The nursing home, in coordination with the state and UMass Memorial Medical Center, announced in late March that it was moving residents out in order to be converted to a recovery hospital for COVID-19 patients.
The decision was met with anger from many patients’ families; but management at the home said the move was necessary to protect the nursing home’s vulnerable residents from the spread of coronavirus.
“In the end, the motivation for us in moving residents out of the building is to protect them from infection and almost certain death from leaving them in a building that is going to take 90-some intakes a month,” Matt Salmon, CEO of Salmon Health and Retirement, the company which owns and operates Beaumont, said in a March 28 interview. “I can’t in good conscience take a COVID-positive population into a building with a population that is most susceptible to COVID complications and deaths.”
The nursing home received further criticism, however, when patients at the home tested positive for the coronavirus and a patient who had been moved from the home later tested positive for coronavirus.
With nursing homes across the country becoming hotspots for coronavirus cases, Gov. Charlie Baker has refocused on opening up shuttered nursing homes for COVID patients rather than using operating homes, the Boston Globe reported last week.
Neville said the 147-bed nursing home has cared for 82 COVID patients as of Tuesday, with 63 patients in house and 22 discharged.
But the media attention, perhaps, had a silver lining.
Nursing home officials said stories caught the eye of Youssef Saleh, CEO of Ava Robotics Inc., of Cambridge.
“Historically, most of our use cases have been within enterprise and hospitality settings,” Saleh said in an email interview. “As the COVID situation emerged and telepresence capabilities became more of an urgent need within the healthcare space, that’s when we had our first deployment at a facility in Texas, Garnet Hill, to address the demand for zero-exposure visitation from loved ones.”
So Saleh donated one of his robots to the facility, and staff named it after a nurse’s daughter, Lindsay.
The robot stands about 5 feet tall, and can be adjusted lower for sitting patients. It is about 2 feet wide, and has a video screen in place of a face. It also moves intelligently and autonomously: users can choose a destination, and the robot will automatically move to it and — with built-in collision avoidance — evade any human or other obstacles in the way.
“Lindsay’s ‘face’ (the screen) allows doctors and families to be transported into the room with patients, allowing for family conferencing, telemedicine, consultation and assessments,” Neville said. “It has also helped reduce (personal protective equipment) usage while minimizing exposure and spread of the virus.”
Eric Borgeson, chief technology officer at Salmon Health and Retirement, said Lindsay has been crucial for dealing with COVID patients.
“The biggest benefit has been the ability to communicate with the people in the COVID designated area of the building,” Borgeson said via email. “It’s extremely difficult to go in and out of that area, not to mention having to use valuable PPE to be able to do so. The robot allows people who are not normally in the area to go in and communicate effectively with others.”
Barry and Mary Giller of Milford, described using Lindsay as “definitely a new experience” but also “entertaining and informative,” according to a Salmon statement about the robot.
Saleh also sees opportunity for robots in nursing facilities after coronavirus passes. He said homes could use the technology while prohibiting visitors because of other illnesses like the cold or flu or use the robot to offer remote tours to families living far away.
“One of the endless epidemics in nursing homes is loneliness,” Saleh said, noting that residents can sometimes go for months without seeing family or friends. “Telepresence can provide a simpler solution, bringing more familiar faces more often into residents’ rooms.”
Watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5vxRC8dMvs