ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – There are two new staff at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
They don’t take any days off, work 24/7 and their colleagues name them their variations of “R2-D2.” The hospital lately employed two robots that assist nurses decide up and ship labs and prescriptions, letting them spend extra time with their sufferers.
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Massive image view:
“Our nursing groups and our pharmacy groups are a few of our busiest folks, and we wished to discover a approach to save them minutes every hour, and we knew that would add as much as hours every week for our crew members,” Craig Anderson, BayCare’s vp of innovation, stated. “Via the usage of Beaker and Hygiea, we now have saved 1000’s of hours for our nurses and our pharmacy groups.”
The robots are affectionately named “Beaker” and “Hygeia.”

“We even ran a contest right here in order that the crew might title every one of many robots,” Anderson stated. “Beaker, they’re the lab, beakers, it simply suits proper there. Hygeia is the Greek goddess of well being, and that simply match precisely for what pharmacy does for our hospital.”
They’re programmed to navigate via the halls and are capable of open doorways, even safe ones. The robots can name elevators too. Approved crew members with badge entry assist them out after they get to their vacation spot, loading in or taking out the supply from the robots’ cargo house.
What they’re saying:
“One of many issues we actually love about him is that he permits us to be bedside,” Kristen Lefkimiotis, nurse supervisor of CVICU and dialysis, stated. “By us, I actually imply my crew. They’re those doing the laborious work. They get to spend extra time with our sufferers, their households, guests, offering care, calming fears. The crew loves him. They get very festive with him, particularly Halloween, they dressed him up.”
Anderson stated he was impressed seeing an identical robotic delivering gadgets to company at a Miami resort.

“I assumed that this may very well be similar to what we do in a hospital. We’re in a really busy surroundings, and we wish to serve our company the perfect we will,” he stated.
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They reached out to the corporate, designed Beaker’s uniform, full with scrubs and a stethoscope, and he set to work. He did such a very good job, they employed Hygeia not lengthy after.
Dig deeper:
St. Anthony’s Hospital Basis donated $119,000 for every. Whereas Beaker helps with labs, Hygeia helps with prescriptions.
“Usually, the pharmacy technicians will ship typically a pharmacist, however in case you have competing calls for all on the similar time, it makes it actually laborious to be all over the place directly, so having Hygeia, Beaker’s bestie, is basically useful,” Lefkimiotis stated.
Perhaps the cutest half apart from their nametags? The duo does a dance after making a supply.
The Supply: FOX 13’s Kailey Tracy spoke with St. Anthony’s Hospital medical employees and BayCare management for this story.