Companies are always looking for more efficient ways to get the job done.  And the same is true for one KELOLAND hospital. 

Avera McKennan has hired what might be considered the perfect employee. It's a cheap hire that's not replacing human patient care, but improving it. 

It can't call in sick and it doesn't get vacation time. It just gets the job done. "It" is the Aethon TUG robot and it's delivering some futuristic care.

It looks like a high-tech filing cabinet on wheels, equipped with a camera and a program that knows its way around the hospital all by itself.

"It can maneuver around things. If it detects something in its, path it will stop," Avera Mckennan Pharmacy Operations Manager Bob Lewis said.

So besides looking like something straight from the future, what does it really do?

This machine delivers medications to nursing units that need to be handled with care, such as chemotherapy.

"We have trained professional staff that has been doing that job and it takes them away from doing patient care activities," Lewis said.

The bugs are still being worked out.  It can't open a closed door by itself.  Practice runs are only being done with candy but the robot is programmed to know where to go and how to get there.

And the drawers can only be opened with a special code.

"It calls the elevator all by itself. There's one elevator that we have designated that it can use so it goes up and it announces in a voice calling the elevator," Lewis said.

Once on its way, the elevator won't stop to pick up more passengers because the robot needs room to turn around, and once the doors are open, the TUG can quickly make a delivery.

"It's to improve what we do, utilizing our staff that is trained to provide patient care," Lewis said.

Pharmacy staff can see where it's at at all times on this computerized map and because the TUG can be run for about $4 an hour, it's a hire they hope to find more uses for very soon.

Soon the robot will have a name and if you pass it in the hallway in the next few months, you may even see it dressed up for the holiday season.