Royal North Shore Hospital’s operating theatres have recently installed the blood management ROTEM Sigma System thanks to a generous donation of $28,457.00 from the RNSH Pink Ladies Committee. 

The ROTEM Sigma System is a point-of care coagulation testing device. It facilitates rapid detection of coagulopathy and goal-directed therapy for patients actively, or at risk of, critically bleeding. It provides specific targeted blood management and is individualised to each patient.

RNSH Patient Blood Management Clinical Nurse Consultant Phillippa Weaver said the new ROTEM Sigma System enables the team to do rapid diagnosis of coagulopathies to optimise patient blood management in surgeries, and in critical bleeding in trauma and obstetric patients, as well as supporting the blood management of patients with hereditary bleeding disorders.

“The new system is fully automated and is simple and easy to use. 

“Any health professional can be easily trained to use it, and it can be accessed 24 hours a day, with a turnaround time of just 10 to 15 minutes.  

“Once a Sigma ROTEM blood sample is run and analysed, the result can be made accessible to any computer screen in the hospital.

“A huge thank you to the Pink Ladies for the donation which has allowed us to provide safer individualised care for our critically bleeding patients.”