The Laboratory department at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital has acquired an automated blood culture/bactec 9050 series whose function is to isolate pathogens from blood samples.

The machine detects the organisms thereafter; it produces a signal confirming the presence of impurities.

Prior to this, the laboratory department used manual incubators to detect the organisms. This machine is fitted with 50 stations/slots for inserting sample tubes.

The waiting time has now been reduced to 6-hours down from the 24-hour wait during the manual incubators system.

The Hospital can now meet the shortest turn-around time in patient management owing to the speed of the machine.

This means blood samples from neighbouring Hospitals can be tested in the shortest time possible and by so doing it earns the facility more revenue.

The Bactec 9050 machine allows laboratory technicians to view the results from the machine screen. In cases where samples are more, the computer detects the stations/slots in which the sample is fitted hence giving a corresponding response which can be viewed from the screen in form of a signal.

Where pathogens are present in the sample, the signal is positive and when the sample is pure the signal in negative meaning there are no impurities.