ACT Instruments

We were asked by our Cath Lab team and our Perfusion team to switch from the iStat ACT to the Hemochron.  We have had it now for a couple of years and have been very satisfied with it.  The physicians can see the the numbers as the test is running so it gives them a better idea of where their patient is during the procedure.  The Hemochron is also not as cold temperature sensitive as the iStat is and that is a staff satisfier.

We switched from Medtronic ACT to the istat ACTk about 2 years ago in the Cath lab.  Medtronic is heavy on QC which was a challenge to get compliance, and ours were not interfaced. The istat is interfaced so it is much easier to control operator access, resulting, charges, etc. QC every 30 days, lot# or shipment and don't have to QC each meter every time.  The Cath lab and physicians have been happy with the istat and they make the POC job a lot easier, however they are quite a bit more expensive than Medtronic.  As mentioned above the istat is temperature sensitive and will lock out if too cold, sometimes they have to move the istat to the control room. (have never used Hemochron so can't give a comparison)
Perfusion chose to stay with the Medtronic HMS platform so they could run heparin assays. 

We use the Hemachron and it works very well. As far as temp comparison we do have one department that has to keep it off the metal counter since it can get too cold during its EQC. We are trying to interface it with UniPOC but I am running into an issue where everything works and crosses over to UniPOC and patient chart but the patient and QC data is erased from the instrument after transferring to UniPOC. The vendor does not have an answer for us on if it should retain the information or not. Not a real big deal, but something I am still looking into. We use it in EVOR, Neuro lab, Cath lab, EP lab, COU, and for ECMO in our cardiac ICU.

We also use the Hemochron Signature Elite Jr. There was a time when we were considering changing to the iSTAT but the perfusionists only want the Hemochron. They like that they can see it counting in real time. The QC can be maddening, and there is a definite learning curve for operators getting the technique *just* righty..