300m떨어진 곳까지 약배달 척척 …"우리 병원 숨은 일꾼" [Original Article]

“At first, people were skeptical, saying, ‘Can robots really replace our jobs?’ but now they are praising us, saying, ‘We can’t do our jobs without robots. ’” (Lee Mi-yeon, Director of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital)

Recently, at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital in Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, which Maeil Kyungjae visited, an unusual sight unfolded: robots moving among doctors, nurses, and patients hurrying by. In order for medical staff to perform their work efficiently, Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital began using robots in the hospital in 2022. The intention behind the introduction was simple. To reduce simple, repetitive tasks that require a lot of hands but do not require expertise. Director Lee Mi-yeon said, “While working as a doctor, I keenly felt that there were too many simple, repetitive tasks among medical workers’ tasks that did not require any medical knowledge, so I introduced robots.”

According to the hospital, the cumulative number of robots used from August 2022 to March of this year was a whopping 31,267. From August to December 2022, when it was first introduced, there were only 3,689 cases, but robot usage has increased explosively since last year. Starting with 1,098 cases in January last year, it recorded 1,771 cases in May, 2,320 cases in July, 2,263 cases in November, and 2,305 cases in December.

Among the various robots, the one with the highest employee satisfaction is ROBOTIS' 'GAEMI', an outdoor delivery robot. Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital is largely divided into the main building and the annex building. The main building and the annex are separated by a road for automobiles. Before the introduction of the robot, when medicine or documents needed to be delivered, employees had to go back and forth between the two buildings themselves. It took more than 10 minutes to walk back and forth. As demands for improvement poured in due to this inconvenience, starting this year, GAEMI was suddenly used to handle outdoor delivery work.

The GAEMI, which is controlled through an app, sets a route through pre-mapping, and when the destination is entered in the app, the robot departs. The reporter followed the 300m course from the main building of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital to the second annex, where ants deliver medicine and documents. The course is not a flat and smooth road like inside the hospital, but a complex road with wheelchairs, ambulances, and crowds of people.

At first, I wondered, 'Will the robots be able to safely deliver while looking around?', but my worries soon turned out to be unfounded. The GAEMI quietly shouted, "I will pass," when there was a person in front of them, did not slip on a hill, and did not lose their balance even on Braille blocks for the visually impaired. They even detected traffic lights with their attached sensors and waited for the signal at the crosswalk, showing behavior no different from humans.

Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital is operating a total of 73 robots of 7 types, including guide robots, quarantine robots, non-face-to-face examination robots, and outdoor delivery robots.