Robots coming to the rescue, supporting humans on the front line in times of crisis
The lifeline we need may be in robots to support (not replace) front line staff in times of chaos and crisis, helping mitigate risks and reduce human burnout. There are situations where its wiser to send a robot than risk a human life especially to aid disaster recovery efforts and more so where there may be environmental contamination posing a risk to humans.
As an example, UBTech is a company already deploying robots to help on the front lines to tackle COVID-19 through thermal temperature detection to help spot fevers and identify potentially infected persons through asking questions, disinfecting public spaces or deliver important messages at masse scale.
Robots will not replace humans, but rather help augment human capability extending currently limited resources so staff can focus on the higher-value work. In the health sector, administrative tasks currently performed by doctors and nurses take them away from the higher-value work that could more efficiently and effectively be executed by robots, from basic triaging, diagnosis to collating information, help nurses track medication dispensing and informing potential patients the best way to seek treatment such as selecting which medical centers or specialist services to make an appointment with. Many would agree that the people resources should focus on the emotional connection with fellow humans, and not meaningless paperwork (that delegate the paperwork to the robots). I’ve personally seen the paper files that are carried in hospitals with the patients on the gurney from section to section all across the hospital, 20th-century information management in 21st-century time taunting nurses while they try to balance face to face patient care while scrambling through files to get the information they need about each patient. I roadtested the idea and spoke to several nurses at a hospital if they would welcome a digital assistant to speak to that aimed to reduce their admin and they loved the concept!
What's the business case for a robot?
- Temperature monitoring
- a robot can check ~200 people’s temperature per minute vs. 6 shifts of human resources to cover the same volume
Here a robot is being used to check temperatures at points of entry
2. Drug dispensing
The more the hands, the lighter the work as robots are being used to help with delivering and dispensing medication (closely monitored by a nurse, pharmacist or other medical staff of course).
- Improves patient safety by reducing the rate of dispensing errors
- Real-time drug stock management monitoring, analysis, and re-ordering prediction. Reducing staff time to conduct inventory checks
3. Delivery Robots
Robots can be used to deliver food to patients
4. Cleaning Robots
Robots are also being used to disinfect public spaces
Some are testing the effectiveness of UV (perhaps you can tan at the same time ..)
Robots represent the physical hardware side of the solution, real intelligence is in the software. AI, digital assistants & automation can allow organisations to rely less on human effort reducing disruption to businesses when workers are unable to come into work. These are basic low-level tasks that should continue and not rely on people resources.
- 1st level customer service, basic FAQs, enabling self-service customer information record queries or updating personal information
- 1st level employee payroll management
- 1st level accounts payable, supplier invoice processing
- 1st level debt collection
- scheduling appointments
- placing customer orders
AI, automation and robotics will help with social distancing and productivity gains to salvage profitability.
Get in touch if your company is considering to embed robots into your organisation.