Eliciting Design Requirements for a Computer-Aided Monitoring and Alerting System to Improve PPE Compliance among Healthcare Workers

Aleksandra Sarcevic, Carmen-Mai Riley, Waverly Gestrich-Thompson, Ivan Marsic, Karen J. O'Connell, Randall S. Burd

Abstract: We examine the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in an emergency medical setting to inform the design of a computer-aided PPE monitoring and alerting system. We reviewed videos of 19 pediatric resuscitations from the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that PPE violations were associated with specific phases in the patient care process (e.g., before patient arrival), specific tasks (e.g., medication preparation), and specific locations (e.g., at the room entrance, bedside). Our results suggest that alert design will require considering the urgency of correcting PPE violations vs. the urgency of the task being performed. We conclude by discussing our initial observations and the next steps.