Point of Care Testing Buying Guide
What is Point of Care Testing?
Point of Care Testing (POCT) is defined as medical testing at or near the site of patient care by specially trained healthcare (non-laboratory) professionals.
These tests typically involve blood and urine testing. The goal of POCT is to collect the specimen and obtain accurate results in a very short period of time at or near the location of the patient.
POCT can be carried out in a wide range of settings, in primary care, the community and secondary care, supporting the delivery of the right care in the right place at the right time.
Our framework agreement for Laboratory Diagnostics, Point of Care Testing and Pathology Managed Services covers a broad scope of Point of Care Testing. See our Downloads ▼ section for details of the products areas available and the suppliers that supply against each of these.
Core product offering via the framework
- Biomarker Detection – Cholesterol
- Biomarker Detection – Coagulation
- Biomarker Detection – HbA1c
- Blood Gas Analysis
- Blood Glucose Testing Meters with or without ability for IT connectivity
- Drugs of Abuse
- Multi Test Analysers / Instruments and Tests
- Rapid Test Kits
- Self testing for patients at home
- Urinalysis readers and strips, and visual – read urinalysis strips.
Benefits of Point of Care Testing
The main aim, and benefit, of POCT is to bring the test conveniently and immediately to the patient. This increases the likelihood that the physician and care team will receive the results quicker, enabling clinicians to support the timely diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of patients.
In summary the benefits of POCT are:
- Convenience – reduces time for diagnostic testing and provides quick data availability.
- Generates efficiency in both equipment utilisation and staffing – optimising processes.
- Reduces waste through reduced pre-analytic and post-analytic testing errors, lost samples or degraded samples – minimising the need to repeat these.
- Reduces mishandling and contamination – as there are less humans in the chain.
Procurement options and route to market
Depending on the product and category area you can order directly with the supplier or via our online catalogue.
We can facilitate agreements for your requirements for certain product and category areas.
There is an established route to market to support customers in reducing the requirement for continuous tender waivers to procure products in this area. We have an easy and defined direct award process including objective conditions to support compliant procurements, as well as the option to reopen to further competition to add in your specific and bespoke requirements.
Next steps
If you are interested in purchasing Point of Care Testing products through our framework then please get in touch. We will be happy to talk you through the process and answer any questions you may have.
You can also learn more in our specific Laboratory Diagnostics, Point of Care Testing and Pathology Managed Services buying guide.
You can also contact our Hospital Care team who will be able to help manage this enquiry for you and help you understand some of the routes to market.
