Beschreibung:
<jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>This paper presents a case study of an automated clinical laboratory in a large urban academic teaching hospital in the North of Italy, the Spedali Civili in Brescia, where four laboratories were merged in a unique laboratory through the introduction of laboratory automation.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Materials and Methods</jats:title><jats:p>The analysis compares the preautomation situation and the new setting from a cost perspective, by considering direct and indirect costs. It also presents an analysis of the turnaround time (TAT). The study considers equipment, staff and indirect costs.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The introduction of automation led to a slight increase in equipment costs which is highly compensated by a remarkable decrease in staff costs. Consequently, total costs decreased by 12.55%. The analysis of the TAT shows an improvement of nonemergency exams while emergency exams are still validated within the maximum time imposed by the hospital.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>The strategy adopted by the management, which was based on re-using the available equipment and staff when merging the pre-existing laboratories, has reached its goal: introducing automation while minimizing the costs.</jats:p></jats:sec>