The healthcare industry is complex. With escalating costs, an aging population, and labor shortages—providers are under immense pressure to improve efficiency in every department of the organization.

Determining a fit for robots in healthcare—and helping VARs understand the opportunity—means understanding providers' current struggles with staffing, training, and retention in key departments where augmenting labor can improve outcomes and fill inefficient gaps.

Who Did We Talk To?

We hired a third-party agency to gather survey responses. The respondents were recruited through a research panel and invited via email to complete the survey.

The respondents were required to be:

• US-based Hospitals, Long-Term Care, or Similar Facilities
• Senior-level or above
• Departments: Patient Transport, Food Services, Environmental/Facility Services (EVS), or Human Resources

                                      Top Staffing Challenges                                                                                                       Existing Automation        

There is a lot of good data below, but the two most significant takeaways are:

• Most healthcare leaders struggle to hire, train, and retain skilled, quality workers. Robots don't have to be a replacement for that labor but can fill gaps and allow for better allocation of human resources while also potentially attracting new employees to an environment where they feel they can take on meaningful work instead of repetitive tasks.
• Automation has been embraced in healthcare but has not yet reached departments like Cleaning or Food Delivery. These are prime areas for Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) to assist and augment human work.

Digging Into the Data

Question 1:

Are your facility services contracted with a service provider (e.g., Sodexo, Compass, Aramark, HHS, etc.) or performed in-house?

Facilities hoping to curb costs may look to avoid expensive third-party service contracts. However, bringing those departments entirely in-house will require a significant investment in new labor and resources, which robots could help alleviate and speed up the transition.

The opportunity for robots exists in departments where workers often perform routine or repetitive daily tasks, those with multiple shifts, and where high turnover is typical. We examined three where robots have been known to be a great fit and asked the following questions with that in mind.

Questions 2-4:

How many full-time employees do you have in...

                  Environmental Services (EVS)?                                                 Food Service?

Patient Transport?

Question 5:

What are the top two staffing challenges in your facility's service departments? (EVS, Food, Patient Transport)? 

Quality of work (42%) and a lack of qualified applicants (38%) are the two biggest challenges for healthcare leaders, with recruiting/hiring costs (33%) not far behind. Deploying an AMR for specific tasks ensures an unwavering level of quality and won't be part of regular turnover costs. 

Question 6:

What does it cost your facility, on average, to recruit, hire, and train a new employee for a services department?

100% of respondents reported training costs above $2500 per employee, with 68% saying associated expenses are $2,500 - $4,999

Question 7:

What is the average hourly rate for full-time employees in EVS, food service, or patient transport? 

Most respondents (74%) said staff were paid between $15-$20 an hour. The average salary for these positions is $38,000. In Question 5, salary expectations were not a significant concern, so focusing on the other pain points and total cost of ownership when selling AMRs could be a winning tactic.

To help you understand the value proposition of an AMR, we've analyzed some numbers for a typical deployment compared to the equivalent labor cost. Even without replacing personnel, most hospitals have about 15% of their non-clinical support staff absent from work each day.

Average Yearly Non-Clinical Employee Cost (Salary + Benefits + Training/Onboarding) = $60,000

Average AMR Deployment Cost (Over Three Years) = $112,000 - $120,000

24/7 AMR = Output of 2.5 People

$60K x 2.5 = $150,000 -- Profitable Within One Year

Questions 8 & 9:

Do you capitalize or lease your EVS, Food Service, and Patient Transport equipment?

If capitalized, in how many years do you expect to recover your equipment investment?

Healthcare organizations are familiar with both capital and as-a-Service models, making similar investments for robots an easy-to-understand pitch from a financial perspective. 

Question 10:

Do you typically have service contracts or planned maintenance on your service equipment? 

Again, equipment service contracts are expected and understood within healthcare. Most AMR solutions also account for maintenance needs, timely replacements, and scalability costs. They are not a one-time, drop and go sale.

Question 11:

Where does your facility currently utilize automation (software, equipment, or processes that can operate and provide services with little to no employee contact)?

We thought it was important to understand how much automation already exists in healthcare and where it was lacking. Scheduling, records, and inventory management are already heavily automated, so there is some familiarity with the idea, but Cleaning/Disinfecting and Food Delivery ranked very low, with Patient Transport only automated in roughly a third of facilities (and probably not the kind of AMR-guided automation we're discussing).

This is your opportunity as a VAR to address a side of facility operations that probably doesn't get the kind of attention as the departments at the top of this list.

Question 12:

How many JCAHO inspections have you had in the last 36 months?

Joint Commission inspections are designed to evaluate the quality of care and identify opportunities for improvement. However, they can be stressful for employers, especially if staffing issues are causing problems with cleanliness, timely performance of daily activities, and patient dissatisfaction. These inspections are required at least once every three years. Imagine providing robotic solutions so that providers can feel confident passing these inspections every time.

Summary - Healthcare AMRs Represent an Opportunity 

• Staffing challenges, including recruitment and retention, remain a significant concern for healthcare leaders and cost the service departments time and money.

• Automation in healthcare is commonplace, but primarily for administrative tasks at the moment. Robots are another form of automation that provides even more opportunities to improve worker outcomes and allocate employees where hands-on work is needed.

• Healthcare buyers are familiar with capital equipment expenses and service contracts, both key elements of adopting a robot solution.

Healthcare VARs interested in adding robots to their solution offerings should focus on departments where staffing is a consistent challenge, and adding automation can help longtime employees focus on the most critical aspects of their jobs, leaving repetitive tasks for autonomous mobile robots like:

• Cleaning floors, countertops, and vacuuming
• Cleaning bathroom surfaces, floors, and toilets
• Delivering food trays to staff, cafeteria guests, and patient rooms
• Wheelchair transport between departments or at a patient discharge

Want to learn more or discuss potential robot opportunities in healthcare, retail, hospitality, or other industries? Contact your BlueStar representative today!