Mass General Lab of Computer Science (LCS)
The “Boston Hope” Medical Center opened at Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in April 2020. The thousand-bed hospital served post-acute COVID-19 patients and homeless patients with COVID-19 who did not require hospitalization in an acute care facility. Given its makeshift location, the Boston Hope Medical Center needed a way to track access to the site as well as PPE usage by Mass General Brigham employees. Mass General’s Laboratory of Computer Science (LCS) had previously developed a combination of hardware and software solutions that enabled Mass General Hospital and Brigham Women’s Hospital ID access badges to be effectively scanned. This solution was rapidly repurposed and deployed to not only track medical staff badges but also be integrated with field sensors to monitor PPE equipment areas. Data that was captured through this solution enabled the Boston Hope Medical Center’s leadership to predict personal protective equipment (PPE) utilization and future needs.