Have no fear! The doctors of a Fargo, ND health clinic no longer need to worry about getting lost, for their every move is being tracked by a clinic-wide tracking system that shows the location of everyone on a map of the building. Patients are being tracked, as well, by asking them to carry around a small tracking device (see the slide show) that communicates with the tracking system, mapping and storing information about their location. The system can also be used to track the location and movements of medical equipment and to follow inventory levels.
This wonderful cost-saving solution is also being installed at 152 of the nation’s VA hospitals, although initially only to track equipment, not patients or staff. Although COO Pat Gulbranson of the Fargo clinic reports that “so far . . . there have been no objections” related to privacy concerns, the VA nurses aren’t quite as excited about the idea of tracking their moves in the workplace. In fact, various unions that the VA hospital staff belong to quashed the idea of workplace tracking already in late 2011. Of course the unionized VA staff have the privilege of being able to speak as a group and don't need to fear that if they raise concerns about being tracked, they would be suspected of having something to hide. Why else would you not want administrators to know where in the workplace you are at any given moment?
At Family HealthCare in Fargo, clinic staffers are presumably watching for any privacy concerns regarding patients. However, it would seem that patients’ concerns could be better addressed by some kind of a patient advocate who doesn’t “have his own cow in the ditch.”* Also, the privacy concerns can be different from the patient’s perspective than from a staff member’s. Of course, both patients and staff may just feel plain uncomfortable about having their moves tracked. But where staff members may fear things like being tracked for how long they spend on tasks or with patients, or on break or in the restroom, patients probably don’t care if someone thinks they spent too long drinking a cup of coffee. The logical progression of tracking patients’ moves and transferring medical information into digital form is being able to tell by glancing at the computer monitor what ailment is bothering a patient that walks by. “Good afternoon, Mr. Tuberculosis!” “Have a fun weekend, Ms. Venereal Disease—but not too fun!”
* Finnish expression; being biased because of self-interest.
I recently visited a friend in the hospital who had just had a baby. The hospital uses these tracking devices on the newborns - the baby had a hospital bracelet around her ankle with a device attached that looked kind of like one of those security tags that department stores attach to their clothes. It was to prevent the baby from leaving the room without the mother with her, or from leaving the hospital without being discharged. I didn't ask, but I'd assume the mother had to consent to have the baby tracked - and who wouldn't? It's in the baby's best interest for the hospital to keep tabs on its whereabouts to prevent abductions of newborns.
ReplyDeleteI just wonder how this technology might be extended to other non-consenting persons. Perhaps the mentally handicapped, or Alzheimer's patients living in group home settings. In those cases, it's so difficult to sort out the issue of consent... what if the patient is lucid enough to consent, but another individual technically has power of attorney? It definitely presents some interesting new legal questions.
Kaitlyn, it seems to me that the alternative to banding patients might actually be worse. I've worked in two hospitals and when a patient wanders off, both hospitals announced, via intercom, to the entire building (or campus in the case of the larger hospital) that a patient named X, wearing Y, last seen at Z is missing. That's an awful lot of information about a person, not only to collect and retain, but to broadcast. Since the hospital would theoretically have records of a patient's presence at the hospital anyway, I'm not sure how much added privacy threat is posed by security tagging them.
ReplyDeleteWhether there's a dignitary harm in banding babies like merchandise is a whole 'nother set of problems.