Hygiene monitoring system

• US 20060132316A1
• Filed: 01/25/2006
• Published: 06/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: Wildman, Timothy D., Hausman, Phillip J., Gallant, Dennis J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,408,470 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.100
• CPC Class Codes: A47K 2005/1218 Table mounted; Dispensers integrated with the mixing tap
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/245 Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

A method is provided for monitoring hygiene compliance.

Claims

1-30. -30. (canceled)

31. A method of monitoring hygiene compliance, comprising:

detecting an encounter between a person and a movable object,

determining whether the encounter results in contamination of the person, and

generating an indication indicative of whether the person is contaminated.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising transmitting at least a portion of the indication over a wireless communications channel.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the indication is a visual indication.

34. The method of claim 31, further comprising storing instances of information relating to encounters in a memory over time.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising monitoring encounters and indications and generating a second indication indicative of compliance with a predetermined policy.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising transmitting number of encounters information to a hospital billing system.

37. The method of claim 31, further comprising monitoring changes in location of the person and the object.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising determining whether a change in location of a person or object results in contamination of the person or object.

39. A method of monitoring hygiene compliance, the method comprising:

receiving information relating to a contamination zone,

receiving information uniquely identifying an item,

receiving information indicative of a location of the item,

assigning a status of ‘

contaminated’

to the item if the location information indicates entry of the item into the contamination zone,

receiving information relating to a cleaning device,

evaluating the information relating to the cleaning device and the information relating to the item to determine whether to change the status of the item, and

storing instances of status information in a memory over time,

evaluating stored instances of status information to determine compliance with a predetermined hygiene policy.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising assigning a status of ‘

decontaminated’

to the item based on the location of the item.

41. The method of claim 39, further comprising assigning a status of ‘

decontaminated’

to the item based on information received from the cleaning device.

42. The method of claim 39, further comprising assigning a status of ‘

decontaminated’

to the item if the location information indicates that the item is not in the contamination zone.

43. The method of claim 39, further comprising generating an alert if the status of the item is ‘

contaminated’

.

44. The method of claim 39, further comprising evaluating instances of status information periodically at preset time intervals.

45. The method of claim 39, further comprising generating a compliance rating for the item based on the evaluating of stored instances of status information.

46. A program located in a recordable medium, the program comprising instructions for monitoring hygiene executable by a computing device to:

access a predetermined hygiene policy,

receive usage information indicative of use of a cleaning device to clean an item,

receive identification information uniquely identifying an item,

receive location information indicative of a location of an item,

receive contact information indicative of an instance of contact between a first item and a second item,

evaluate the usage information, identification information, location information, and contact information to detect compliance or non-compliance with the hygiene policy, and

generate an output indicative of such compliance or non-compliance.

47. The program of claim 46, wherein the first item is a person and the second item is an object.

48. The program of claim 46, wherein the first item is a person and the second item is a person.

49. The program of claim 46, wherein the first item is an object and the second item is an object.

50. The program of claim 46, further comprising storing the usage information, identification information, location information and contact information in memory and monitoring at least one of the usage information, identification information, location information and contact information over a period of time.