LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – The world is dealing with a nursing crisis. In the United States, two-thirds of nurses say they are considering leaving the profession. Amid rising burnout, retirement, and an aging population, there may not be enough nurses to handle rising demand.
One answer might be robots. Not to replace nurses, but to help them with tasks that take up patients’ time.
From retrieving supplies and delivering food to running to get medicine, Moxi is paving the way for robots in healthcare. “We can’t just crank out nurses, and the demand is off the charts right now,” says Aaron Miri, chief digital and information officer at Baptist Health. “So how do you make them work smarter instead of harder? Moxi is able to The fastest way to do it.”
Moxi uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to roam the halls and navigate people. Equipped with three locking drawers and an automatic arm.
“Moxi will go to pharmacies and eateries for food and supplements, and our clinical teams can administer medications to patients so they don’t have to leave where they work,” says Tammy Daniel of Baptist Health.
Recent studies have shown that nurses spend at least an hour per shift tracking devices. That’s where Moxi is making the biggest impact in hospitals like Baptist Health.
“When I just walked yesterday, it took Moxie about 15 minutes to walk from the pharmacy. So when you multiply it multiple times a day, then multiple times a week,” Daniel said.
“It means more time for our patients, more time for us to do what we need to do for our patients and our families,” said Lionel Quinn, a nurse at Baptist Health.
Now, Moxi is in a hundred hospitals across the country, but there are concerns that robots may replace humans. A survey of nurses who worked with delivery robots found that about half were concerned that robots would pose a threat to their jobs.
“Every organization is figuring out how best to use the human resources it has,” says Gregg Springan of Diligent Robotics. “Moxie really is no substitute for a human touch.”
Currently, robots in healthcare are only used for repetitive, time-consuming tasks without patient interaction. Robots that roam the halls could be one of many solutions to the growing healthcare crisis, experts believe.
“Put it this way, if Tesla has had such a big impact on the community by having self-driving cars, why can’t self-driving robots have the same impact on health care?” Miri asked.
At Cedars Sinai, within six weeks of initial implementation, Moxi saved clinical teams nearly 300 miles of walking.
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