Robotic cleaning supporting Domestic Service Assistants during a month-long pilot trial at Downe Hospital, to maintain high cleaning standards and improve the patient experience.
Downe Hospital is a modern hospital which was rebuilt in its current site at Downpatrick in 2009 and is one of three hospitals within the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT), Northern Ireland.
Service Assistants play a crucial role in infection prevention. With staff shortages and repetitive manual tasks, SEHSCT sought a solution to enhance efficiency. The Innovation and Market Development Unit, at BSO PaLS engaged with, and supported FAST Technologies, as they introduced Whiz, a robotic vacuum cleaner, for the trial from 11th November to 5th December 2024.
Senior Managers at SEHSCT are renowned throughout the region for their proactive use of new technologies. They were keen to explore the use of autonomous cleaners within the healthcare setting.
Senior Managers wanted a solution to support the Service Assistants, particularly at times of staff shortages, in continuing to provide a clean environment, while reducing the time staff spent on the repetitive, manual tasks; so, staff could focus on more important duties. FAST Technologies presented a range of solutions to the SEHSCT team. Whiz robotic vacuum cleaner was selected to collaborate during the month-long trial with the Support Services team, from 11th November to 5th December 2024.
With a range of different floor types throughout the hospital, all of which required frequent manually vacuuming, Senior Managers required a robotic cleaner which could be used on all surfaces. With features such as swappable batteries, notification pager, HEPA filters and an easy to set up and use format, FAST Technologies identified Whiz as the ideal robotic cleaner for use by Service Assistants within the facility, and on all shifts.
During training and deployment, staff quickly became comfortable with Whiz, and they were instrumental in determining how it could be incorporated within their rotas, to best maximise its use. As one staff member indicated “With easy mapping techniques, and the ability to link multiple maps within a zone, the need for human involvement and corrective intervention was reduced.”
Challenge
- Staff recruitment & retention issues
- Repetitive, manual tasks
- Technology barriers
- Time consuming tasks
Notification alerts were conveniently communicated with the Service Assistants. Staff commented that “this allowed us to easily manage Whiz without having to stay with it, allowing us to get on with our other duties.”
A staff survey response showed a very high level of ‘Excellent’ scores (over 85% of responses scored excellent) for key features such as cleaning performance, ease of use, battery life, obstacle detection and navigation around staff and patients. With staff comments such as “Whiz excelled my expectations as it was much easier to use than expected” and “It proved extremely helpful for the staff, with extra work getting done while Whiz was in use”, it was clear that Whiz had been highly accepted by the team.
Solution
- Technology to plug the labour gap
- Less manual strain on staff
- Easy to operate solution
- Streamline process & increase efficiencies
A Return On Investment (ROI) calculation after a month’s use of Whiz indicated an approximate ROI of £17,000 per annum and with a payback period of approximately 13 months. Further extension of use throughout the facility will only continue to improve the ROI and reduce the payback period.
The Service Assistants, Supervisors and Managers of the Support Services team at Downe Hospital and the wider team at SEHSCT were committed to successfully integrating robotic cleaners within the team. This had an overwhelming positive influence in early adoption and streamlining of the technology into the day-to-day operations.
Robotic floor scrubbers, such as Gausium Phantas, which allow for wet cleaning operations, such as floor scrubbing, were also found to be an ideal solution for cleaning the circulation areas within Downe hospital. Phantas will allow for wet cleaning operations in areas where larger ride-on scrubbers are unable to operate, while reducing the time and effort required by Service Assistants to maintain the high standards set by the hospital.
Julianne, an Assistant Manager at Downe Hospital concluded that “Hospitals are very dynamic environments, and robotic cleaners demonstrate an excellent ability to traverse around trollies, bins and personnel. All the while, collaborating with staff via the notification pagers and alerts, resulting in an extremely low level of downtime, clean floors and very happy staff.”
