A privacy-aware compliance tracking system for skilled nursing facilities

Abstract

In this paper, we report our experiences in designing, deploying, and making continuous improvements of a Privacy-Aware Compliance Tracking System (PACTS) at a skilled nursing facility. The purpose of PACTS is to help state tested nursing assistants (STNAs) get into the habit of using proper body mechanics when performing bedside cares. The system has been deployed in six resident rooms and seven STNAs have been participating our study for over ten weeks. This study makes the following contributions: (1) A registration mechanism that enables an STNA to register with any of the rooms that have PACTS installed, which is essential to protect the privacy of patients and non-participating persons; (2) A wrong activity detection mechanism that is robust against occlusions due to furniture and against temporary inability of floor determination; (3) A lease-based mechanism to improve the usability of PACTS, which allows an STNA to be continuously monitored without having to register with PACTS repeatedly when she/he goes in and out of the view of the Kinect sensor for the duration of the lease.