Cat-Like Autonomous Robots Start Work in Sunway Medical Centre
11 August 2021
Cat-Like Autonomous Robots Start Work in Sunway Medical Centre
BellaBot marks its debut into the Malaysian healthcare scene
BANDAR SUNWAY, SELANGOR, 11 August 2021 – Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) introduced four new “cat-like employees” in their paediatric wards this week, drawing much excitement from its staff members and patients alike.
In Malaysia, BellaBot is the first of its kind to join the hospital’s operations. These highly advanced robots will assist in delivering food three times a day to young patients and their caregivers during lunch, tea, and dinner hours. BellaBot has four stacked shelves where meal trays can be placed, customizable delivery functions, and a navigation system that allows it to safely manoeuvre around the wards and its human colleagues.
When not busy serving meals, BellaBot is able to bring cheer to young patients via its ‘birthday mode’ function, where it can deliver birthday cakes accompanied by an entertaining birthday song.
Other than its duties at the paediatric wards, BellaBot can also be seen at the hospital’s lobbies as a Lobby Ambassador in helping visitors find their way around the expanding hospital. It is currently fluent in two languages: English and Mandarin, with the potential for more in future.
“We are thrilled to be the first hospital in Malaysia to adopt the BellaBot technology. This is also timely after being recognised as Frost & Sullivan’s 2021 Smart Hospital Company of the Year just two months ago. With the challenges COVID-19 brings, we are committed to constantly look for innovative ways on enhancing our patients’ experience while keeping their safety and well-being at the top of mind,” states Bryan Lin, Chief Executive Officer of Sunway Medical Centre.
He added, “The potential of growth for BellaBot is vast. This is just the beginning. The advent of smart technology like BellaBot can help our staff to focus on patient care, provide surge capacity during peak demand and improve the overall operational efficiency.”
Introducing BellaBot, Sunway Medical Centre’s Manager of Food Services, Joanne Leow shared the team’s experience in embracing digital means of conducting food service, as well as their process of adapting their new robot team member to suit the needs of the hospital.
“It didn’t take us long to see how positively received and well-loved BellaBot is by our staff and patients. We were pleasantly surprised at the ease of which we were able to integrate BellaBot into our in-patient meal delivery. Bella is definitely a part of the family now. We hope that this technology is a steppingstone towards more forms of integration to serve and care for our patients on a whole new experience,” she said.
Investing in Smart Solutions in the Face of COVID-19
Sunway Medical Centre (SMC) has diligently invested in integrating smart hospital technology in robotic process automation and initiatives to improve standard operating procedures for operational efficiency, state-of-the-art medical equipment, virtual care services, customized inpatient meal orders and online appointment bookings.
In March 2020 during the first Movement Control Order (MCO), Sunway Medical Centre collaborated with Sunway iLabs to build a contactless COVID-19 Testing Pod to enable healthcare workers to conduct testing for suspected cases in a safer environment.
In January this year, the hospital also established the first 24-hour Telemedicine Command Centre in the country, to allow patients to continue to consult with doctors and specialists from the comfort and safety of their homes.
In March 2021, Sunway Medical Centre became a designated COVID-19 Vaccination Centre during Phase 1 of the National Immunisation Programme, administering vaccines for medical frontliners across 12 private hospitals. The hospital is now at Phase 3 of the programme under ProtectHealth and continues to serve the public as a Pusat Pemberian Vaksin Hospital Swasta (PPVHS). In June, SMC also took over the operations at Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre (SPCC) mega Pusat Pemberian Vaksin (PPV) and is vaccinating thousands daily towards helping the nation in achieving herd immunity.
Watch our BellaBot in action on our Facebook page.
Back
