A large US hospital with over 10 million square feet of floor space faced an enormous logistical challenge: cleaning this gigantic facility required the deployment of 1,000 Environmental Services (EVS) employees.

However, two key problems forced the hospital to find new approaches:

• Rising costs: wages and operating expenses grew steadily, especially after the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Skills shortage: The demand for cleaners far exceeded the available labor supply. Many potential workers moved to other industries with better conditions and higher pay. As cleanliness is crucial in a hospital – not only for hygiene but also for safety reasons – an innovative solution must be found.

The pilot phase

To meet the increasing challenges, the hospital began testing cleaning robots. However, the first trials with commercially available, consumer-oriented robots proved to be a failure:

• The devices were not robust enough for long-term use.
• Many frequently broke down or required manual intervention.
• Each robot brand had its own control system, making centralized management impossible.

To solve these problems, the hospital opted for a structured pilot phase with professional cleaning robots specially developed for extensive facilities.

Robots used:

• Cleanfix Navi S170: This compact and efficient cleaning robot has a suction power of 3,000 Pa and can clean up to 3,000 square feet per run.
• Zaco X1000: A powerful robot with suction power of 20,000 Pa and a battery life of 6 hours, ideal for large and high-traffic areas.

A key aspect of the pilot project was the optimal integration of the robots into everyday hospital life. While the clinical area of the hospital was only operated from 9:00 to 17:00, the area close to the patients had to be kept clean around the clock. Thanks to the FieldBots OS platform, the cleaning robots could be scheduled precisely so they did not disrupt operations.

In addition, FieldBots OS made it possible to control all robots centrally, regardless of their brand. This eliminated the problem of different apps, and the hospital was able to use uniform data collection to analyze and further optimize cleaning efficiency.

The result:
At the end of the pilot phase, the use of the robots showed clear benefits:
✅ Significant time savings:  The robots could clean large areas in less time than human workers.
✅ Cost savings: A manual cleaning operation for the entire hospital would have required around 2,000 man-hours per pass – at an hourly wage of USD 10 would have cost USD 20,000 per operation alone.
✅ Relief for staff:  Employees could concentrate more on specialized cleaning tasks while the robots took over routine work.
✅ Consistent cleanliness: The robots worked according to fixed schedules and ensured a consistently high cleaning quality.

Another key result was the improved scalability of cleaning operations. Thanks to centralized data analysis by FieldBots OS, the hospital could precisely track which areas were cleaned, when, and how and use this information to optimize processes further.

Conclusion

With rising costs and a labor shortage, a US hospital used robotic cleaners. After initial difficulties with off-the-shelf equipment, combining the Cleanfix Navi S170 and Zaco X1000 in conjunction with the FieldBots OS platform proved the optimal solution.

The robots enabled more efficient cleaning, led to significant cost savings, and relieved the burden on staff without jeopardizing jobs. This example impressively demonstrates how robotics and digitalization can make hospital operations more future-proof.