Emergency department (ED) healthcare workers (HCWs) are interrupted as
often as once every six minutes, increasing the risk of errors and
preventable patient harm. As more robots enter hospitals, and the ED, they
must support HCWs in managing interruptions, and ideally mitigate their
harmful effects, without disrupting ED communication. However,
interruption-mitigation strategies, particularly for mobile
telemanipulator robots (MTRs), are not well understood. In this work, we
explore interruption-mitigation and reorientation methods for MTRs in the
ED. We conducted a study where ED HCWs teleoperated an MTR in a realistic
hospital simulation environment. Our findings revealed insights on how
MTRs might support multitasking in environments with frequent task
switching, and the place of autonomy in safety-critical spaces.
Conflicting opinions about the appropriateness of different MTR behaviors
highlighted challenges and ethical dilemmas that influence the integration
of MTRs in the ED. This work will support the implementation of
interruption-mitigation strategies on MTRs, enabling them to better
support people in fast-paced, interruption-driven environments thus
reducing the risk of errors in these situations.