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

•Contact tracing is an essential step in infectious disease control and prevention.•Using Electronic medical record (EMR) is challenging and misses a number of potential exposures.•Real time location system (RTLS) doubled the potential exposures list for pertussis disease beyond the conventional met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of infection control 2017-12, Vol.45 (12), p.1308-1311
Main Authors: 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
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Child
Child, Preschool
Computer Systems
Contact Tracing
Disease Outbreaks
Electronic Health Records
Emergency Service, Hospital
Humans
Infant
Infectious disease
Medical Staff, Hospital
Pertussis
Tertiary Care Centers
Whooping Cough - epidemiology
Whooping Cough - transmission
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Summary:•Contact tracing is an essential step in infectious disease control and prevention.•Using Electronic medical record (EMR) is challenging and misses a number of potential exposures.•Real time location system (RTLS) doubled the potential exposures list for pertussis disease beyond the conventional method of EMR-based contact identification•RTLS is more efficient and timely in the process of contact tracing.•Further studies with larger sample size are needed to confirm the findings. 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. 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. Nine cases of pertussis presented to the emergency department during the identified time period. RTLS doubled the potential exposure list (P 
ISSN:0196-6553
1527-3296
DOI:10.1016/j.ajic.2017.08.014