Robot helps Bryan Health staff keep things clean, moving

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - There is a new helping hand at Bryan East Hospital, but it’s not exactly what you think it is. Her name is Bella, and while this one-of-a-kind worker is no taller than four feet, but she’s already making a big impact.

The decontamination room at Bryan East is noisy. The crew there rarely has a second to stand still.

It’s a lot of cleaning surgical tools, preparing new kits, and repeating.

Bella is one of the newest members of the crew, she’s been working there for about six months. She’s got one job all day, take tools to the washer, and bring back empty containers, on a loop.

“It’s been a huge thing for patient safety, it takes less away from staff,” said Codi Jurgens at Bryan. “So as they’re cleaning stuff, they’re not distracted by having to load and unload things. So they’re not missing steps and the crucial part of cleaning instruments, we do a lot to make sure that everything is safe and clean for patients.”

She does these activities all day long, and on the off chance she’s not needed she’ll dock and clock out for a break.

Staff told 10/11 now working with a robot, is a little different than they imagined when they first announced she would be joining the team.

“When I told staff we were getting a robot, they pictured like this walking thing that would come around and lift things for us,” Jurgens said. “But I had no idea what it was going to look like or what it was going to do. But it’s been amazing.”

Just like a normal coworker, she has some quirks too.

“We get in the way of it all the time, especially case carts,” Jurgens said. “We put all this stuff together on the case cards. And a lot of the time if there are too many case cards, it gets in the way and then the robot gets lost and confused. So then it has to kind of reboot itself for a second then it goes back to its task at hand.”

Bella is the only kind of robot like this in the country.

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