Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Dec 1;45(12):1308-1311.
doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2017.08.014. Epub 2017 Sep 28.

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

Thomas R Hellmich  1 , Casey M Clements  1 , Nibras El-Sherif  2 , Kalyan S Pasupathy  2 , David M Nestler  1 , Andy Boggust  3 , Vickie K Ernste  3 , Gomathi Marisamy  4 , Kyle R Koenig  5 , M Susan Hallbeck  6
Affiliations

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

Thomas R Hellmich et al. Am J Infect Control. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Infectious disease; Pertussis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Electronic medical record (EMR) versus real-time location system (RTLS) in identifying pertussis contacts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Browne C., Gulbudak H., Webb G. Modeling contact tracing in outbreaks with application to Ebola. J Theor Biol. 2015;384:33–49. - PubMed
    1. Begun M., Newall A.T., Marks G.B., Wood J.G. Contact tracing of tuberculosis: a systematic review of transmission modelling studies. PLoS One. 2013;8 e72470. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dixon M.G., Taylor M.M., Dee J., Hakim A., Cantey P., Lim T. Contact tracing activities during the Ebola virus disease epidemic in Kindia and Faranah, Guinea, 2014. Emerg Infect Dis. 2015;21:2022–2028. - PMC - PubMed
    1. England D.O., Currie M.J., Bowden F.J. An audit of contact tracing for cases of chlamydia in the Australian Capital Territory. Sex Health. 2005;2:255–258. - PubMed
    1. Bryant K.A., Humbaugh K., Brothers K., Wright J., Pascual F.B., Moran J. Measures to control an outbreak of pertussis in a neonatal intermediate care nursery after exposure to a healthcare worker. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2006;27:541–545. - PubMed