As health-care facilities have expanded their floor plates due to a shift towards a higher ratio of single-patient rooms, they are also grappling with tight operating budgets and a high focus on infection control. Together, these factors create a challenge for hospitals to deliver materials throughout the facility in an efficient and time-sensitive manner.

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) can help bridge this gap. AGVs are automated transport systems that autonomously navigate busy back-of-house spaces that are shared with staff, such as corridors and departments. The systems are highly sophisticated and are capable of activating and navigating automatic doors and elevators. AGVs are currently being used for a range of tasks in hospitals, including the pick-up and delivery of meals, waste, linens, supplies and medications.

AGVs have become more common in healthcare capital projects with hospitals recognizing the value these systems can bring in terms of productivity, safety, reliability and efficiency.

Designing a successful AGV system

The design of an AGV system is unique to each project and is dependent on the hospital’s overall business objectives and operational goals. Some of these include improved supply management for clinical services, timely medication and food delivery, and efficiency in the overall supply management processes. It is critical that these goals and operational assumptions align with the AGV and hospital design to ensure a successful system.

Operational considerations

While AGVs have been in use for some time in other industries, a hospital AGV system differs from these in that its ability to consistently achieve performance parameters and throughput is heavily influenced by both the users and the technical performance of the system.

In hospitals, a large number of users from often siloed departments must interact with the system. A key to a successful AGV system is fully defining the operational processes of the AGV users in concert with the AGV system design. An AGV system is heavily dependent upon the human interfaces with the system, such as users respecting the design of the AGV Cart Matrix, prompt removal of carts upon delivery within the scheduled time parameters, keeping all AGV areas free of obstacles, cart alignment, cart loading and removal timing, and having a central operator who monitors the system to proactively ensure on-time deliveries and prevent system backlog. It is also critical that the AGV and associated departmental operations, policies, procedures and staffing are reflected in the basis of the design.

Technical considerations

Throughput of an AGV system is also significantly influenced by the design of the system, which includes space, design of routes, the technical capability of the system, preventive maintenance, WiFi, cellular network (5G), Local Area Network, elevator capacity and integrations with the fire alarm and access control systems.

AGVs require wider corridors and pathways to support their turning radius and bi-directional flow, specially-designed elevator lobbies that support not only the AGV navigation, but also the cart-associated workflows, specific elevator types and capacity, battery charging locations, maintenance rooms and ‘send and receive’ locations within individual departments for AGVs to pick-up and drop-off carts. The AGV schedule and cart quantities determine their required spaces, thereby making early planning critical to the end success of the system.

If designed with these considerations in mind, hospitals can realize a host of benefits including:

Improved productivity. AGVs can reduce supply chain management costs and provide reliability in the transport of supplies compared to non-automated methods.

Availability. AGVs can operate on a 24/7/365 basis. Advances in battery technology have significantly shortened charging times, resulting in AGV systems that can be on call throughout the day to respond to demand. Distribution can be scheduled for off-peak hours.

Reduced damage to facilities. With improved collision detection and environmental recognition, well-designed AGV systems can almost eliminate damage to doors, walls, elevators and other structures in the hospital while also ensuring safety as they are programmed to never collide with other objects (including people).

Predictability and enhanced traceability. AGVs are programmed to operate to a schedule, making it easier to deliver complementary resources within the same time periods. By leveraging WiFi, sensors and radio-frequency identification (RFID) or similar, hospitals can minimize the occurrence of adverse events by facilitating the accurate identification of carts, providing real-time location of materials, and creating a record of all cart movements throughout the facility.

Facility considerations

There are a few important distinctions between the implementation of AGVs in new builds versus existing sites. While new builds can incorporate many of the above requirements into early planning by ensuring that the programmed space requirements are captured, there are limitations to retrofitting existing hospital buildings with an AGV system due to narrow hallways, non-compliant elevators and WiFi limitations.

While a detailed assessment is needed to determine the options available to existing sites, there have been promising advancements in Automated Mobile Robots (AMRs) that can help automate the transport of specific supply management services such as food, medications and supplies. AMRs do not have the same space requirements as AGVs and, therefore, can
mitigate the need for renovations, making it a cost-effective technology for organizations interested in automating their supply chain management processes or implementing just-in-time deliveries.

With increasing digitalization and pressures on operating costs and infection control, AGV systems will play an increasingly significant role in the hospital setting. The advancement of technology both with the AGVs themselves and the broader AGV environment is rapidly progressing—making these systems flexible, practical and effective elements of modern health-care facilities.

Megan Angus, is a principal at HH Angus & Associates. She leads Angus Connect, a growing multidisciplinary division that provides a full suite of technology visioning, planning and design engineering services. She is a registered nurse and an experienced management consultant, with over 20 years of industry experience.

Robyn Munro is an information, communications and automation technology (ICAT) Analyst at HH Angus & Associates. Also a registered nurse with a Masters in eHealth, she uses her experience as both a front-line clinician and digital health researcher to apply a clinical lens to the planning and design of various ICAT solutions.