Tracking RN's...why not Docs too???

Nurses Activism

Published

Posted on Thu, May. 30, 2002

Hospital to track nurses

SYSTEM TO HELP PATIENTS RAISES PRIVACY CONCERNS

By Putsata Reang

Mercury News

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/3364517.htm

A new high-tech tracking system at Washington Hospital that allows supervisors to track the whereabouts of their nurses is expected to help hospitals run more efficiently and patients get a nurse's attention faster.

However, some hospital employees say Big Brother may be watching a bit too closely.

``It's a violation of my privacy and a waste of resources,'' said Ken Krider, a nurse in the intensive care unit who opposes the new program. ``They'll see if I'm 30 seconds late or take a 31-minute break or go to the bathroom three times. I don't want that.''

Washington Hospital spokesman Christopher Brown said the Fremont hospital has not received any complaints about the tracking system from employees, adding it is intended to help patients. Administrators have yet to determine who must wear the badges and other requirements of the program, such as whether staff members would have to carry the badges at all times. However, he said, ``In order for a system like this to work, everyone has to take part.''

Washington Hospital will launch the real-time tracking system when it officially opens its newly remodeled sixth floor medical surgery unit next month. It has already been used in a pilot program on the third floor and there are plans to expand the system to the entire hospital.

The program, created by Michigan-based Versus Technology, would require nurses to wear infrared identification badges so that their supervisors -- and their patients -- can find them easily. Sensors about the size of a cup coaster placed on the ceiling will detect the nurse's badge and relay the information via infrared signals to a computer, which will record the location in real-time.

Versus Technology first tried the program at a Philadelphia pediatric hospital seven years ago. As many as 400 hospitals across the country -- including several in California -- now use the system for various purposes including tracking down a patient file and locating a person, said Stephanie Bertschy, Versus' director of marketing.

In addition to tracking people instantly, the system would create a record of how long a patient waited for a nurse to arrive after pushing a call button, how many times the nurse was in the room, and how long he or she stayed. Once the nurse enters the patient's room, the call button automatically turns off.

``I could see where my nurses are if a doctor is looking for a specific nurse,'' said Alice Santos, a 23-year veteran of Washington Hospital and director of the medical and surgical nursing program on the third floor, which launched the pilot. ``Otherwise, you're running up and down the hall trying to find the nurse.''

Santos said the system also cuts back on the noise in hospitals as fewer people are paged over intercoms.

``We're not using it as a tool to monitor how long their breaks are,'' Santos said. ``We're not using it in a punitive method.''

However, privacy groups worry the system could be abused.

``The kind of environment they're working under now is one of total surveillance,'' said Sarah Andrews, research director at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public-interest research agency in Washington, D.C. ``You can be watched every time you go to the bathroom. It puts you in an uncomfortable situation.''

Andrews said there are no federal laws prohibiting this type of surveillance by an employer; however, individuals may have some grounds for legal action if their privacy is violated.

Krider said he's taken an informal poll of other staff members who share his same worries about privacy rights.

``For the nurses understaffed and overworked, this just adds a new unit of paranoia,'' Krider said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact Putsata Reang at [email protected] or (510) 790-7312

See both pro's and con's of this system...only seems fair for Doc's , Respiratory Therapy etc to be tracked too!IMO

I still would love to see the suit's faces when they saw the travel time of one nurse from one end of the hallway to the other for a pt call button response be less than 3 seconds. They are libel to expect that of all the nurses which would be a very bad thing.

I should think that the tracking device should only be reserved for those who do not do their jobs. And need to have some additional incentive to complete things in a timely manner. The problem with this is that if is a short skip from being a means to help nurses get things done in a more timely manner to an across the board practice. So in the end, I say this is a bad idea and should not be put into place.

Nick

We use this system at my hospital and I like it. If your doing your job as you should, you have nothing to worry about. It cut's down on the nurse being called into rooms for nurse aid type tasks and helps prioritize care. For example, I might be in a room doing a routine a.m. assessment and they can call me and tell me that room 3 is having chest pain.

That is what we would all like for it to be used for, but nurses don't run the place.

When I think about it, I feel uneasy.

You could just as well be called to room 3 to "pull the covers up stat" and the device would be used to prove your poor customer service skills as you are once again denied----------(fill in the blank) at your review, staff meeting, revocation hearing........etc, by the administration that installed the device to "just help people"

It may sound negative, but I didn't get this way overnight. Lucy has pulled away the football(charlie Brown comic referrence) too many times fro me to believe that I'll get to kick it.

That is not negative, merely realistic in my opinion. The owners of where I work have been doing everything cheaply possible to save money. They send the lovely mixed message of do more work around the facility, but still be easily accessible to the clients. When I am mopping or cutting the grass I am not within eye-shot of the front doors and the clients. So where is the logic in that. I am not going to do those things (which take between 2 and 4 hrs of work each at a time to do [providing you do not interrupted]) off the clock and not get paid for it. So we get in hot water with the home office for doing such things during business hours. Well duh! what do you think was going to happen when you refuse to pay us outside of business hours and and what all the cleaning and maintaince completed?

Sorry for venting, but just frustrating as all get out sometimes. I know you all can relate to this.

Nick

My feeling toward these would be either everyone in the hospital wears one (Head CEO down to the janitor), or no one wears them. If I were forced to wear one of those badges, I would quit so fast it would make your head spin! I can feel my blood pressure rising just because of this topic. The very idea of tagging us like we were wildlife! :( I wish the lazy management and administrators would get the idea that we need ways to keep nurses, not run them off! Like one poster said, if there were more of us, we would be able to take care of our patients in a timely manner.

In response to SmilingBluEyes statement, "what is next? COW BELLS????? " A hospital I did clinicals at last year was doing some remodeling and some of the rooms were left with out a call bell system. So, they were given COW BELLS to call us with! This went on for a couple of weeks! I left everyday with a headache and feeling like a herded hefer! Ha!

Specializes in Critical Care.

This is the topic that first got me interested in this site:

I gather that in the 3 yrs since it was discussed here, these infrared trackers are becoming more and more commonplace and therefore just accepted.

But!

Nobody thinks this is anti-nursing?

Nobody thinks it's an insult to have management monitor your intrashift movements?

Nobody thinks it's anti- patient advocacy to have management tell you that your critical thinking skills take a back seat to how well you sequentially answer call buttons?

Nobody thinks spending a quarter of a million dollars in order to create data to prove to me that I'm not answering call buttons fast enough instead of hiring more nurses with that money isn't asinine?

It seems like I'm the only one freaking out about this!?!

I just changed jobs and the straw that broke the proverbial back was one of these tracking systems. I felt so insulted. And the kicker: it was hinted to me that by leaving, I was being dis-loyal. My take is that this system was an adequate display to me that loyalty wasn't a two-way street to start with.

I'd love to hear some recent comments on this topic.

~faith,

Timothy.

HA! :rotfl:

I can't believe this idea...tagging nurses......I'd quit too.

I just put one on my cat for Pete's Sake...... :angryfire

Z

Specializes in Critical Care.

from:

http://www.nursingworld.org/tan/01marapr/tracked.htm

---Christina Terranova, RN, LNC, a New York State Nurses Association nurse representative and member, was interviewed by "ABC News" and The New York Times on the issue of nurse tracking. Simply put, she finds the practice offensive to nurses and the profession, harmful to patient care and potentially harmful to nurses' health.

"Here we are in a national battle to preserve our profession, and the companies who make these systems are advertising them with slogans like 'Track your personnel and your equipment,'" Terranova said. "The day registered nurses are lumped in with IVAC pumps, it's a sad day."

She believes the use of tracking systems will continue to grow, because the health care industry is more into time management and profit margins than its original mission of caring for the ill.

"Some nurses might not care about it as an issue, but if one stops to think about it, wearing these devices is like home detention for prisoners," Roberts said. "It devalues nurses because it implies that they are not doing their work. Physicians would never tolerate it." ------

Let the suits wear them. Let the managers wear them. HELLO OUT THERE!!!! If we had enough STAFF patients would not have to WAIT for anything! Not punitive, my @ss! Take the hundreds of thousands that a system like this will cost and spend it on retention incentives! Oh, sorry, I forgot! That would make sense! I would quit in a New York minute if any hospital I worked for got that kind of a system. First I'd have fun. I'd bring in a remote control car and put the badge on it. I would send that thing into every patients room, the med room, the supply room, all over the stinking place. Then I would demand an accounting of my activity and ask them to explain to me how on earth I could possibly be expected to answer calls bells in 9 seconds flat when I am running around like an idiot!

It is things like this that show just how out of touch the suits are! This is why we have a shortage in hospitals!!!!!! Total lack of RESPECT!

heh

One of the hospitals where I sometimes work registry has them.

One manager uses them to criticize. Those nurses can't win -

"You spent too much time at the desk"

"What were you doing in room *** for 37 minutes on May 19th?" "What could possibly take that long"

I wonder how much time this person wastes scrutinizing those logs?!?!

And how about those devices like the Star Trek communicators? Worn as a pin they tell you when a call light is on. I would turn mine off when giving care. It is rude and wrong to interrupt the nurse/patient relationship like that!

Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.

I worked with a more antiquated form of this. It didn't keep a record but did have a display at the secretary's desk (who answered the call light) showing where everyone was. My major issue was that I was always easily accessible anyway. . . the problem folks were the ones whose batteries were always dead or they always forgot and put the sensor in their pocket (rendering it untrackable). I do find the concept offensive and don't miss being there, it was one of the least nurse-friendly places I've ever worked (though it had the Baylor plan and that's why I put up with it for over a year).

+ Add a Comment