UWEC announces Rural Health Innovation Alliance
Bringing big city-style treats to Sheboygan
May 1, 2024
NEENAH – ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Neenah (130 2nd St.) has added two new members to its team – and they both have the same name: Moxi (she).
And, though Moxi may not look like a typical healthcare staff member at the center, Grace Gonzalez, vice president of nursing for the ThedaCare South Region, said she’s a big help to those around her.
Moxi is an automated service robot that does non-value-added tasks for team members, which Gonzalez said allows the center to continue to provide the best care for its patients.
“(It allows us to focus) on the things our patients need by taking those non-value added tasks away from those that do their best work,” she said.
Gonzalez said the robots went live earlier this year – with ThedaCare being the first medical center in Wisconsin to implement the technology.
More on Moxi
Some may be asking: what is considered a non-value-added task in the healthcare industry – and how does Moxi come into play?
Essentially, Gonzalez said Moxi does tasks for nurses and other staff that would take away from being with the patients, which in turn streamlines care and provides consistency.
“Moxi will take the time to go out to the floor and pick up labs to return them to the lab so our nurses don’t have to go from the sixth floor to the first floor,” she said. “Or, if a medication that can’t go through the tube system needs to come up to the floor, the pharmacy can call Moxi to come pick it up and deliver it.”
Moxi, Gonzalez said, comes with three locked drawers where the labs or necessary supplies are stored, which keeps them private and protected.
The robot can map the hospital and access certain areas or doors – such as elevators in the building – with a required badge, which Gonzalez said adds to the efficiency of Moxi.
Moxi, however, does not go into patient’s rooms.
Gonzalez said one of Moxi’s other features includes her human-guided learning, in which she can learn from team members and adapt to the environment.
This, she said, has also made Moxi popular amongst visitors.
“There is a lot of positive feedback from the families, visitors and those who interact with Moxi on the way because when someone goes past Moxi, she automatically greets them with heart eyes,” she said.
Moxi, Grace Gonzalez said, has been a morale booster for staff and visitors alike. Photo Courtesy of ThedaCare
When people learn more about Moxi’s job, Gonzalez said they grow to like her even more.
“They’re excited,” she said. “They, too, want to make sure our team members are as close to the bedside as possible.”
Some visitors, she said, have even asked to take a photo with the service robot.
“An older couple was sitting in our cafeteria‚ and they saw the robot go by‚ ” she said. “I talked about what she did, and they wanted a picture with her.”
Having two Moxis provides the availability for at least one of the robots always running, which Gonzalez said makes everything flow as smoothly as possible.
“There are four chargers throughout the hospital,” she said. “So, when they’re not doing a task, they automatically go to the closest charging station to charge.”
If maintenance is needed on the robots, Gonzalez said the work is done remotely through Diligent Robotics, the creator of Moxi.
“Diligent Robotics monitors the robot 24/7 through their system, and they can help us with anything we need,” she said. “We still have some team members here currently who are fine-tuning Moxi using the elevator by herself.”
As Moxi has continued to become integrated at the medical center, Gonzalez said other departments have started to request to use her.
“We’re able to take medications from our inpatient pharmacy and send them to our outpatient infusion clinic,” she said. “She’ll be going to the children’s hospital here shortly.”
Within the first six weeks of use, Gonzalez said Moxi made more than 1,200 deliveries with a 20-minute average delivery time and logged nearly 630 hours.
A morale booster
While Moxi makes a nurse’s job easier, Gonzalez said the addition of the robot isn’t due to a lack of staff.
“We’re fortunate to have the right amount of nurses for the patients we have,” she said. “And not only does Moxi deliver things, she’s a morale booster, (too).”
For example,Gonzalez said some days, Moxi is dressed up for certain holidays, such as Cinco de Mayo.
“(The team is) excited and happy to see her and grateful to ThedaCare for taking this leap of faith in innovation,” she said.
Implementing Moxi at the Neenah medical center, Gonzalez said, highlights ThedaCare’s mission of being grounded in innovation and putting patients first.
“Our goals are to keep patients within their community and make sure we’re taking good care of them,” she said. “Moxi is one of the tiny things ThedaCare does in innovation to make sure we can take care of our patients for the future.”
To learn more, visit thedacare.org.
