Loyola Medicine's MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn, Ill., has rolled out Moxi, a hospital robot developed to carry out tasks.
"Moxi is allowing us to think differently about supply delivery and really enabling our use of technology to drive the needs of healthcare," Jennifer Scheeringa, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer at MacNeal Hospital, said in a Dec. 21 press release. "It's keeping nurses where they want to be, which is at the bedside."
The Moxi robots, which have been operating at the hospital for about two months, are designed to transport medications, bed linens, food and laboratory specimens throughout the hospital.
The American Nurses Association supported a case study that assessed Moxi trials at Texas hospitals and found that a majority of nurses said the robot gave them more time to talk with patients being discharged from the hospital, saved them energy, brought joy to patients and their families and ensured that patients always had water when it was time for them to take their medication.
"Moxi has definitely helped with just allowing us to be on the floor a little more, allowing us to be more focused on the patients," said Kalynn Bojorquez, a registered nurse at MacNeal. "I can now be another resource to the nurses that are on the floor, instead of having to go to other units to find or deliver supplies."