Updated January 19, 2014.

The main reason why hospitals should "hire" more robots is not to replace clinical job functions like nurses and doctors. Well, not really. Let's take a brief look at some of the work robots are able to perform today in hospitals, and then explore their impact on healthcare quality and hospital financial performance.

What are robots doing in hospitals?

Companies like Vecna Medical of Cambridge, Massachusetts are expanding the application of robotics into healthcare.

Their goals? Improve the quality of medical care that patients receive, improve patient and staff satisfaction, and improve financial results for hospital balance sheets.
Vecna Medical, for example, has developed a product solution to address all of the above called the QC Bot(R). Their QC Bot(R) is roughly the size of a large medical supply and procedure cart. It navigates its way through complex hospital campuses, both indoors and out, thanks to its built in software-based guidance system.

Its main purpose? Delivery and transport of materials, such as medical supplies, medications, and even meals, throughout the hospital. A human materials manager, a pharmacist, or a dietary services manager, can load the QC Bot(R) from their respective "base of operations" such as the materials management supply room, the hospital pharmacy, and the dietary services center in the cafeteria.

The QC Bot(R) does more than just transport medical supplies, medications, and meals. The user interface resembles a computer screen that allows for telemedicine and teleconference functions, and even some patient self-service functions such as check-ins, bedside registration, and wayfinding.

Benefits of 'Bots'?

Back to why robot solutions like Vecna Medical's QC Bot(R) are designed to replace hospital staff, but in a good way.

• Benefit # 1: The average nurse walks roughly 5 miles per shift of work. Much of this travel time is not spent travelling from one patient to the next to apply hands-on, bedside care. Unfortunately, most of the walking is spent in the pursuit of hunting for and gathering medical supplies, collecting and executing physician orders, and performing registration and discharge tasks. These routine and mundane tasks can be performed by robots now. Thanks to the robot solution, quality of care improves through efficiency.
• Benefit # 2: Nurses can now claim more time during their shift to spend on patient care. In fact, the robot allows for a redefinition of 'patient care.' Whereas historically, gathering supplies, coordinating meals and medications, and various forms of paperwork and documentation were considered 'patient care', now these administrative and logistical tasks can be defined and assigned to what they truly are. And nurses can get back to the highly-skilled interpersonal clinical tasks that they have been trained for, and that patients really need in order to heal. Quality of care improves through increased staff satisfaction.
• Benefit # 3: Medical errors have been a major cost to the healthcare delivery system. First and foremost, there is a human cost. Medical erros have caused death, dismemberment, and minor injuries. Some of the factors contributing to medical errors includes over-worked and exhausted staff, longer shifts, and increasing amounts of tasks to be performed. All of these, in human beings, contribute to mistakes. If robots can take away the routine tasks, and clinicians and support staff can reclaim more focus on tasks and responsibilities that have a more direct impact on patient care, medical errors should decrease. Quality of care improves through reduced medical errors.
• Benefit # 4: Hospital balance sheets benefit in a few ways. Highly-trained clinical staff are expensive to employ. And they are a necessary expense to care for patients. So why would hospital leadership want them spending their valuable time performing low-skill, mundane, routine tasks? Automate that work through robotics. Quality of care improves because the appropriate work is performed by the appropriate person. Wasteful effort decreases. Costs shift to less-expensive, one-time purchase, and low-maintenance automation solutions. More of the budget can now be invested in what distinguishes a hospital - patient care performed by highly-skilled human clinicians.
• Benefit # 5: Patient satisfaction can increase as a result of these improvements in efficiency also. I've worked in hospitals since 1995. Patients were getting lost roaming through the corridors back then, and they still do today. Wayfinding remains an important patient satisfaction initiative in hospitals. If this too can be automated, and thus more accessible to patients and family members, satisfaction scores can improve. How about lines and waiting? These are among the biggest complaints patients and family members have when they are filling out their satisfaction surveys. If a solution like the QC Bot(R) can save them from lines and reduce their waiting times because they are able to check-in themselves on a computer screen, people keep moving, patient flow improves, and patients can experience that progress. That's a good recipe for better satisfaction survey scores.