For the past month or so, Medical Center Hospital has had a robot dietitian.
It’s not like Rosie from the Jetson’s cartoon; it’s a movable video monitor they call Molly where a dietitian named Amy Lofley appears.
MCH Chief Operating Officer Matt Collins said hospitals have had a hard time filling all sorts of jobs, dietitians being one of them, so robots have helped supplement the needs.
Post-COVID, Collins said many people resigned their jobs, including those in healthcare. In response, MCH and Morrison Healthcare, its food service partner, developed the idea of using robots to supplement those services.
“I want to be clear, we’re not using robotics or Molly, to replace anybody’s job. If you want a job at Medical Center, we have hundreds of jobs open so come and talk to us. That’s not it, we’re just trying to supplement our own teams with technology so they can continue to serve the patients here at the hospital in the community,” Collins said.
Officials said feedback from patients on the telehealth dietitian program has been positive, and they’ve commented on how knowledgeable the dietitian is.
Initially, some patients might think they are too old for the technology, but Executive Chef Todd Lavigne said he compares it to FaceTiming with the grandchildren.
“They’re all familiar with that technology,” Lavigne said.
Lofley said at first there’s a little bit of surprise, but they wind up telling her they are so thankful that she came in and they thank her for answering their questions.
“It’s just like you’re FaceTiming with somebody, which everybody’s gotten very used to over the last couple of years,” said Lofley, who was in Las Vegas Thursday during the interview.
Lofley said Lavigne and his team help get the robot up to the floor she needs and then she can drive throughout the hospital.
“We partner with the nursing team to let us into the patient room so that we can conduct our telehealth visits. We go back, hopefully, when we’re done on that floor, if we have to go to another floor if there’s something there we ask them to push the button on the elevator to let us in and go to a different floor,” Lofley said.
“Otherwise, we call Todd and his team to come to the elevator to get the robot so that it can go back down on its charging dock so we can use it anytime,” she said.
When she’s on a patient floor, Collins said, she can go from room to room.
There are many reasons for Lofley or any of the dietitian team to visit patients.
“A lot of the patients that we see are diagnosed with diabetes and so we go in and educate (them) on a consistent carbohydrate diet so we can help them control their diabetes. … But we also go in to make sure that everything else, nutrition-wise, is going okay. Are they eating and getting adequate nutrition to heal? Is there some other disease state that we’re educating on to help improve their lives through diet making sure that a patient’s not malnourished while they’re in there, so we’re able to help promote and continue healing,” Lofley said.
There are about 25 different diets that can apply to patients.
She added that she works with Lead Dietitian Kayal Chandramohan and her team to make sure patients get what they need while they’re in the hospital, but also to be help them succeed when they get home.
Lofley said it’s 50-50 whether patients follow the instructions they are given for when they leave the hospital. The adherence depends on the patient.
“Now, the hospital does have really good food,” Collins said. “We try our best to do that, but some patients you just can’t stop their craving for a Whataburger, so when they get out they head straight for their fast-food restaurant. But we do have a lot of restrictive diets, so if you have a cardiac problem, or you’re in for some other disease process, they do modify your diet with certain calories, certain salt, certain fat ingredients. It can taste different than what you’re used to eating at home. But the nutrition department really does their best to try to customize those meals to patients, so they’d like them.”
With the robot, patients can have even more specialized dietitians than Lofley or Chandramohan if the need arises.
Collins said babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit sometimes have very specific nutrition needs and the dietitians will consult with the OB-GYN, the neonatologist and the mother to make sure that the infant’s diet is optimized.
Collins said there are a dozen or so dietitians available. Lofley runs and supervises robot program for Morrison Healthcare.
Lofley noted that everyone who works for MCH is licensed in Texas and cleared at the hospital just like any other employee. Collins said they go through orientation and complete all the paperwork.
“We consider them completely equivalent in credentials to any other Medical Center employee,” Collins said.
Collins said the technology could be used for other hard-to-fill specialties, but this program is specific to dietitians.
“The hardware itself, the robot, you could put anybody behind it, I suppose. … But the program that we’re trying to promote here specifically is the dietitian part of it,” Collins added.
He said Lofley can be positioned pretty close to the patient’s bed.
It’s about as close to a personal experience as you can get, he said.
“In some cases, it’s more focused because one-on-one you may have your mind start to wander, or you’re watching TV, or whatever, but you’re focused right on her during this whole consult, so it does work out pretty good for us and the patients,” Collins said.
Lofley said she can accurately assess the patients virtually, to an extent.
“There are, of course, limitations because we can’t physically touch the patient. But there are other avenues that we use to make sure that we get equal care for that patient. For example, if there’s something that we need to assess physically, we reach out to Kayal and her team, and one of them will go up,” Lofley said.
“But for the most part, we are able to get the information we need by asking the questions we need,” she said.
Collins said a big part of what the dietitians do is patient education.
“They’re teaching people about the nutritional content of certain foods, portion sizes, what’s good for you and what types of food to avoid. Because I know sometimes we think well everybody knows that, but it’s not true. Many people don’t understand what’s in the package or whatever it is they’re purchasing to cook, and they need to know about carbohydrates and proteins and fats, all of those things, and how to balance their eating habits toward their newly diagnosed or existing condition,” Collins said.
Ted Crowe, director of nutrition services, said a big part of having MCH use the robot is work-life balance.
“This can … be used as an as-needed type of tool. It’s not replacing a position, as Matt said. It’s just as-needed to fill in and supplement Kayal,” Crowe said.
Collins said they would never want anybody to think MCH is replacing all the employees with robots.
“We’re using the robots to help,” Collins said.
Chandramohan said they are really happy to incorporate the technology into the food service realm.
“And as stated by Todd and Matt, it’s really helping us devote more time to our critical care patients and more quality time to enhance the department, as well. We can focus also on our personal growth in terms of continuing education and things like that, so it is definitely something helping us out. And we’re really happy to have Amy,” Chandramohan said.
Robert Steen, an administrative fellow, thinks he wants to be a hospital administrator in the future.
As someone who is learning and reading up on things, Steen said facilities like Houston Methodist and Methodist Dallas are going in this direction.
“I think that this is a huge help for us and for many hospitals throughout the nation. … For dietitians, it gives them the access to be wherever they want to be, as long as they’re licensed in that state to be able to perform where they should be able to perform. And so far, we haven’t had any negative feedback, it doesn’t seem like. Many hospitals haven’t had negative feedback, either,” Steen said.
Collins noted that the information collected is encrypted.
“It is a completely HIPAA compliant software,” Lofley said. “And it is end-to-end encrypted, from one end to the other.”
Collins noted that this is a partnership between Medical Center and Morrison.
“They’ve been our food service partner for over 10 years here,” he said, adding that they also help with their retail venues like the coffee shops on site.
