Robot cleaner a 'game changer' for hospital infection
epidemic
January 26, 2012
CNN Money By: Eilene Zimmerman
The article I read was about a
robot that sterilizes hospital rooms. This robot is expensive, but it can clean
a room in about 5-10 minutes, which is very quick. Besides that, it uses a
special type of ultra violet light instead of chemicals, so the hospitals that
use the machine do not have to keep buying these chemicals for the robot. Two
of these robots are already being used at a hospital in Massachusetts, and they
are yielding great results. They have already saved five lives, because they
have reduced hospital-acquired infection by 67%.
Personally,
I think that these robots are excellent. They cost about $80,000 which may seem
like a great deal at first, but comparing this to the billions of dollars that
hospital-acquired infections cost American hospitals each year, it is an
extremely small price to pay. They are quick, taking only five to ten minutes
for a whole room. This is about as quick as a person can clean a room, but the
robot sterilizes everything that its ultra violet light touches, which a
cleaning person can not do 100% of the time. The fact that the company is small
at the moment means that they are able to pay closer attention to their
customer’s feedback, and to make changes that will help hospitals. I think that
hospitals should definitely use these robots to clean for several reasons. The
two robots at the hospital in Massachusetts have already saved the hospital nearly
$3 million already. This is a huge gain for the hospital financially, and a
gain in their record, because hospital-acquired infections have dropped
significantly as a direct result of these robots. In my opinion, if a hospital
is thinking of getting a couple of these robots, I would strongly suggest that
they do. I was shocked at how common hospital-acquired infections were after
reading this article, and it does not take a great deal of thinking to figure
out that this rate of infection from a place that is supposed to help people,
is far too high. This is a great use for modern technology, and it can save enormous
amounts of time, money, and lives.
This is crazy! I wasn't aware that they created robots specifically for purposes like this. I think that this is a great idea! The initial price at first is costly, agreed, but the benefits and the amount you save after you buy one or however many you buy is substantially higher than the price you bought it for. I agree with you fully. I feel that more hospitals should be using these, and that more awareness of these robots should be out there. There are many benefits to these robots like you discussed, such as, time to clean, cost saved in sanitation, the safety in the methods of the sanitation, and the decrease in hospital caught infections is a HUGE plus!! These robots not only help clean, but they also help take off some of the pressure from the doctors and nurses from their already stressful jobs, which helps reduce mistakes that they make. I feel that this is another point that can help even more strengthen your point!
ReplyDeleteWhat will technology bring us next? This is great that its saving lives but technology may be hurting us more than helping. I never even thought how much money hospitals spend on hospital related infections, billions of dollars. I believe my aunt works at one of these hospitals in Boston where these robots are already. Last time she was talking about how quickly and thoroughly they clean the rooms. I thought in this day and time that people didn't die from infections anymore, I thought that was a thing of the past. Maybe in the future robots are not only cleaning the rooms but we go and see a robot and they diagnose our illness and prescribe the right medication.
ReplyDeleteThese robots are an excellent idea and clearly have great results. For the cost of only $80,000, I would say that this is a great deal. $80,000 is not that much money compared to the other technology that some hospitals have. For reducing infections by 67% I would say no amount of money should be a problem with saving peoples lives. Though this world is starting to get a lot more technology, including robots, the only problem I can see with these robots is how they are taking other peoples jobs. More and more hospitals should start putting these robots in their hospitals even if it is at the expense of some people losing their jobs. I would say a very small portion of people losing their jobs is not as bad as people dying from infections. If you can get these into more hospitals other than hospitals a couple in Massachusetts I think there would be a lot of saved lives, which will make this world a better place. My final thoughts of these robots are they are definitely going to make the world better and safer and there should be no question whether or not if we should get more of these in hospitals. Unless the people who clean the rooms starting producing the same numbers in reduced infections then this just shouldn't be a question.
ReplyDeleteThis robot seems really cool and like a great idea. At first I thought it would be too expensive, at $80,000, but after you said that it saves a hospital about 3 million dollars, it seems like it is worth it. It is really cool how it uses the ultra violet light to clean a room. It is totally worth it because it helps reduce hospital-acquired infections. I feel like if these hospitals in Massachusetts keep giving good feedback, we will easily start seeing more of these robots. Although the cleaning people will lose jobs, these robots can help create some jobs. They will need people to work at the factories to make the robots. Technology is moving fast, and great inventions are being brought up. It’s time for many places to catch up with technology because it will only help them. I see robots being big in our future and doing many things we would only imagine today.
ReplyDelete