Time-saving 'employees' work non-stop - robots doing food and supplies delivery in hospitals

Healthcare Financial Management, Sept, 1991 by Deborah A. Teschke

Reggie, Roscoe, Rhonda, Rosie, and Rover are "perfect employees," according to their boss, Sue Taub, manager of dietary services at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Conn. They work 24 hours a day, never call in sick, do not require fringe benefits or shift pay differentials--and each can do the work of 4.2 employees.

Danbury's miracle workers are robots, and last spring the 450-bed regional medical center completed a three-year pilot program with the robots' manufacturer, Transitions Research Corp. (TRC) of Danbury, Taub said. The robots, which are 4-feet, 6-inches tall and the size of washing machines, are used by the dietary department during the day to deliver late trays to nursing units throghout the 12-floor facility, saving employees from the time-consuming task.

After the dietary department closes, the robots motor to central sterile supply, where they are used to deliver supplies to hospital units throughout the night. In the morning, they return to Taub for duty.

"I love them. It's been so exciting to work on developing them," Taub said of her charges. "They do not take employees jobs. They are doing the things [the employees] don't like to do or don't want to do." Taub's department receives orders for 100 trays each day, with the average tray delivery taking 15 minutes. Robots can make the trip in the same time as the dietary workers, Taub said.

The hospital began using robots after TRC approached Danbury officials about being a test center for service robots. "We were looking for a problem to solve, and they had a problem that needed solving," said Gay Bogardus, TRC's director of marketing.

The battery-operated robots have the hospital's floor plan programmed into their software and move throughout the facility without special tracks or corridors. An infrared sensor allows them to call the service elevator on their own. They also have sensors to help plot a course around obstacles such as people or equipment in a hallway. Although the robots do not have arms enabling them to perform "yucky jobs like strip trays," they have voice modules that allow them to announce when they are arriving or leaving and give instructions for emptying the appropriate compartments, Taub said.

Although Danbury had free use of the robots through the test program, Taub figures each robot's $55,000 price tag would have paid for itself in a year or less, after employee salaries and benefits costs are computed. "They can be rented for $5 an hour, and how much labor can you buy for $120 a day?" she said.

Taub stressed that the robots will not replace human employees at Danbury. "They are not caregivers. The objective is, in a cost-effective manner, to give more or better care. One of the things that detracts from giving care is walking up and down the halls for anything -- for trays, medication, specimens, or for charts," she said.

Deborah A. Teschke is news editor of HEALTHCARE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT. Suggestions for "Provider Perspective" topics should be sent to her at HFMA, Two Westbrook Corporate Center, Suite 700, Westchester, IL 60154.