..Welcome to the Emergency Room! Please Check In With the TriageBot For Processing

12-08-2010

Since their introduction into hospitals, robots have sliced up and sponge-bathed humans across the globe. Now they’re set to automate emergency care. With about 40 percent of ER patients arriving with potentially life-threatening afflictions and others with minor grievances, automating the triage process could lead to more efficient and expeditious treatment.

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"Welcome to the Emergency Room, I Will Be Performing Your Triage"

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Good idea, why not take more jobs away, if they aren't being sent to other countries then they automate it. I personally don't think it a good idea, being seen by a real person whether it's checking into an emergency room or into the hospital says a lot, a robot certainly cannot tell how sick you are but a person at times can. Who makes the decision whether someone should be treated immediately or not, I wouldn't trust a robot to make that decision for me.

Apparently this system is currently little more than a proposal by a group of engineering students, they might also think about future jobs for themselves.

They have a program at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan where a doctor sits in his office and communicates with his patient in another part of the Hospital, it may save time for the Doctor but I would still prefer to talk to my Doctor face to face in most cases.

Beaumont was the first Hospital in implement this program I l believe and am sure it is being used in other hospitals as well.

I have noticed over the years (and there have been quiet a few) that Dr's and those in the medical field have become less personal with their patients. We are a number on a computer file - one day we won't even see medical personnel. Sad as I think human interaction helps the sick find hope.

TRIAGEBOT says: "Insurance does not compute. ID does not compute. Database check reveals terrorist suspect. Patient is being seen for serious condition. Verdict: patient should instead be terminated. Commence termination process."

Originally posted by crazydaisy
I have noticed over the years (and there have been quiet a few) that Dr's and those in the medical field have become less personal with their patients. We are a number on a computer file - one day we won't even see medical personnel. Sad as I think human interaction helps the sick find hope.

You are correct in that Doctors do give their patients hope, the good news is that there are still plenty of doctors who see their patients, the problem is hospitals where I think they may need the hope and interaction more then ever.

Well I have worked in an ER for many years now and been an emergency responder for even longer (EMT). I can tell you that I have withdrawn from both fields almost to the point of exclusion in the past year. Our very small ER is now completely computerized. There is a computer in every room and it is a rare thing for the patient to actually look into the eyes of a care provider rather than the back of their head. It used to be that I, as the tech, would place orders electronically (the only automated part a few years ago) and than in addition to that, spend as much time in the rooms doing as much patient care as possible.

Now, the techs have been pulled from the room and put soley at the desk. The nurse do ALL patient care/charting on the stupid computers and the docs do all their own ordering. The nurses only know what the doctor is doing due to what shows up on the screen even though they sit less than ten feet from each other. This is a ten bed ER folks, with ONE doctor and two to four nurses at a given time and it is ALL automated.

I HATE it! Instead of making things more effecient, I see all sorts of potential for catastrophic mistakes due to the TOTAL lack of face-to-face communication between doctor-nurse and patient. For a system that is suposed to make things easier for us all, it only complicates.

To have ANY kind of automated triage is ridiculous. Do you know how many people I knew were having a heart attack due to nothing more than a 'gut' feeling that is derived from years of observation? You can't replace that with a computer or a machine.

God help us and all our wonderful 'technology'. It is slowly killing us.

reply to post by west coast


Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience westcoast, I know that it is repeated all over America now, it it efficiency or eliminating jobs to save the almighty dollar, I tend to think it's the latter.

Good luck to you.

Bout time someone in the medical field has to suffer job loss also...

It's horrible to watch these cheetoh eating fools make money off peoples misfortune....

Half the time I would think the bot would be more personal and polite then the jerk at the emergency room triage...

I would also love robots at the DMV as it seems they are half robots anyways screw their pensions.

Oh boy this is not good news. The problem with letting Robots into the medical industry is before long they will be demanding admittance to the Country Clubs and tying up all the good tee times on the Golf Course and want to be on the Donors Circle at the local philharmonic! Before long they will be in all the nice restaurants wanting the Piano player to accompany them with "If I was a rich bot, da-da-da-de-de-da-da-de-de-da".

People will get irate that they are making so much money and I can just hear it now "It's not our fault we work hard at programing our children into the best professions!"

Wait and see, before long they will demand their own country and cause all kinds of trouble by constantly stating "We are just one nation of robots surrounded by a sea of human beings"

I say we disconnect their batteries now while we still can!

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You hit the nail on the head, those are also my concerns, plus we have to worry about computers that think for themselves, when that happens they may just turn on us, technology is out of control, the only thing to do is hide all the batteries and eliminate electricity quick before it's too late, hope they don't know about free energy that is being hidden from us.

Thanks for posting.

The triage morons don't make no where near HALF of what the doctors do and they sure do show it...

Ive seen people who say their having a heart attack and the triage person told them *don't worry take your number and be quiet* They play God sometimes when they think the people are trying to get attention but God forbid the one person who wasn't and they just shrugged it off....

Atleast a bot can't insult you and if you say HEART ATTACK somethings got to compute..

Triage people at busy hospitals already treat you like crap, might treat you like they are a heartless robot..

Might as well BE A ROBOT the way I have seen them act.

reply to post by Aquarius1


With less and less human beings thinking for themselves, robots, and artificial intelligence creates a real risk, depending who is in charge.

While it is true machines can do some things with a precision and efficiency humans simply can't. It's also true that it breeds a codependence and a lack of self suffeciency where fewer and fewer people even have basic self survival skills.

What happens in an automated ER when a hurricane or Electrical Magnetic Attack knocks out electricity and fries circuits.

Are nurses still going to remember how to do the math of how much medication to give someone based on their body weight and hieght? Are there still even going to be manual scales to weigh people and measure their height? Are surgeons going to lose their touch for that delicate brain or heart operation, because the machines have been doing it for them for years on end?

Agro corporations are using machines now to grow our genetically altered food. Who here on ATS even knows how to sew, let alone weave clothe, let alone grow cotton or flax? How many of us could even build a camp fire with a bic lighter?

We know longer control our own destiny, the people who create and control the technology that has taught us to be codependent, lazy and unskilled do.

It would be great if we lived in a peaceful world, absent greed, jealousy and violence, but this much technology in the wrong hands, is just an inherent danger that is bound to be the death of us.

Well time to go make some candles!

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


You make some very good points Proto, hospitals have generators but there could still be a major program if they were not able to get an INTERNET connection or in the case of a fire the main frame could get damaged.

If there isn't a paper trail that is also a problem with dispensing medication, that is going more and more by the way side.

Ten or fifteen years ago we were all so excited about technology and what it would bring us, well the beast has arrived.

One i am a EMT with 40 years experience.
in 2006 i had a heart attack.

I had been to the VA hospital for a appointment and had just left when i started having a burning sensation under my chin.

i turned around to go back to the VA hospital to go to the urgent care clinic.
between the time i parked in the lot and during the walk to the door of the hospital (about 200 feet)the burning spread to my neck and i started to have a cramp in my left arm. this was fallowed by profuse sweating and this was a cold day.
Instead of going to urgent care i walked right into the ER and told them i was having a heart attack and gave them the symptoms i was having.
the intern in the ER put the leads on my chest and called the cardiac doctor when he saw the strip.
they gave me two aspirin two nitroglycerin and put in a IV then i went straight to angioplasty room.

I never had chest pain or shortness of breath but i knew i was having a heart attack.

The VA hospital has there urgent care right next door to the ER and they just route you to the one you need.
I just bypassed the urgent care desk and walked straight into the ER by the ambulance entrance.

13 days later i had 5 way bypass surgery.CABG x5
All my arteries were restricted and i never even felt anything wrong till the heart attack.

From my experience as a EMT you get quicker care in a ER if you are brought in by a ambulance then if you walk in.(walking wounded)
The ER relies on the ambulance EMTs to triage the patents they bring in. and in paramedic ambulances they get the patents vitals by radio and data link before to patents even hit the door.

reply to post by ANNED


Thanks for sharing your story and the advice, glad you doing well now and here to tell us your story, I think someone may have been watching over you that day, being in the right place at the right time was amazing.

I guess it pays to get check ups, most people don't, espcially men as long as they are feeling fine.

Thanks for psoting.

reply to post by thecinic


Perhaps if you had a better attitude you would be treated with the respect you seem to think you deserve.