Pneumatic Tubes or Robots for Hospital Specimen Routes

Do robots replace hospital pneumatic tubes?

In most hospitals that already have tubes, robots do not replace the network. They take the runs the network cannot serve well, and that is the practical answer for a facility team weighing both options.

The clearest recent example is HCA Florida JFK Hospital in Atlantis, Florida. Relay Robotics announced on September 30, 2026 that two of its robots, Dash and Daisy, were deployed to carry lab specimens, pharmacy orders and equipment to areas not served by a pneumatic tube system. That announcement is vendor-reported, so the operational results still need to come from the hospital itself.

Where do pneumatic tubes stop?

Tubes are fixed infrastructure. A carrier can only travel where pipe has been run, which means every wing, floor, or annex without a station sits outside the network, no matter how busy the lab or pharmacy becomes. Retrofitting a tube into an older building is harder still. A 2026 market report cites high installation cost as a major restraint and notes that older hospitals face structural constraints when integrating new tube layouts.

Item size and fragility are the second limit. According to Relay's BayCare release, its robots can carry larger, fragile items that may not fit tubes or could be damaged by high-speed air transport. That is a vendor claim about its own product, but it matches the general reason many departments send bulky or delicate loads by hand.

What does a pneumatic tube system cost to build and keep?

Tube costs run well past the carrier hardware. Atreo, a tube vendor, says total cost of ownership should be judged over 10 to 20 years across five layers: capital and design, installation, operations and maintenance, labor impact, and risk and downtime. Atreo also says a small single-building network may be a mid-six-figure project, while large multi-building systems can reach into the millions.

Public figures show the scale. Michigan Medicine approved a tube expansion estimated at $6.5 million, tied to a new pavilion, and the University of Iowa's 2006 board filing shows a $4.6 million tube purchase, though that figure is nearly two decades old. Upkeep matters too. TransLogic, another tube vendor, reports that up to 70% of its active systems are more than 25 years old and average about 134 maintenance hours per system annually. Those are vendor-reported figures, so treat them as a benchmark to test against your own work orders.

What does a robot fleet cost, and what does it add?

We did not verify robot prices, lease rates or per-delivery costs for this article, so no figure is given here. The comparison that holds up is structural. A tube network is a building project that depreciates on a long clock. A robot fleet is an operating commitment that can be sized to the routes that need it and adjusted as those routes change.

Relay's published claims show what the vendor says its robots do. Its product page states more than 99% reliable deliveries and a 41-liter (10-gallon) capacity. Per the HCA Florida JFK coverage, the robots call elevators, pass through secure doors, and work within life-safety infrastructure. Those capabilities matter because a robot that cannot take the elevator covers only half a floor.

Service Robot Co. approaches this the same way. We are OEM-neutral and match the robot to the route, then deploy and integrate it. We lease robots only, on a 3-year lease with one fixed payment quoted after a site assessment, so a facility team can compare that payment directly against the tube upkeep and downtime it is weighing.

How did HCA Florida JFK close its tube gaps?

According to PYMNTS, the JFK robots carry lab specimens, pharmacy orders and telemetry equipment, and they bring medications to areas the tube system does not reach. Relay's release adds that the robots support staff rather than replace them, and that even simple deliveries can pull clinical staff away from their units. Both points are vendor-reported.

Relay's use cases split the work into three lanes: clinical areas to the lab, pharmacy orders to departments, and monitoring equipment between areas. The tube network can keep its high-volume, fixed routes while the robots take the uncovered rest. The integrator involved in the deployment has described badge access and hospital IT integration, though that account comes from a vendor-side post rather than independent reporting.

Which runs belong on tubes and which belong on robots?

The decision starts with the route, not the technology. A busy, fixed run between two stations that already have tube service is usually better served by the tube. Work that falls outside that pattern deserves a closer look.

Run each candidate route through a short screen before you decide.

• Does a station exist at both ends, and is the route inside the tube network today?
• Are the items small, sealed and light enough for a carrier, or are they bulky or fragile?
• Does the route cross floors, wings, or buildings where a tube would need new construction?
• What happens when the tube is down, and who walks the sample when it is?
• Would a robot run serve as a backup for the tube during planned or unplanned outages?

How do specimen robots work beyond the hallway?

Specimen flow does not always end at a lab bench. Hancock Health extended specimen robots in May to its Parkway outpatient facility, moving specimens from a main draw center to the hospital lab. At that site, robots drop specimens into lockers that hold them until staff retrieve them. That design separates the transport step from the staffing step, which is a useful pattern for overnight draws.

Atreo warns that tube downtime makes everyone walk again. That is the hidden exposure in any tube-only plan. A robot pool can absorb that risk, but only if the routes, charging, and escalation rules were planned before the outage, not during it.

What should a hospital verify before a pilot?

Start with the claims you can test. Ask the vendor for delivery logs, uptime records, and failure modes from a site of similar size, and then check those figures against your own walking and courier data. Vendor percentages describe the vendor's sites, not yours.

Set a pilot scope that answers the questions that matter: which routes moved, how long the runs took, how often staff were still pulled to deliver, and how elevator and door access behaved. A three-robot pilot on the uncovered routes will tell you far more than a fleet sized from a brochure.