January 7, 2020

How service provider HHS enables healthcare facilities to meet regulatory demands for greater efficiency with Neo, the floor-scrubbing robot

In 2019 HHS, the largest privately-owned support services company in the U.S., made history as the first to deploy a fleet of Avidbots Neo floor-scrubbing robots in hospitals.

It began several years earlier. The healthcare facilities management industry – among HHS’ key markets — was in a state of flux and custodial services were feeling the squeeze. As medical facilities sought ways to reduce overhead, patient support functions like housekeeping and custodial were natural targets. HHS was being asked to do more with less. Always a company that prided itself as nimble and customer-focused, HHS responded with a bold (and surprising) solution.

“We began seriously looking at robots to solve the problem,”

recalls Bobby Floyd, CEO of HHS’ healthcare division.

Over the next two-and-a-half years, HHS conducted an exhaustive discovery process, evaluating companies in the emerging artificial intelligence robotics field, eventually vetting more than one hundred developers. At the end of that process, HHS decided to pilot the Avidbots Neo autonomous A.I. floor-scrubbing robot.

Bobby Floyd remembers the reasons behind the decision,

“Avidbots is a true robotics company and we felt Neo was the only product on the market with true artificial intelligence. The robot is intuitive in its cleaning operation and can adjust cleaning paths based on many variables like unexpected obstructions or traffic patterns.”

During the pilot phase, Neo had a high bar to reach. HHS and healthcare facilities management expected the machine to clean with the same quality as experienced custodial staff, freeing that staff to focus on higher-priority jobs and drive patient satisfaction.

The result was history – HHS and Avidbots set up a fleet of Neo robots throughout an entire system of facilities, the first at-scale deployment of A.I. cleaning robots in the healthcare field.

Learn how the Avidbots Neo autonomous floor-scrubbing robot performed in the field, why HHS eventually decided to deploy a fleet of Neos, and how HHS realized an impressive return on investment by embracing innovative robotics technology.

Read the full case study.

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