Water-purification system feeds analyser lines

The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust is using Millipore's Elix water-purification system to provide the pure water required by the hospital's clinical analysers.

The hospital's automated laboratory has a sample throughput of 4,000 samples per day, with 40 per cent of this load for inpatients and 60 per cent for outpatients.

For some tests, the hospital serves as the regional centre for general practitioners for certain chemistries, and samples for fertility or hormonal assays are received daily from specialists throughout the UK and Ireland.

The lab is set up with two similar lines of analysers, each made up of several general chemistry and immunoassay analysers linked together.

The two lines (which include two D-modules, three P-modules and three E-modules), are configured to complement one another and allow the hospital to obtain optimum use from its analyser equipment.

When there are numerous immunoassays to run, for example, the lab will use the line that includes the two E170 immunoassay analysers so that tests are processed as quickly as possible.

Sue Levine, automated laboratory manager at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital NHS Trust, said: 'We cannot run our systems without water...the water is a fundamental part of our service to practitioners, who rely on our real-time results.

The lab depends on two Millipore Elix 100 water systems, two 350-litre storage and distribution systems, as well as a separate 30-litre reservoir to provide the pure water it needs.

Levine added: 'We use the Elix system water to feed our analyser lines, dilute and reconstitute reagents, reconstitute quality control and calibration materials and run blanks.

'We also use it to clean cuvettes, pipettes and syringes.

As the Elix systems are installed in a separate room from the analysers, the hospital opted for water sensors along with the systems.

If there is a leakage, these sensors, together with an alert from the reservoir level detector, will inform staff immediately before a water shortage can occur.

Levine added: 'System maintenance is also straightforward, as the systems let us know when a pack needs changing - and that is very simple to do.

'We have a Millipore service plan with electronic records, so our consumables are ordered ahead of time and stored for use when we need them, which makes maintenance minimal.

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