Don't be surprised if you encounter robots in hospital
April 02, 2011 9:17 PM
One of the difficulties hospitals have faced for many years is finding adequate staffing, especially nurses and other skilled health care providers.
That is particularly true for hospitals located in rural areas, like Yuma Regional Medical Center. Our local hospital has long scrambled to keep its nursing positions filled, especially during the winter months when there is a large jump in patients due to the elderly winter visitor population.
Of course, filling positions in all health specialities is difficult here. We have a much lower number of doctors per thousand population than urban areas, for example. This puts a big load on physicians here and sometimes makes it difficult for patients to get in to see their doctors in a timely fashion.
Finding ways to fix the ongoing shortage of health care providers can be difficult, especially because we have a big surge in patient population for only part of the year. Not many people only want to work a few months of the year.
But potential help may be on the way for hospitals: robot nurses. Well, actually, they aren't nurses - at least yet. They are more like health aides.
I wasn't aware of this technological advance until recently when I read about them in a USA Today article.
They aren't what most of us envision as a robot. They are more like an automated cart. One manufacturer calls them TUGS because they tug things around. Another maker calls them RoboCouriers.
They are loaded up with supplies and medicines and carry them back and forth to where they are needed. That eliminates the need for humans to do this routine work and frees them up to do more technical aspects of health care.
It is a huge waste of time for a nurse or nurse's assistant to be running around looking for supplies when they can just be brought to them by a robotic courier. That way the skilled caregivers can actually spend more time with patients.
When you think about it, there are lots of routine things that robots could do in health facilities.
Robots are already being used to fill prescriptions in pharmacies. Counting pills and putting them is containers is a routine procedure - something that is perfect for a robot. Of course, humans still need to write the prescription and to check that the robot filled it correctly.
Food service is another area where robots are helping. Instead of having people pushing big loads of food trays down the halls, some hospitals use robotic carts. A food server meets the robotic cart when it arrives from the kitchen and sees that the food is delivered to the right patients. There is no need to have the server pushing the carts of trays, but the server does do what robots can't do - interact with the patients to meet their individual needs and concerns.
The USA Today article noted the robotic carts do have some minimal interaction with humans. For example, if a person gets on the same elevator as a robot, the robot will announce they should push the button for the floor they want since the robot may have selected a different one. Robot carts can also announce their need for a door to be opened so they can enter a closed off area.
And in one of the stranger interactions reported by the newspaper, some robots will ask “What did I ever do to you?” if they are sitting still and someone bumps into them. Even stranger, some people respond to the robot.
Right now the robots are performing very basic labor intensive or boring functions, but they undoubtedly will become more sophisticated with time. Perhaps they will even be able to assist patients in more ways, providing more time for human caregivers to provide the highly skilled tasks only they can do.
The need could come sooner than we expect. The baby boomer population is aging and they will put more and more demand on the already strained health care system, especially in rural areas like ours.
So if you see a robot moving down the hall, don't be surprised.
Terry Ross is director of the Yuma Sun's News and Information Center. E-mail him at tross@yumasun.com or phone him at 539-6870.
That is particularly true for hospitals located in rural areas, like Yuma Regional Medical Center. Our local hospital has long scrambled to keep its nursing positions filled, especially during the winter months when there is a large jump in patients due to the elderly winter visitor population.
Of course, filling positions in all health specialities is difficult here. We have a much lower number of doctors per thousand population than urban areas, for example. This puts a big load on physicians here and sometimes makes it difficult for patients to get in to see their doctors in a timely fashion.
Finding ways to fix the ongoing shortage of health care providers can be difficult, especially because we have a big surge in patient population for only part of the year. Not many people only want to work a few months of the year.
But potential help may be on the way for hospitals: robot nurses. Well, actually, they aren't nurses - at least yet. They are more like health aides.
I wasn't aware of this technological advance until recently when I read about them in a USA Today article.
They aren't what most of us envision as a robot. They are more like an automated cart. One manufacturer calls them TUGS because they tug things around. Another maker calls them RoboCouriers.
They are loaded up with supplies and medicines and carry them back and forth to where they are needed. That eliminates the need for humans to do this routine work and frees them up to do more technical aspects of health care.
It is a huge waste of time for a nurse or nurse's assistant to be running around looking for supplies when they can just be brought to them by a robotic courier. That way the skilled caregivers can actually spend more time with patients.
When you think about it, there are lots of routine things that robots could do in health facilities.
Robots are already being used to fill prescriptions in pharmacies. Counting pills and putting them is containers is a routine procedure - something that is perfect for a robot. Of course, humans still need to write the prescription and to check that the robot filled it correctly.
Food service is another area where robots are helping. Instead of having people pushing big loads of food trays down the halls, some hospitals use robotic carts. A food server meets the robotic cart when it arrives from the kitchen and sees that the food is delivered to the right patients. There is no need to have the server pushing the carts of trays, but the server does do what robots can't do - interact with the patients to meet their individual needs and concerns.
The USA Today article noted the robotic carts do have some minimal interaction with humans. For example, if a person gets on the same elevator as a robot, the robot will announce they should push the button for the floor they want since the robot may have selected a different one. Robot carts can also announce their need for a door to be opened so they can enter a closed off area.
And in one of the stranger interactions reported by the newspaper, some robots will ask “What did I ever do to you?” if they are sitting still and someone bumps into them. Even stranger, some people respond to the robot.
Right now the robots are performing very basic labor intensive or boring functions, but they undoubtedly will become more sophisticated with time. Perhaps they will even be able to assist patients in more ways, providing more time for human caregivers to provide the highly skilled tasks only they can do.
The need could come sooner than we expect. The baby boomer population is aging and they will put more and more demand on the already strained health care system, especially in rural areas like ours.
So if you see a robot moving down the hall, don't be surprised.
Terry Ross is director of the Yuma Sun's News and Information Center. E-mail him at tross@yumasun.com or phone him at 539-6870.
