The WHO reports that hundreds of millions of people acquire healthcare-associated infections every year, which is comprised of 7% of hospitalized patients in developed countries and 10% of hospitalized patients in developing countries. One major way to combat this is ensuring that health care workers wash their hands often, however, the CDC estimates that, on average, these workers wash their hands less than half of the times that they should. A new technology is being put to use called real-time location systems(RTLS) in an effort to regulate health worker hand hygiene. In one implementation, the workers wear tags that track their location, while soap dispensers and hand sanitizers also have tags to track if they’re being used. Multiple hospitals have implemented this system and one hospital in Denver found a 30% increase in hand hygiene adherence. This technology has also been used to keep track of various equipment, locate dementia patients in the event they wander off, manage bed usage in hospitals, and alert staff if a patient needs urgent medical attention.
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