We are about a 260 bed hospital transfusion service. We got the Echo because our "mother" hospital signed a contract to receive the best rates for reagents. We do anywhere from 10 to 25 samples a day. I think there will be alot of waste for us, and the biggest advantage will be for the night shift because they can load the sample and walk away. We won't use it for crossmatch because we are required to also perform an immediate spin for all crossmatches. We will probably not use it to do donor reconfirms because it is easier to make the cell suspension with a quick squeeze of a segment instead of trying to get the cells all out of 2 segments with a segment cutter and then letting the cells settle. Since I only get no more than 40 units at a time, I can be almost done by the time I'd be loading the tubes with the cells on the Echo. In other words, for a small volume TS, I don't think it is of value over manual methods. For a blood bank with a donor room and a high volume, it would be great. Maybe will get bigger.
