How You Can Do Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Easier!

Contact tracing is critical, in managing and mitigating risk associated with any epidemic or pandemic such as in the case of COVID-19. Real Time Location Services can be a value add in these situations due to the following abilities:

• Rapid deployment in environments such as tents, arenas or other temporary buildings.
• Providing location accuracy of exposed equipment and people through flexible deployment scenarios for open bay, and other temporary settings.
• Requiring no fixed infrastructure since the solution can be implemented as a standalone technology (which can be integrated into existing infrastructure and systems later) and is predominantly battery operated and utilizes wireless communication.

A real-time location system (RTLS) offers a powerful opportunity to do what would otherwise be nearly impossible. When staff and/or patients wear RTLS badges, health systems can almost instantly identify all individuals that have encounter a person or location known (or thought to be) a risk for pathogen exposure. RTLS can identify, down to the individual level and at the granularity of numbers of seconds that person was exposed and who needs to take additional measures to thwart further disease exposure and spread. This is a powerful, invaluable safeguard if a contagion enters your hospital, department, or temporary facility. This automates the labor intensive, time consuming task of manual contact tracing.

And this is how it works:

• RTLS is installed in the field hospital or other temporary care setting
• Staff and patients are assigned unique, individual location badges.
• Tags are affixed to assets (ventilators, infusion pumps, wheelchairs, beds, etc.).
• As people and equipment with badges and tags move, their location is accurately tracked and monitored at a granular level.
• Real-time online reports and dashboards are generated that allow tracing to every tagged person and piece of equipment that has been exposed to the possible pathogen.

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