Psychosocial determinants of healthcare personnel’s willingness to carry real-time locating system tags during daily inpatient care in hospital managing COVID-19 patients: insights from a mixed-methods analysis

OBJECTIVE: Real-time locating systems (RTLS) enable contact tracing and hand hygiene reminders, to improve hospital safety. Successful implementation requires healthcare personnel (HCP) to carry RTLS tags continuously. We assessed for determinants of HCP’s willingness to use RTLS tags during routine inpatient care, and evaluated concerns using mixed-methods analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study in the 330-bed purpose-built National Centre for Infectious Diseases in Singapore, from January 15 through February 4, 2020. The anonymous survey comprised 24 questions based on constructs from behavioral models and an open-ended question. Principal component analysis was performed to derive the latent factor structure applied in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Concerns were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Of 260 HCP (nurses [40.8%], ancillary and administrative staff [23.1%], allied health professionals [18.5%], and physicians [17.7%]), 75% were willing to use the RTLS tag. After adjusting for age, gender, healthcare professional group, and duration of practice, the acceptance of the use of the RTLS tag (adjusted OR 11.28 [95% CI 4.39–29.00], P < .001) was highly associated with the willingness to use the RTLS tag. HCP who perceived the tag to be easy to use (adjusted OR 2.80 [95% CI 1.37–5.72], P = .005), were also more willing to use the tag. HCP were willing to carry the RTLS tag for the purpose of contact tracing despite privacy concerns. CONCLUSION: More communications on the intentions and data protection standards of the RTLS, and accessory enhancements for HCP’s convenient and sustained use of the RTLS tag are crucial, to optimize RTLS’s usefulness during the COVID-19 pandemic.