Clinical Scorecard: Optimizing Robotic Fleet Size and Composition to Balance Cost and Performance in Operating Room Mobile Service Robots

At a Glance

Key Highlights

• Mobile robotic fleets can relieve human personnel from repetitive, heavy, or ergonomically challenging tasks in OR wings.
• Simulation-based study modeled a German university hospital OR wing environment to determine optimal fleet size and composition.
• Robotic assistance aims to maintain or surpass human-only performance while balancing cost, space, and safety requirements.

Guideline-Based Recommendations

Diagnosis

• Identify workload and task demands of circulating nurses through direct observation and workflow recording (e.g., laparoscopic cholecystectomies).
• Assess OR wing environment characteristics including space, safety, and hygiene constraints.

Management

• Implement autonomous mobile robotic systems to support non-sterile tasks such as transporting heavy objects and collecting surgical materials.
• Formulate mobile robotic fleets rather than single robots to handle higher workloads and enable context-dependent resource management.
• Design robotic capabilities (e.g., speed, autonomy) to meet or exceed human performance levels.

Monitoring & Follow-up

• Use simulation tools tailored to the specific OR wing layout and workflows to evaluate fleet performance and optimize size/composition.
• Continuously monitor task execution times and robot response to surgical team requests to ensure timely support.

Risks

• Consider safety and hygiene requirements rigorously to prevent contamination and accidents in OR environments.
• Balance fleet size to avoid excessive space usage and operational costs while maintaining performance.

Patient & Prescribing Data

Patients undergoing surgeries in OR wings supported by robotic assistance systems

Robotic fleets can improve surgical workflow efficiency by reducing delays and workload on circulating nurses, potentially increasing patient throughput.

Clinical Best Practices

• Record and analyze real clinical workflows to inform robotic task planning and fleet design.
• Customize simulation environments to reflect actual OR wing layouts and processes for accurate performance assessment.
• Integrate robotic systems gradually, ensuring compliance with clinical safety and hygiene standards.
• Focus on ergonomic improvements to make nursing roles more attractive and sustainable.

References

• Shortage of healthcare personnel and impact on OR wings
• COVID-19 impact on surgical personnel and resource allocation
• Robotic assistance in hospital environments
• Simulation study on hospital robotic fleets by Jeon et al.
• Standardized workflow phases in laparoscopic cholecystectomy