Hand Washing Monitor

• US 20090051545A1
• Filed: 08/25/2008
• Published: 02/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GT Angel LLC
• Original Assignee: GT Angel LLC
• Inventors: Koblasz, Arthur
• Granted Patent: US 8,040,245 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/573.100
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/245 Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer-storage media provide for the monitoring of hand washing by people entering a room. A person is detected entering a room and an image of the person is captured. The person is identified as an employee using various employee identifiers or is identified as a visitor. The image may be used to identify distinguishing features of the visitor to be compared to an image subsequently during hand washing to verify the identity of the hand washer as the person who entered the room. Similarly, the employee identifier is used to verify the identity of a hand washer as the employee that entered the room. If any person entering the room remains for a threshold period of time without activating the soap dispenser, then a notification that includes the person'"'"'s identity is provided within the room to remind the person that hand washing is required.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring hand washing within a room, the method comprising:

detecting a person entering the room;

capturing an image of the person that entered the room;

determining an identity of the person that entered the room using the image of the person or an employee identifier;

determining whether the person activates a soap dispenser within a threshold period of time; and

providing a notification of a failure to wash hands if the person does not activate the soap dispenser within the threshold period of time, the notification comprising the identity of the person.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing an image of the person that entered the room comprises distinguishing the person from an object entering the room according to physical attributes associated with the person or the object and capturing the image of the person for identification.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an employee identifier, wherein determining the identity of the person that entered the room using the image of the person or the employee identifier comprises retrieving employee identification information corresponding to the person that entered the room using the employee identifier; and

deleting the image of the person that entered the room after determining the identity of the person as an employee using the employee identifier and corresponding employee identification information.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the employee identifier comprises a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the employee identifier comprises an identifying attribute worn by the person that identifies the person as an employee.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the employee identifier comprises an RFID tag or biometric identifier, the method further comprising:

retrieving an image or biometric identifier of an employee associated with the employee identifier;

comparing the image or the biometric identifier of the person to the image or biometric identifier of the employee to determine whether the person is the employee associated with the employee identifier; and

if the person is not the employee associated with the employee identifier, providing an imposter notification that indicates that the person is not the employee associated with the employee identifier.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

starting a timer for determining whether the person entering the room activates the soap dispenser within the threshold period of time;

detecting an activation of the soap dispenser;

determining an identity of a person activating the soap dispenser;

comparing the identity of the person activating the soap dispenser to the identity of the person that entered the room to determine if the person activating the soap dispenser is the person that entered the room; and

in response to determining that the person that activated the soap dispenser is the person that entered the room, resetting the timer.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein determining the identity of the person activating the soap dispenser comprises detecting an employee identifier and determining the identity of the person activating the soap dispenser from the employee identifier.

9. The method of claim 7,

wherein determining the identity of the person entering the room using the image of the person or an employee identifier comprises selecting at least one distinguishing attribute associated with the image,

wherein determining the identity of the person activating the soap dispenser comprises recording an image of a person activating the soap dispenser, and

wherein comparing the identity of the person activating the soap dispenser to the identity of the person that entered the room to determine if the person activating the soap dispenser is the person that entered the room comprises determining whether the image of the person activating the soap dispenser comprises the at least one distinguishing attribute associated with the image of the person entering the room.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the person activates the soap dispenser within the threshold period of time comprises determining whether an electrical or optical switch corresponding to the soap dispenser has been activated.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the person activates the soap dispenser within a post-notification threshold period of time after the notification has been provided; and

providing the notification to a facility employee if the person does not activate the soap dispenser within the post-notification threshold period of time.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the person is authorized to occupy a designated safe zone within the room without activating the soap dispenser;

determining a travel time corresponding to a time that the person takes to arrive at the designated safe zone after entering the room or to exit the room after leaving the designated safe zone; and

determining whether the travel time exceeds a threshold travel time,

wherein the threshold period of time for activating the soap dispenser comprises a pre-determined amount of time in excess of the threshold travel time.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the designated safe zone comprises a distinctive identifier on the floor of the patient care room that is identifiable within an image created by an imaging device positioned with an elevated view of an entry doorway of the room, the soap dispenser, and the designated safe zone.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the distinctive identifier comprises at least one of a floor marking, a floor covering, a floor color, and a floor pattern configured to distinguish the safe zone from adjacent floor space.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein determining that the person is authorized to occupy the designated safe zone within the room without activating the soap dispenser comprises:

receiving employee identification data from an RFID tag identifying the person as an employee requesting entry to the room; and

retrieving employee authorization utilizing the employee identification data from the RFID tag.

16. A computer storage medium having computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to:

detect a person entering a room;

capture an image of the person that entered the room;

determine an identity of the person that entered the room using the image of the person or an employee identifier;

monitor a time that the person that entered the room remains within the room without activating a soap dispenser;

determine that the time that the person that entered the room has remained within the room without activating the soap dispenser exceeds a threshold period of time; and

in response to determining that the time that the person that entered the room has remained within the room without activating the soap dispenser exceeds the threshold period of time, provide a notification of a failure to wash hands that includes the identity of the person.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

monitor the time that the person that entered the room remains within the room without activating the soap dispenser after providing the notification;

determine that the time that the person that entered the room has remained within the room without activating the soap dispenser after providing the notification exceeds a threshold post-notification period of time; and

in response to determining that the time that the person that entered the room has remained within the room without activating the soap dispenser after providing the notification exceeds the threshold post-notification period of time, provide the notification of the failure to wash hands to a facility employee.

18. The computer storage medium of claim 16, further comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to:

determine that a person has activated the soap dispenser;

identify the person that activated the soap dispenser as the person that entered the room;

in response to identifying the person that activated the soap dispenser as the person that entered the room, recall the notification.

19. A hand washing monitoring system, comprising:

an entry-detection mechanism operative to detect an entry of a person into a room;

at least one identification mechanism operative to identify the person entering the room and to identify a person activating a soap dispenser within the room;

a hand washing detection mechanism operative to determine whether the soap dispenser has been activated; and

a monitoring mechanism operative to utilize data from the entry-detection mechanism, the at least one identification mechanism, and the hand washing detection mechanism to determine whether the person entering the room activates the soap dispenser within a threshold period of time after entering the room and to provide a notification of a failure to activate the soap dispenser that comprises an identity of the person until the person activates the soap dispenser.

20. The hand washing monitoring system of claim 19,

wherein the entry-detection mechanism comprises a motion detection device configured to detect movement through a door of the room,

wherein the at least one identification mechanism is operative to distinguish between facility employees and visitors, and

wherein the monitoring mechanism is operative to verify an identity of an employee and to monitor a time from room entry to activation of the soap dispenser for each of a plurality of persons entering the room.