Chicoutimi Hospital Cuts Heart Attack Test Times With New Lab Tech
A 25-Minute Breakthrough in Cardiac Care
When a patient suffers a heart attack, every minute counts, and a new high-tech automated analytical chain at the Hôpital de Chicoutimi has successfully decreased troponin test analysis time by 25 minutes. The 20.3 million dollar upgrade replaces an 18-year-old machine that suffered from extreme fatigue and frequent breakdowns, addressing persistent delays in urgent diagnostic testing.
Simultaneous Sample Processing on a Single Track
Electrocardiograms do not always provide a clear diagnostic picture during cardiac emergencies, making rapid blood marker analysis essential. Marianne Gauthier, an emergency physician at the hospital, notes that getting the result [of the troponin test] as quickly as possible is going to help us rule out a heart attack or look for something else that can be just as dangerous, such as a pulmonary embolism or an aortic dissection,
explains the medical specialist, who practices in the emergency department at Chicoutimi. The new laboratory equipment processes hematology and biochemistry samples simultaneously on a single track, sorting and prioritizing them by urgency via barcode scanning three times faster than the previous system.
Sébastien Goudenege, clinical biochemist and head of the biochemistry service at Hôpital de Chicoutimi, states that 70 to 80 percent of clinical decisions are currently influenced by laboratory tests, compared to only 10 to 15 percent three decades ago. The automation project has not eliminated any positions amid ongoing laboratory staff shortages. Instead, the new workflow provides relief for personnel on the ground, allowing medical technologists to focus on specialized tests requiring manual analysis.
Manual Processing Persists for Rejected Sample Tubes
At the same time, the union representing the workers reports that heavy workloads persist during the transition phase. Karine Ferland, national representative for the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, notes that the apparatus currently rejects approximately 10 percent of sample tubes due to issues like improper labeling or inadequate volume during collection, forcing staff to process those specific samples manually in second line. Goudenege confirms this rejection rate, explaining that while satellite laboratories in Jonquière and Alma must handle all their samples manually, the Chicoutimi server laboratory aims to minimize manual exceptions wherever possible.
Chicoutimi Facility Manages High Annual Analysis Volume
The Chicoutimi facility serves as the server laboratory for the Optilab Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord and Nord-du-Québec cluster, which includes 17 satellite laboratories across these regions and processes 4 million analyses annually. According to the union, the team was already facing a heavy workload before the device even arrived, with Ferland noting that mandatory overtime occurred during the summer. Medical technologists at the laboratory welcome the arrival of the equipment, yet do not currently see a decrease in their workload.