Robots are being welcomed into the hospital community as part of the staff. They will be assisting with jobs previously known to injure workers. Read more about this on Scott Houghton's Healthcare blog!

1. Text
Robot Healthcare Workers Are
Here!
Scott Houghton

2. The Idea
For those who watch a lot of science fiction,
the thought of having robotic assistants in
hospital and medical settings might inspire
fear, amazement, or both. While the idea of
our robotic servants rising against their
masters and beginning a war is a trope
common to most, if not all, science fiction
stories, the fact is that that probably won’t
happen and until then robots have a myriad
of uses; particularly in the medical field.
With that in mind, the announcement
coming from the University of California,
San Francisco that they’re going to be
introducing robotic assistants to their
medical facility should be seen as a huge
step forward for both robotic technology
and healthcare assistance.

3. For Menial Work
Nurses are an incredibly invaluable asset to
hospitals and doctors. However while they play
a large number of useful functions, much of
what they do is menial (such as delivering food,
transporting waste and blood samples, and
other tasks) and can be done by a robot with no
training. This would free up time for nurses and
would allow them focus on where they’re
needed most, such as assisting doctors and
providing more specific and intimate care to
patients who need it the most. Robotic
assistants would also reduce the stress nurses
feel by taking over aspects of the job that are
susceptible to human error, such as the
delivering of blood samples and specific data to
specific locations. Tired people makes mistakes,
that’s a fact, and with nurses and doctors
constantly running around it’s easy to make a
mistake that might have fatal ramifications.

4. The Future is Here
The brand new medical center for UCSF
will be introducing 25 Aethon “tug” robots to
its staff when it opens this Sunday. The
robots will take over aspects of the job that
frequently led to injury and human error
such as moving heavy material to different
locations. With injury rates in hospitals at 4
times higher than other jobs, the robots will
reduce those injuries while increasing the
level of service hospital staff can provide.
The robots would also be able to work a full
24 hours (with 2 getting a break every
night) and can open doors by themselves,
making it so that they don’t need as much
human supervision. The future is quickly
approaching and if it continues along this
path, I only see good things happening.

5. Scott Houghton and Healthcare Consulting
http://scotthoughtonmd.org/