How location intelligence is automating infection control

The UK Government’s 10-Year Health Plan places a heavy emphasis on the reduction of healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs), yet the methods used to track and contain outbreaks remain stubbornly manual. Identifying who was where and ensuring rapid sanitisation is often still managed through paper logs, retrospective interviews, and guesswork.

A software-led approach makes it possible to automate infection prevention without deploying thousands of wearable tags or investing in proprietary infrastructure. Instead, hospitals can use the smartphones already carried by staff to build an always-on picture of movement throughout the hospital.

Historically, contact tracing in a hospital setting has been a forensic, time-consuming task. When a patient tests positive for a pathogen like MRSA or C. diff, infection prevention and control (IPC) teams must manually reconstruct movements to identify exposed staff and contaminated zones. This reactive approach is not only slow but prone to human error, leaving windows of opportunity for a virus to spread further across wards.

Navenio’s indoor positioning technology replaces this uncertainty with an automated digital record of room-level movement. Using AI and existing smartphone sensors to map movement with sub-meter accuracy, IPC teams can instantly see exactly which staff members entered an infectious area and for how long, allowing for targeted testing and isolation instead of ward-wide disruption.

Ian Campbell, as Executive Chair of Innovate UK, commented on the importance of this innovation: “Businesses like Navenio have stepped up to the challenge and produced technology which aims to solve these issues. Those awarded funding from our competition will support the UK in delivering potential solutions and services.”

The distinction between Navenio’s software-led approach and traditional hardware-based systems is critical for NHS Trusts. While hardware-heavy solutions require the distribution and maintenance of thousands of physical tags, which can be lost, uncharged, or forgotten, Navenio’s infrastructure-free model scales instantly. It removes the “tag fatigue” that often undermines infection control compliance, ensuring that data is consistent and reliable.

Beyond tracing, the platform closes the loop on infection control by linking location intelligence directly to workflow automation. In a busy hospital, the delay between a patient being discharged and a room being deep-cleaned is a high-risk period for cross-contamination. Navenio’s Intelligent Workforce Solution (IWS) removes this lag by automatically triggering and dispatching cleaning tasks to the nearest available operative the moment a room is vacated.

This approach has already demonstrated its impact across the NHS. In NHSx AI Award-supported trials, Navenio released the equivalent of 27 full-time employees back to clinical care by removing logistical friction from their day. Furthermore, partnerships with healthcare providers, including East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, have shown that moving to data-driven decision-making can reduce task response times by nearly 30%, ensuring that clinical environments are sanitised and ready for the next patient faster than ever before.

Niki Trigoni, CEO at Navenio, said: “Infection control is fundamentally a spatial challenge. You need to know where the risk is and how quickly you can neutralise it. By providing real-time visibility without the need for new infrastructure, we are giving IPC teams a digital ‘bio-fence’ that protects both staff and patients, ensuring that safety is built into the very fabric of the hospital’s daily movement.”

The 10-Year Plan calls for technology that makes the NHS safer, more efficient and less reliant on manual processes. Navenio supports this ambition by transforming location data into actionable insight for infection prevention, allowing hospitals to move beyond manual tracing and create a more resilient, responsive, and ultimately safer environment for patients and staff.