Blood Collection Services during and after the Covid-19

As the number of people vaccinated increases, there is a rapid increase in the number of routine care patients returning to hospitals. As a result, the need for laboratory tests and blood samples is also increasing.

However, safe phlebotomy activities on a large scale cannot be performed without additional precautions. Triage of symptomatic COVID-19 patients and non-symptomatic patients is not sufficient, as the majority of infectious patients are asymptomatic.

The main challenge is to spread patients in time and space, minimize contact and shorten service time so that safety during blood sampling is guaranteed in accordance with infection prevention guidelines.

Measures provided by the Phlerobo system against Covid-19

It prevents the formation of crowds. It interacts with patients via smartphone and informs patients about the intensity and availability of outpatient phlebotomy services based on real-time data. It spreads them in time and space.

Patient registration is carried out without contact. No registration desk required. It allows "contactless" registration via smartphone or kiosk. Patient - staff contact is not required for registration and tube preparation.

It provides blood collection with a single point contact. Thus, patient - staff contact is minimized.

It allows patients to practice social distancing. By using smartphones to manage patient flow, it allows patients to use a larger area and make maximum use of social distance.

Some features of the pherobo also create a natural barrier against the spread of Covid-19. For example, the fact that patients do not carry tubes prevents the infection from reaching the laboratory through tubes. The fact that the service times of patients are shortened by 3-4 times compared to other systems ensures that the number of patients waiting in the hall is naturally minimized.

Large-scale safe phlebotomy activities cannot be performed without additional precautions. Triage of symptomatic COVID-19 patients and non-symptomatic patients is not sufficient, as the majority of infectious patients are asymptomatic.

de Jonge and others¹

According to the publication, the details of which are given below, in addition to crowd control and social distance, other measures to be taken against Covid-19 include informing patients and physicians, and applying hygiene rules.

The next potential outbreak will need to be kept in mind in the provision of blood collection services in the period after the Covid-19 outbreak is under control.

¹de Jonge, Niels, Herpers, Robert, Roelofs, Myriam and van Dongen, Edmée. "Blood sampling after COVID-19 − How to organize large scale phlebotomy services in the post SARS CoV-2 era" Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM), vol. 58, no. 9, 2020, pp. e155-e157. https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2020-0671).