NEENAH, Wis. — ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Nennah said it is working on improving patient care with the use of robots.
ThedaCare is the first hospital in Wisconsin to deploy Moxi robots to enhance patient care. It already has two Moxi robots.
Team members will be able to use Moxi to grab supplies, deliver lab samples, pick up prescriptions from the pharmacy and complete other non-patient care tasks.
Hospital officials said this will allow their staff to focus on patient care.
“We are excited to introduce Moxi to our teams, patients and visitors,” said Grace Gonzalez, BSN, MBA, CMSRN, vice president of nursing for the ThedaCare South Region. “We have been exploring innovative ways to support our care teams to offer them resources that will allow them more time to continue providing comprehensive patient care.”
The robots are mobile, and have one arm, an array of sensors and three locked drawers. The construction of the robots allows them to navigate through the hospital.
Team members can request Moxi through iPad kiosks that have been placed around the facility. The robots will work on multiple nurisng units.
These specific robots were designed for busy environments like hospitals; they can open elevators and doors. Plus, they can avoid people and objects in the hallways.
The Moxi robots are also designed to learn from team members.
“What we have seen is that nurses can spend an astonishing 30% of their time fetching and gathering supplies,” said Andrea Thomaz, co-founder of Diligent Robotics. “That’s a lot of time that could be spent with patients, so we designed Moxi to be a good teammate for nurses and health care workers. Having Moxi fetch and deliver items from point A to point B keeps care teams at the bedside. We want Moxi to be a capable, useful teammate that supports, not replaces, valued nurses and hospital staff.”
During the six week initial implementation period, the Moxi robots made more than 1,200 deliveries, averaging 20 minutes in delivery time.
The robots completed nearly 630 total active hours and predominantly frequented telemetry, pharmacy and laboratory departments.
“It has been incredibly exciting to see this project implemented at our hospital,” said Gonzalez. “In just the first couple of weeks since Moxi was introduced to the staff, we are already seeing the impact it is making on our team’s efficiency. The innovative initiative is a testament to ThedaCare’s unwavering commitment to embracing new technology, and thinking outside of the box for the betterment of our patients and our teams.”
The Moxi robots were created by Texas-based company Diligent Robotics. The robotics company develops artificial intelligence that can collaborate and adapt to humans.