Tracking Clinical Staff Behaviors in an Operating Room

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Healthcare Technology
• Surgical Safety

Background:

• Inadequate operating room (OR) staff behaviors can lead to environmental contamination.
• This contamination increases the risk of surgical site infections (SSIs).
• Objective assessment of staff behavior is crucial for improving OR protocols.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a motion tracking system for analyzing OR staff behavior.
• To objectively quantify individual displacements and door movements within the OR.
• To assess the system's performance in real-world surgical settings.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a motion capture (MOCAP) system to detect and quantify human movements.
• Employed a wireless network of inertial sensors on doors, synchronized with the MOCAP system.
• Collected data from 30 cardiac and orthopedic surgeries across eight healthcare facilities.

Main Results:

• Successfully reconstructed 334 individual displacements.
• Achieved an average of 89.4% accurate reconstruction of staff positions.
• Demonstrated the system's capability to track both staff and door movements.

Conclusions:

• The developed motion tracking system provides an objective method for assessing OR staff behavior.
• This technology can contribute to identifying and mitigating behaviors that increase SSI risk.
• The system shows promising performance for real-world application in surgical environments.