Wednesday, May 25, 2022
The Herman Trend Alert
May 25, 2022
Robots for Hospitals
When I was 16, I was a volunteer at the Touro Infirmary, the hospital in New Orleans, where my father practiced medicine. One of my jobs was to deliver medical materials to the wards, including hypodermic needles and surgical trays of sterilized instruments from Central Supply. Now, there's a robot for that!
Mail Delivery Robots: Around for Years?
Some years ago, the same robots who delivered mail in large companies were programmed to perform delivery functions in hospitals. Now, from Diligent Robots in Austin, Texas comes Moxi, a robotic helper for the hospital floor capable of freeing up nurses to spend more time with their patients and less time running back and forth to the supply cabinet to get required items, like blankets, towels, snacks, etc.
Just in the Nick of Time?
Before Covid, hospitals had already experienced shortages and significant burnout of nurses. There was (and is) a shortage of nurses worldwide. Covid only served to put additional strain on the supply. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that between 80,000 and 180,000 healthcare workers probably died from Covid-19 in the period between January 2020 and May 2021---and that was a year ago! There is now a critical shortage of nurses, due to the stress and burnout brought on by Covid.
Infusion of Capital?
Having received a significant infusion of capital (more than USD $30 million), an Austin robotics firm is now set to ramp up production of Moxi nurse helpers. Moxi is the company's star unit. Sophisticated lackeys, these robots will save their human nurse coworkers thousands of steps, not to mention the strain on their feet and ankles.
Moxi's Many Uses?
Besides being programmed to get blankets, towels, and other regularly requested items, Moxi can be programmed to move gurneys and wheelchairs to where they need to be---similar to self-driving cars.
The Real Benefit?
The most common complaint from nurses is that there is never enough time for direct patient care. As David Marshall, Chief Nursing Executive at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, where Moxi was tested said, "Using the robot to relieve front-line health care workers from point-to-point delivery and retrieval tasks has been successful . . ." However, a spokesperson for the Texas Nurses Association, Lisa Maxwell, said it best: "there is great opportunity for technology to offload some of the non-value-added tasks of nursing to enable nurses to do more of what they love---be with patients and utilize their knowledge and skills to ... support their healing." When implemented, these robots will result in significantly higher rates of retention for nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Special thanks to Axios.com. To read the entire article from them, visit https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2022/04/13/austin-robotics-firm-set-to-ramp-up-production-on-nurse-helpers
Next Week's Herman Trend Alert: Bad Timing: Companies Reducing Mental Health Benefits?
Some misguided employers are cutting back on mental health services, just when they are most needed. These reductions will result in some serious unintended consequences, including higher absenteeism and lower productivity. Besides reversing these policies, what could employers be doing to ensure retention and profit.
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