Retirement community welcomes new staff member: a robot
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IDAHO FALLS — A new staff member was welcomed last week by the Lincoln Court Retirement Community that rolls on wheels, carries two trays and sometimes says, “Happy birthday.” It’s a robot that’s specifically there to help alleviate dining room responsibilities due to staffing shortages.
Lincoln Court Retirement Community in Idaho Falls introduced Servi the robot to their dining room on Dec. 8 as an answer to the staffing strain that has shaped the care industry since the early days of the pandemic.
“We’ve been short-staffed since I started last October. It’s been really difficult. We’ve been running three or four, maybe even five people short, the entire time,” said Torry Aguirre, the dining room supervisor and sous chef at Lincoln Court.
Aguirre told EastIdahoNews.com he currently has about 19 kitchen staff members when he considers 25 workers properly staffed. He said the robot has been helping out a lot as Servi is programmed to know which table the food should go to after cooks place prepared items onto its trays.
Residents have enjoyed the robot that makes loops around the dining room tables with their food and drinks.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before. It’s kind of interesting,” said Bill Miller, a resident at Lincoln Court.
Miller said he hopes to put together a contest among the residents to give Servi a proper name.
The robot also has quiet music playing while it wheels itself around with food trays. If someone steps in front of Servi or it can’t get through, Servi will stop.
“Servi is really, really nice because it allows servers to be out in the dining room with residents more,” said Aguirre. “Servi also doesn’t just serve, it busses as well. So we can load it up and bus it with dirty dishes and all that kind of stuff. It saves the server’s backs because a lot of those bus tubs, once they are full, they are like 30 pounds.”
The robot comes from Bear Robotics, a company based in California. According to the co-founder and chief operating officer at Bear Robotics, Lincoln Court is the first retirement community in Idaho with the robot. There is also another Servi at a restaurant in Nampa.
Lincoln Court teamed up with Bear Robotics to do a beta test of the robot. The trial run will last two weeks. The executive director at Lincoln Court, Matthew Johnson, told EastIdahoNews.com the robot will cost approximately $900 a month for 36 months.
“It’s been really good. It’s been a big help for the servers,” said Aguirre.
