Hospitals Tracking COVID-19 by Adding Sensors to Employees' Badges

Technology from a company called SwipeSense is helping hospitals keep track of their day-to-day operations, including how efficiently staff members wash their hands to the whereabouts of their employees.

Around 50 hospitals are using the system nationwide to trace when medical staff enter or exit patient rooms. The device can also help track the location of expensive medical equipment such as wheelchairs or IV pumps to prevent loss or theft.

According to CNBC, SwipeSense sensors are embedded into equipment in hospital rooms and are connected to a main dashboard which is monitored by hospital administrators. SwipeSense wasn’t designed originally to track people’s movements until the pandemic.

The technology was developed to help monitor how frequently medical personnel were washing their hands. But after 879 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel died from the virus, SwipeSense experts adapted the science so that sensors could be added to medical ID badges worn by hospital staff and trace their movements within the hospital.

That way, if an individual becomes ill with COVID-19, the hospital administrators could then trace and isolate people who were in contact with the infected person, thanks to a virtual road map of his or her motion.

At one facility, the rate of positive tests of staff dropped 17% to less than 1%, thanks to SwipeSense tracing and other hygienic measures such as hand-washing and wearing masks.

SwipeSense’s hand sanitation system works by attaching a device to any belt or garment that dispenses the exact amount of Food and Drug Administration-approved alcohol gel with the swipe of a hand. The device contains embedded electronics that send data to hubs so that hospital staff can monitor how frequently and efficiently the staff is washing their hands.