Operationally medical offices and hospitals are almost always operating at capacity. From shortages of staff and supplies, to inefficient transfer of resources, to general bureaucracy, it’s a hard industry to keep efficient. One piece of technology that hopes to assess these issues is the pneumatic tube.
Although near ancient in origin, pneumatic tubes are one of the most useful innovations in the medical industry. Pneumatic tubes use compressed air to send packages from one part of a building to another, or even from one building to another. This is a near instant process, requires almost no human contact, and avoids the majority of operational errors.
It’s not hard to then see the practicality of a system like this. Stanford Hospital, for example, sees 7,000 carriers move through their children’s hospital. For each of these carriers the manpower required to move them, human error that tends to arise, and general hassle have all been circumnavigated.
The medical industry is one of innovation and brilliance. Modern medicine is an undeniable marvel, but if the operational procedures behind this medicine starts to fall behind that medicine cannot serve its purpose. This is why talking about and applying systems like pneumatic tubing is more essential now than ever. The future is defined by its efficiency.
Source: Swisslog Healthcare