It's technical
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic saw hospitals worldwide unprepared to manage surges in admissions and supply shortages, all while caring for an unknown novel pathogen. The deadly disease ravaged China and East Asian countries first; however, after facing grave mortalities from SARS, these countries utilized real-time locating systems (RTLS) to contact trace within clinical settings. This thesis sought to ascertain why the United States and European countries did not mandate using this technology in their approaches like their East Asian counterparts. This thesis examined how different hospital contact tracing protocols in the United States, Europe, and East Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic were guided by sociopolitical, economic, and ideologic values. The process began with a systematic literature review that included traditional peer-reviewed sources, grey literature, and technical guidance to ascertain how RTLS functions and the factors contributing to its usage. Concurrently, this study included semi-structured interviews to understand the facilitators and barriers of RTLS in practice. The investigator recruited a combination of health policy experts, technological experts, hospital administrators, and epidemiologists or infection prevention and control experts. 10 participants from the United States, Italy, and the United Kingdom were interviewed as part of this study. Results found that RTLS decreases recall bias in traditional manual contact tracing and increase efficiency in the number of positive cases found. Individuals describe implementing new RTLS technologies as cost-prohibitive. Participants cite anti-government sentiment and mistrust as barriers preventing RTLS' use. RTLS was successful in countries where the national governments set uniform policies, wherein the United States and in many European nations, regional or municipal authorities set their own regulations. This thesis found that political polarization and a societal prioritization of individual rights over the public's health are the main barriers to mandating RTLS implementation in both the United States and Europe.