The cost of the reagents for doing special stains on the cytologix stainer
is higher than the cost of reagents for doing the stains manually.  We took
this into account when deciding to go automated with special stains, but had
to remember that our most valuable and costly resource was the labor that is
involved.  I did a very extensive cost analysis and could share this
off-line, but the bottom line was that we were willing to spend a little
more for reagents and save with the labor.  To make a long story short: the
short, quick stains cost more; but the longer more involved stains cost
less... Depends on how many of each that you do.  Plus we are getting a
higher reimbursement from insurers than what our costs are.  We save a
tremendous amount by freeing up 0.75 FTE each day to do other duties.  Since
techs are impossible to find and costly to train,  the Cytologix has been
worth it's weight in gold.

Bonnie McMahill
Pathology Associates, Inc.
Spokane, WA


------Original Message------
From: Patricia Bourne <p_bourne_14526@yahoo.com>
To: Jeff Silverman <peptolab@hamptons.com>, HistoNet Server
<histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: January 27, 2001 3:32:04 PM GMT
Subject: Re: Cytologix Artisan


Greetings all...I have heard about the stainer but I
have also heard that it is very expensive to use.
What is it running per slide for Immuno and special
stains.  Are you tied into there reagents or can you
use anyones?  We are presently using the Dako stainer
for immunos and it does a very nice job at a
reasonable cost and the system is wide open.  Are
there any cons to the system....thanks for you imput.

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