thevaccinereaction--2020-08-10--Hospital Staff Sensor ID Badges Track COVID-19

Seeking new ways to rapidly identify and contain cases of COVID-19 , some hospitals are using existing sensor technology that has been repurposed to facilitate contact tracing of staff members inside the hospital.1 Prior to the arrival of COVID-19 , hospitals were using the sensors , provided by Chicago-based medical technology company SwipeSense , to monitor such best-care medical practices as frequency of hand washing and consistency of bedside visits to patients , as well as to keep track of—and avoid theft of—expensive medical equipment .
The SwipeSense system is a cloud-based network connecting individual sensors to a communication hub @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , unit or individual.2 The system works via unique identifiers that are clipped to a health care worker ’ s ID badge .
As the worker goes about his or her day , the sensor collects data from other sensors embedded in equipment or at hygiene stations , tracking how many times the individual enters a given patient ’ s room or accesses hand-washing equipment .
Hand hygiene has been recognized as a critical practice for preventing hospital-acquired infections ( HAI ) .
However , monitoring of individual hand-washing behavior has been approached @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of solving barriers to good hand-washing practices rather than punishing underperformers .
There are any number of legitimate reasons a staff member may fail to wash hands upon entering a patient ’ s room , from lack of alcohol gel to carrying supplies or operating equipment that makes it difficult to always handwash first .
As Klaus Nether , executive director of high reliability product delivery at the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare said , “ You have to take the time to really understand it , because it is more complex @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hands.
” 3 Because of those types of privacy concerns , SwipeSense had avoided using their technology for individual tracking application , until the coronavirus pandemic set in.4 When hospitals began reporting that staff were contracting COVID-19 , SwipeSense ’ s chief executive Mert Iseri realized sensors added to ID badges could be used to track the movements of individual workers in the hospital , documenting potential COVID-19 exposures and subsequently identifying any contacts associated with positive COVID-19 cases .
Contact tracing is a standard epidemiological disease control tool used to track and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact with someone diagnosed with an infectious disease .
In the case of the SwipeSense badges , the population being tracked is limited to a hospital setting rather than covering a geographic area .
Clifford Daniels , senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Methodist Hospital of Southern California , one of the hospitals currently using the SwipeSense badges , is hoping the sensor technology will monitor COVID-19 infections among staff members and also reassure patients about the safety of coming back into the hospital .
With hospitals losing significant income over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic,5 Daniels said , “ We ’ re hoping to get across that the hospital is as safe a place as it can be and that we ’ re doing everything we can to help contain the spread of COVID-19.
” One of the first hospitals to embrace the tracking system is Edward-Elmhurst Health in Illinois , where 3,600 hospital workers , doctors and nurses agreed to try using the sensor-embedded badges .
When one patient unexpectedly tested positive for COVID-19 , the surveillance team was able to determine the number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s room .
The 75 employees identified as being at risk were asked to be tested and to self-isolate for 72 hours .
One contact employee tested positive , but isolation kept the virus from spreading further .
Crediting the technology as well as other infection control practices , the hospital has reduced its rate of positive COVID-19 testing among staff from 17 per cent at its peak in March to less than one percent by June .
Some of the hospital staff expressed concerns that the information gathered could be used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ However , the hospital ’ s Chief Data Analytics Officer Raj Iyer stressed that the hospital only wanted to use the system to catch COVID-19 cases , not to monitor employee movements .
Nevertheless , he acknowledges the inherent risks of using tools to monitor people , cautioning that “ these kinds of tools can always get into the wrong hands… we have to be really thoughtful about the technology we ’ re building .
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