ThedaCare’s Neenah facility has been using AI-assisted robotic helpers in recent weeks to lessen the workload on nurses and other hospital workers.
The health system on Friday announced ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah is the first hospital in Wisconsin to deploy the Moxi robotic solutions system, developed by Texas-based robotics firm Diligent Robotics.
“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,” said Grace Gonzalez, vice president of nursing for ThedaCare South Region.
The hospital currently has two mobile robots, which each have one multi-jointed arm and lower compartments for storing lightweight objects for transport. The white robots have square faces with a screen displaying blue electronic eyes. They’re equipped with sensors and AI intelligence, which allow them to map and navigate the hospital’s hallways as they deliver medications, lab test results and medical equipment to various locations.
The machines avoid people and objects in their path, and can operate elevators and open doors including those that require badge access, according to the release. Certain workers including nurses can request Moxi deliveries through iPads located in most of the hospital’s nursing units and departments.
Dr. Andrea Thomaz, co-founder of Diligent Robotics, notes nurses can spend as much as 30% of their time fetching supplies.
“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 … We want Moxi to be a capable, useful teammate that supports, not replaces, valued nurses and hospital staff,” Thomaz said in a statement.
ThedaCare says its new robots have saved nurses hundreds of hours in their first six weeks of operation. They’ve completed more than 1,200 deliveries over about 630 active hours, with each delivery taking 20 minutes on average from start to finish. The most common destinations were telemetry, pharmacy and laboratory departments.
Gonzalez says “it’s been incredibly exciting” to see the project being implemented.
“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,” she said.
