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Contact tracing with a real-time location system: A case study of increasing relative effectiveness in an emergency department

BACKGROUND: Contact tracing is the systematic method of identifying individuals potentially exposed to infectious diseases. Electronic medical record (EMR) use for contact tracing is time-consuming and may miss exposed individuals. Real-time location systems (RTLSs) may improve contact identificatio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hellmich, Thomas R., Clements, Casey M., El-Sherif, Nibras, Pasupathy, Kalyan S., Nestler, David M., Boggust, Andy, Ernste, Vickie K., Marisamy, Gomathi, Koenig, Kyle R., Hallbeck, M. Susan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7115342/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28967513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2017.08.014
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Contact tracing is the systematic method of identifying individuals potentially exposed to infectious diseases. Electronic medical record (EMR) use for contact tracing is time-consuming and may miss exposed individuals. Real-time location systems (RTLSs) may improve contact identification. Therefore, the relative effectiveness of these 2 contact tracing methodologies were evaluated. METHODS: During a pertussis outbreak in the United States, a retrospective case study was conducted between June 14 and August 31, 2016, to identify the contacts of confirmed pertussis cases, using EMR and RTLS data in the emergency department of a tertiary care medical center. Descriptive statistics and a paired t test (α = 0.05) were performed to compare contacts identified by EMR versus RTLS, as was correlation between pertussis patient length of stay and the number of potential contacts. RESULTS: Nine cases of pertussis presented to the emergency department during the identified time period. RTLS doubled the potential exposure list (P < .01). Length of stay had significant positive correlation with contacts identified by RTLS (ρ = 0.79; P = .01) but not with EMR (ρ = 0.43; P = .25). CONCLUSIONS: RTLS doubled the potential pertussis exposures beyond EMR-based contact identification. Thus, RTLS may be a valuable addition to the practice of contact tracing and infectious disease monitoring.