Maryland hospital
reinforces clean,re-deploys labor withrobotic floor scrubber
Frederick Health Hospital,
Frederick County, Maryland

BACKGROUND
The communities of Frederick County, Maryland, havegrown and thrived over the past 25 years. As the area’s
leading healthcare provider, Frederick Health has been
continually expanding to keep pace with the needs of thisburgeoning area. The health system’s flagship facility,
Frederick Health Hospital, recently underwent significant
renovations — a strategic improvement to help Frederick
Health fulfill its mission of creating a simply better
healthcare experience and positively impact the wellbeing of the communities they serve.
CHALLENGE
Don Moody, Environmental Services (EHS) Director atFrederick Health Hospital, noted that his team had been
experiencing challenges with their owned fleet of older
manual floor scrubbers. These older machines struggled
to deal with obstacles within the hospital, left behindsignificant water after cleaning, presenting slip-and-fallrisks, and required high maintenance and repair costs
just to keep them in a usable state.
Moody, as a forward-thinking EHS Director, recognizedthat the hospital renovations presented the perfecttime to upgrade their floor cleaning program. MichaelMcLane, Frederick Health Vice President of Support
Services, wanted to ensure that the new and improved
hospital spaces remain clean, safe, and looking their very
best — and Moody says they were already onboard withinvesting in innovative technology to enhance their facility
cleaning program.

SOLUTION
As a self-described early adopter, Moody says he’s
always seeking to leverage new technologies. ”I’ve
been closely watching the advancement of robotic floor
scrubbing machines for several years, seeing them inaction at local businesses and reading about them inindustry publications. I was looking for ways to improve
our operations — and to fit with our brand reputation
here at Frederick Health,” he says. Moody had evenearmarked capital for cleaning equipment upgrades,“But I was waiting for the right time and the rightequipment,” he explains.
Moody went to Greg Andia, his long-time Tennant
Commercial Manager, for advice on selecting the rightrobotic floor scrubber for the hospital. After giving
Moody a basic overview of the Tennant T7AMR robotic
scrubber, “Don was immediately confident in the Tennanttechnology,” says Andia. Moody knew it was the righttime to invest in a robotic floor cleaning program, “andhe fully trusted Tennant’s reputation for innovation andquality,” says Andia.
A comprehensive T7AMR product demo only cemented
that confident first impression. Moody, along with
his Assistant EHS Director, Michael Dowdell, and afew other members of the EHS team, were in aweof the sophisticated robotics technology — from theintuitive BrainOS® software to the real-time alerts
and notifications. Complete with automatic updates
for continuous improvement. “We were just as blown
away by how well the machine cleaned,” says Moody.

© 2023 Tennant CompanyThey watched as the T7AMR picked up nearly 100% of
the water and naturally navigated around obstacles
and people with ease. The unique ability to run inboth autonomous and manual mode was a majordifferentiator from other manufacturers, allowing staff
to manually operate the machines in particularly difficultareas. “It’s like two machines in one,” says Moody.

Protecting Staff & Patients
The health and safety benefits delivered by the robotic
floor scrubber go beyond ensuring a foundation of clean,safe floors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, deploying theT7AMR robotic scrubber has minimized exposure risk thatwould normally be involved in manual operation. Plus,
the machine is providing a better, more consistent clean.

Following the demo, Moody said he was easily able
to get buy-in from hospital leadership. “They saw
that I was convinced, and they understood how theinnovative technology fit with the Frederick Healthbrand,” explains Moody.

A Badge of Honor
Moody jokingly notes that they’ve put signs on therobotic scrubber, so patients, visitors and staff know it’s
not a “runaway machine.” But he says staff throughout
the hospital have quickly recognized the value of thisinnovative technology. “My employees are proud of therobot — they see it as a badge of honor,” says Moody.

The Frederick Health EHS team worked closely with
Tennant’s dedicated deployment and service support
teams to bring the robotic cleaning technology to life
within the hospital. “Greg was great with training ouroperators and helping us understand the daily usage
reports,” says Moody.
RESULTS
Immediately Surpassing Expectations
Moody says the Tennant T7AMR machine immediatelymet — and frequently surpassed — their expectations.
“This machine has the best water pick up I’ve seen in my30+ years in the business,” says Moody, “The machineis also much quieter than the average scrubber, so
it’s a good fit in the healthcare setting.” The EHS teamis currently cleaning an average of 20,000 square
feet of floor space every day using the robotic floorscrubber. Most of this floor cleaning is done in themachine’s autonomous mode, “Being able to run in bothautonomous and manual mode has been key,” says
Moody. This enables the EHS team to clean more floor
space and get more value out of this versatile equipment.

After just a few months with the robotic scrubber, Moody
already sees a powerful return on the investment in thisinnovative Tennant technology: “It’s adding value back to
the hospital — value in cleaning performance and value
in the relationship with patients and staff.”“The cleaning crew is able to spend moretime on other things — disinfecting rooms,patient engagement, cleaning bathrooms
more frequently, moving furniture andactually taking a break once in a while —all while the robot is still cleaning the floor.”
Don Moody, Environmental Services (EHS) Director,
Frederick Health Hospital

Doing More With Less – Effectively Re-Deploying Labor
The robotic floor scrubber allows the Frederick HealthHospital EHS team to accomplish more tasks with lesseffort. “The cleaning crew is able to spend more time onother things — disinfecting rooms, patient engagement,cleaning bathrooms more frequently, moving furniture
and actually taking a break once in a while — all while therobot is still cleaning the floor,” says Moody, “Maintaining
such a clean environment while also reassigning laborhas been a huge win for both Frederick Health and thecommunity we serve every day.”© 2023 Tennant Company