User manual

6-10 VITEK
®
2 Instrument User Manual
510731-10EN1
About the Smart Carrier Station (SCS) Processing VITEK
®
2 Test Cards
Type, Organism, Offline Tests, and Modifier fields can be entered without
having to use the keyboard. If your laboratory uses bar codes for accession
number of specimens, these can also be entered using the scanner.
Cassette. The cassette helps you organize your work. Each cassette has 15
slots for test cards and 15 corresponding wells for specimen test tubes.
Information entry using the SCS bar code scanner or keyboard is organized
by slot, which allows you to create a simple workflow. For example, using the
bar code scanner, you could:
• Scan the accession ID, and place a specimen test tube in its well.
• Scan the test card, and place it in the corresponding slot.
• Scan the Job Aid Card for optional fields such as organism, offline tests, or
modifiers.
Matching ID and AST Cards. When the SCS computer sees an AST card, it
looks at the card in the previous slot. (For Gram negative AST cards, the
previous two slots are included.) If an ID card with the same accession
number is found, the cards are matched into a single group. Matched ID/AST
card groups provide two advantages:
In Automatic Dilution mode, the inoculum for the AST card is created
automatically in the VITEK
®
2 instrument.
The organism identification called by the ID card is automatically applied to its
matching AST card. (Two Gram negative AST cards can be matched to a
Gram negative ID card; only one Gram positive AST card can be matched to
a Gram positive ID card.)
SCS Cassette ID. In larger laboratories, using multiple Smart Carriers, the
Cassette ID field provides an automatic trace between the test card and a
specific SCS. Each SCS is given a three-character name (Cassette ID). That
name is applied to every test card that is processed through the station.
When you look up a test card on the VITEK
®
2 directory, the source of any
test card is instantly known. Smart Carriers can be named for the
technologists using them, for a laboratory location, or for the types of
specimens processed through them.
Safety. The cassette portion of the SCS provides a safe and convenient
method of transporting multiple test cards from the workbench to VITEK
®
2.
Once a sample is placed in the cassette, the technologist never has to touch
it again.
Security. The SCS provides an extra measure of security for your test card/
specimen information. After a cassette is placed in VITEK
®
2, a bar code
reader in the instrument reads the bar code on the test card, and compares
that information with the information it read from the cassette. Any