St. Joseph's Children's Hospital Deploys 'Turbo Teddy' Robot for Medication Delivery

Tampa's St. Joseph's Children's Hospital recently introduced a new staff member: Turbo Teddy, a three-foot-tall robot now responsible for delivering medications. The robot began operations this week, completing between 10 and 20 deliveries daily.

This robotic assistant addresses a long-standing challenge in patient care, particularly for children requiring fragile medications. Chemotherapy, certain gastrointestinal, and neurological drugs cannot be shaken, making them unsuitable for the hospital's pneumatic tube system. Previously, staff hand-carried these sensitive medications from the pharmacy in the basement of St. Joseph's Main Hospital to the Children's Day Hospital. This process often involved batching multiple medications to reduce trips, which could cause delays for patients.

Danielle Nelski, nurse manager at the Children's Day Hospital, explained the impact. "We had to have medications in batches so that the one person that was running those medications didn't have to do that multiple times," Nelski said. "So that would cause a delay sometimes in those medications getting to our patients."

The Fink family funded the robot through a donation. David Fink received care for Crohn's disease at the hospital for over ten years. The family named Turbo Teddy and styled its appearance after their Pomeranian.

Turbo Teddy now makes single medication runs, ensuring quicker delivery for young patients and freeing up healthcare workers' time. "It allows the pharmacy staff to stay with the medications down in the pharmacy," Nelski added. "And it allows nursing staff to stay in proximity with the patients instead of having to have somebody manually run back and forth several times throughout the day."

The self-driving robot navigates secure doors and elevators independently, even dodging people in hallways. St. Joseph's Children's Hospital considers Turbo Teddy an official staff member, complete with its own badge.