As visitor restrictions wore on into late spring, skilled nursing facilities across the country invited a new kind of guest into their buildings.
A range of robots have been offering companionship, communication tools and expanded cleaning capabilities while also reducing in-person contact and infection risk for staff and residents.
Ava Robotics donated a telehealth robot to Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center, Massachusetts’ first COVID-19 treatment and recovery center.
The robot, which the staff calls Lindsay, enables clinician visits and connects families with loved ones. Other Ava machines have been activated at Garnet Hill Rehabilitation and Skilled Care in Texas and in several hospitals. The maker said more deployments are “in the pipeline.”
The Ava telepresence bots, reminiscent of the all-white machines in Disney’s film “Wall-E,” are powered by Cisco’s Webex-conference tool. They can navigate hallways alone, stopping to meet with residents who want to connect with family members or service providers.
Connected Living also has started distributing Temi interactive robots to senior living and healthcare facilities as part of a larger COVID-19 toolkit.
“Temi allows us to safely check temperatures at the door, set up family and doctor social or health visits, and interact with unlimited engagement content,” said Sarah Hoit, CEO and co-founder of Connected Living. Maplewood Senior Living introduced Temi to the marketplace by purchasing a robot for its Inspir Modern Living community center in Manhattan.
Temi features digital screen “faces” and interacts with humans via autonomous navigation, dynamic video, enhanced audio and advanced artificial intelligence.
Meanwhile, cleaning bots such as Xenex Disinfection Services’ Light Strike system have been welcomed in more long-term care facilities. Testing by 3M found the xenon ultraviolet light those machines use to decontaminate rooms does not damage N95 respirators.
