Patent ID: 7842504

Claim:
A method for increasing the throughput of an analyzer equipped for conducting a number of different assays on a clinical sample, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a source of samples to be assayed by the analyzer; (b) providing a reaction carousel having reaction cuvettes for containing the samples to be assayed; (c) providing first, second, and third sources of reagents for conducting reactions on the samples in the reaction cuvettes; and (d) partitioning the different assays to be conducted by the analyzer into (i) a first sub-group of assays consisting only of those assays having the highest frequency of being conducted by the analyzer; (ii) a third sub-group of assays consisting only of those assays having the lowest frequency of being conducted by the analyzer; and (iii) a second sub-group of assays consisting only of those assays not contained in either the first or third sub-groups of assays, wherein the first third source of reagents contains reagents needed for conducting the first, second, and third sub-groups of assays, the second source of reagents consists only of those reagents needed for conducting the first and second sub-groups of assays, and the third first source of reagents consists only of those reagents needed for conducting the first sub-group of assays.