By Sandi Larison, MT (ASCP), Microbiology Supervisor, Grande Ronde Hospital La Grande, Oregon

Grande Ronde Hospital is an acute care, not-for-profit, rural hospital located in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon. The lab, which is directed by two pathologists, has 22 employees, 11 technologists, four of which work in the microbiology section.

We started using Sensititre® in March of 1989. Before purchasing Sensititre, we did a comparison between Sensititre and two other competitive systems. We chose Sensititre based on the following:

• Easiest set-up
• Best microbiology technology
• Lowest overall cost per test

Before we decided to purchase the SWIN system, we again looked at competitive systems. The same decision was made, for the same reasons, to stay with the Sensititre line.

We were very pleased to become the first clinical lab to use SWIN Software in the fall of 2003. After seeing the Expert System, we were really sold on the overall product. After using SWIN for several months, we can honestly say we love it! It is very userfriendly. I am not much of a computer specialist, but it has been easy to learn. The “onboard” help is easy to use. We really like the expert comments and the quality control package. The lab technologists here love the QC module, expert rules, and the ease-of-use!

TREK has been very good at keeping up with the new resistance issues that we are bombarded with constantly. Being able to interface the data with Excel will be very helpful in keeping up with epidemiology reporting. The system has sped up the workflow.

The technology associated with Sensititre, as well as the ability to have custom plates, really makes Sensititre and SWIN a unique system!