A 78-year-old man was at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fremont when a doctor - appearing on the robot's screen - informed him that he would die within a few days, according to an article on the BBC website.
The man died the next day. The hospital says it "regrets falling short" of the family's expectations.
"I think the technological advances in medicine have been wonderful, but the line of 'where' and 'when' need to be black and white," said a friend of the man’s family.
Michelle Gaskill-Hames, senior vice-president of Kaiser Permanente Greater Southern Alameda County, said in a statement that its policy was to have a nurse or doctor in the room when remote consultations took place.
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