Additional protection with location-sensitive devices as part of security technology, automated building operation frameworks with location awareness systems enabled hospitals to track human and equipment movements. This provides the detection of radio frequencies (RFID) and real-time location systems (RTLS).
Significant convenience is offered by the use of RFID in today’s coronavirus and related infectious diseases surrounding our planet. Department-based inventory can be tracked with RFID tags that are small, big, or made of metal, plastic, timber, cloth, material placed on all items.
The equipment is monitored by the historical movement query screen in the room of a patient with an illness or in which divisions it has been used in, where and for how long it has been used, so that the places that need to be disinfected can be conveniently identified.
The wireless use of RFID radio waves distinguishes objects, places, and persons. RTLS also offers the benefit which is offered by RFID, for detecting and monitoring objects and persons in real-time. This is accomplished, however, with greater accuracy and detail than other systems of identification.
RTLS is an extra source of protection that helps workers in hospital administration and safety and regulatory teams to locate a certain healthcare worker’s entire path and see where room entries are headed next. For example, to understand people’s experiences inside the building and to raise awareness of infection transmission ways and its prevention, a thorough study of patient movement and door activity with RFID locks can be performed. To strengthen infection control systems and practices, information on recent incidents and patterns of unwanted access acquired from these features could be used.
By documenting the location of patients suspected to be contaminated and guaranteeing they take the appropriate steps before accessing these locations, RTLS may also be used as a safety-enhancing tool. RFID and RTLS have a broad variety of additional healthcare technologies, in addition to automated access control and surveillance and concerned with environmental conditions, including equipment and inventory tracking, operating room management, emergency response, hand disinfection controlling, child safety, stock control, and loss preventing.
When all washable items, such as bedsheets and towels used by the patient, have a special RFID mark identification, they are rapidly, and effortlessly detected and potential complications are much more quickly eliminated.
Within a systematic infection management strategy, proper temperature and humidity management will help healthcare professionals avoid the growth of viruses and reduce the risk of disease transmission. And according to ASHE, the optimum temperature and relative humidity spectrum for the effective prevention of pathogenic species is not yet identified, despite a large number of experimental studies on temperature and humidity issues.
However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to minimize susceptibility to infectious particles and viral disease spread, recommendations state that we should maintain moisture levels in closed areas at 40 percent-60 percent.
RFID Technology and IoT
Room monitoring of IoT sensors Advances in HVAC construction technologies and building monitoring devices, including the production of IoT sensors, have increased room-level monitoring of situations. These systems allow temperature and relative humidity to be properly controlled in some locations, independently of other parts of the facility.
IoT sensors also provide for room-level control of temperature and relative humidity levels in sensitive areas in the hospital. The detailed mapping generated by these IoT sensors utilizing RFID technology can be used by facility managers and infection prevention staff to classify areas of the building that can impact bacteria (high humidity) and virus (low humidity).