The latest addition to the hospital is tasked with transferring lab specimens.
Of all of the mission partners at OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony’s Health Center, Dwight is the most unique. Why? He’s a robot.
Since May, Dwight has served as a pneumatic tube system, transferring lab specimens from the Emergency Department on the ground floor to the Lab on the first floor. Whereas this task previously took Mission Partners away from their respective units for a matter of time, they’re now able to spend more time on patient care.
“At first, I think there was a little bit of a [surprise], like ‘what’s this new thing roaming the halls,’” Traci Bromaghim, director of nursing practice and operations for emergency services, told HealthLeaders. “But once the education got out there, he’s been well accepted both from the Mission Partners and our community.”
Dwight was built by Pringle Robotics, a robotics company based in Peoria, IL, with his development funded by the donation of one of the hospital’s benefactors, who he’s also named after. Sarah Braundmeier, manager of laboratory services, and her team took the initiative to make him more personable, giving him eyes and a smile, equipping him with a nametag, and making him a Mission Partner.
Working with the robotics company and the hospital’s elevator company, they were able to program Dwight to be able to call for an elevator on his own and know which floors to go to. The learning curve for his utilization was short and he was used within his first hour at the hospital.
OSF Saint Anthony’s also has a contract with the robotics company where they will come fix Dwight if needed, along with continuing to enhance his capabilities.
“I have an app on my phone where I can reach out to them at any time to get him fixed,” Braundmeier said. “It’s having that constant communication with them to help us out so that it’s not just solely our responsibility to try to work through any issues that we might have.”
According to Bromaghim, Dwight is polite and interacts with people, telling them what he’s doing. Laboratory staff enjoy interacting with him and patients have been receptive to him as well. He makes an average of 50 trips to the hospital’s lab a day, with a total of 18,250 trips projected for his first year.
Jerry Rumph, president of the hospital, has seen the excitement around Dwight firsthand, from paramedics stopping in for a glimpse of him to other members of the system.
“I’ve been in meetings where people in our ministry, because we’re one of 15 hospitals, had been following [Dwight’s journey] on social media,” he said. “Everybody finds him to be quite intriguing.”
Jasmyne Ray is the revenue cycle editor at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Dwight has been transferring lab specimens at OSF Saint Anthony's Health Center since May 15.
The robot is named the hospital benefactor who donated the funds for its development.
In addition to being able to call for elevators and move around the hospital autonomously, Dwight can speak and interact with people and let them know what he's doing.