert Private clinics in South Korea meet a real need and hence are very popular with patients, partly because they are conveniently located, but also because they offer a more personal service, guaranteeing consultations with senior doctors who supervise their diagnosis and treatment. This was the vision of Dr Hong, head of the Mediwell clinic. Having worked in a University Hospital for many years, I know the meaning of clinical excellence, but I also understand that there are many patients for whom it is hard to reach. I was determined to provide local people from the area with a good alternative for earlier and precise diagnosis of thyroid disorders which, if diagnosed early enough, can usually be treated with minimal interventions. That has a very positive effect on a patient s Quality of Life. When Dr Hong funded Mediwell in 2007 there was a real need for improvements in the early diagnosis of breast cancer and the identification of endocrine disorders, especially thyroid-related diseases. Coinciding with a growing public interest in these conditions, his clinic quickly built up a trusted reputation amongst both the patient community and the wider healthcare professional fraternity. He has been able to build on his expertise in these areas to offer a wide range of medical services. He now feels very confident that his clinic s reputation for quality is driving its growth and helping him to achieve his ambition of providing a rounded healthcare solution for local patients: diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. Because I m able to spend quality time with my patients and provide them with quick and reliable diagnosis, they leave the clinic with peace of mind, confident in the knowledge that not only has their condition been correctly diagnosed, but that they can openly talk about it and get personal advice. Dr Hong

5 I was determined to provide local people from the area with a good alternative for earlier and precise diagnosis of thyroid disorders.

6 Time a vital commodity for Mediwell The size of the Mediwell clinic means that there is very little room for error or waste in the delivery of its services. Ms Kim is the laboratory manager and the only employee in the lab. She is responsible for everything to do with diagnostics, from drawing blood to verifying results. She came from a General Hospital background and it was there that she first encountered Roche analyzers and systems. She knew that her role in the Mediwell clinic would be highly pressurized and that Dr Hong would be depending on her to deliver quality results with a rapid turnaround time, but to begin with, their diagnostic equipment was simply not up to the job, prompting an early decision to talk to Roche. I was aware of Roche systems working in my previous position and from my research into the options available to us, it was clear that cobas 4000 analyzers were the ideal solution. I needed a system that I could rely on, that could manage our volume of tests, but also one that was easy to run and maintain and would provide the quality needed on the first attempt. One particular drawback of the old system was its inability to run whole blood HbA1c tests which therefore had to be outsourced, wasting time and resources. This also had a knock-on effect of delaying the whole report for the patients and the decision making process of physicians in the clinic. With the growing incidence of diabetes in South Korea, this was a problem that was not going to go away. Dr Hong emphasizes: It would take away some of the benefit of the proximity of our clinic if our patients had to wait a long time for their results. Thanks to the Roche solution, I can provide my patients with rapid feedback and we can have an in-depth consultation on the same day, which I know they really appreciate.

7 She knew that Dr Hong would be depending on her to deliver quality results with a rapid turnaround time.

8 Kits used/month Roche c pack Direct HDL Source: package inserts Dry chemistry Cholesterol Loading and preparation (handling) time per pack Handling time per assay per month Total handling time per month for 6 assays Message GGT ALT Glucose AST Roche c pack Dry chemistry 4 minutes 33 minutes 3 to 9 minutes 3.6 to 5.5 hours 27.3 minutes 27.2 hours Just 1 minute per day! Over 1 hour per day! Installing the cobas c 311 and cobas e 411 analyzers has made an immediate impact on the functioning of the lab. For Ms Kim, one of the major benefits of cobas analyzers is the speed and ease of preparation before running tests. For instance, with the old system, the first 2 hours of her 9am to 6pm day would be taken up with QC and preparation and loading of reagents, which, because they utilized dry chemistry, had to be allowed to warm to room temperature before testing could begin. Even more frustrating was that because of the small size of reagent packs, she had to laboriously calculate and estimate the number of tests for each parameter so that it wouldn t be necessary to refill reagents during a routine operation. Now, with cobas 4000 instruments, Ms Kim simply takes the new reagent packs from the refrigerator, loads them onto the instrument and is ready to go, saving her valuable time each day. Even more frequently used tests such as Cholesterol, Direct HDL and ALT are catered for thanks to the large pack sizes of the reagents and their long-term on-board stability. The popularity of Mediwell means that Ms Kim s workload is ever growing, but because of the efficiencies delivered by cobas 4000 analyzer series, she feels she is more than able to cope. One example of where the new system comes into its own is with QC and calibration value entry. With cobas link, it s easy for Ms Kim to transfer automatically the applications data without any manual input and crucially, without any errors.

9 Now I simply take the new reagent pack from the refrigerator, load it onto the instrument and I am ready to go.

10 Dr Hong s long term vision: a bigger role for specialized clinics So far, the Mediwell clinic has had to rely on a dedicated PC in the lab to handle patient data and test results, all of which has to be achieved with manual input. Because of this potential bottle-neck to their system, Dr Hong is planning for the introduction of the cobas IT 3000 application which will interface between the cobas 4000 analyzer series and the clinic s own Hospital Information System (HIS). Once installed, it will further improve the efficiency, accuracy and speed of the results delivered to the doctors. The performance of the Mediwell Clinic is now being recognized and new collaborations are flourishing, such as the one with the local University Hospital. In addition, new diagnostics tools are being explored, such as the forthcoming Roche Elecsys high sensitive TG, which could be crucial for monitoring cancer patients who have undergone thyroidectomy. One of my dreams was to run a clinic that provided life enhancing healthcare benefits to patients by offering personal care. Roche values and its translation into products and services means that we are able to provide our patients with accurate early diagnosis of their diseases when this makes a difference.

11 Mediwell Clinic South Korea

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