Hand-Sanitation Compliance in Healthcare Facilities

• US 20170148304A1
• Filed: 02/06/2017
• Published: 05/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Strategic Healthcare Innovations, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Strategic Healthcare Innovations, Inc.
• Inventors: WALLACE, Cynthia K., MADDEN, David H.
• Granted Patent: US 10,121,356 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention track users'"'"' hand-cleaning compliance and display an indication of each user'"'"'s compliance so that others can estimate how well each user complies with policy guidelines. Making sanitation compliance visible in this way enables social pressure to be focused on negligent users without requiring others to take specific, individual actions to call out a negligent user. Other features of the system are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A hand-sanitizing compliance improving system, comprising:

a hand-sanitizing station having a wireless transmitter operative to transmit a first signal when the hand-sanitizing station is operated by an individual;

an arming station having a wireless transmitter operative to transmit a second signal to receivers in a vicinity of the arming station; and

a hand-sanitizing compliance monitor having a wireless receiver operative to receive the first signal from the hand sanitizing station and the second signal from the arming station, wherein

the hand-sanitizing compliance monitor is adapted to be carried by the individual,

the hand-sanitizing compliance monitor emits a perceptible indication of an elapsed time since the wireless receiver last received the first signal from the hand sanitizing station, and

the hand-sanitizing compliance monitor emits a visibly-different perceptible indication upon receiving the second signal.

2. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 1 wherein the hand-sanitizing compliance monitor further comprises:

a wireless transmitter operative to transmit an encounter signal to a second hand-sanitizing compliance monitor, and wherein

the second hand-sanitizing compliance monitor records a time at which it received the encounter signal.

3. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 1, wherein the perceptible indication includes a first distinguishable indication corresponding to a first time period immediately following the transmission and reception of the first signal,

a second distinguishable indication corresponding to a second time period following the first time period, and

a third distinguishable indication corresponding to a third time period following the second time period.

4. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 3, wherein reception of the second signal causes the perceptible indication to advance from the first distinguishable indication directly to the third distinguishable indication.

5. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 1 wherein the signal is a radio signal.

6. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 1 wherein the signal is an infrared light signal.

7. The hand-sanitizing compliance improving system of claim 1, further comprising:

a database to record signal reception times from a plurality of hand-sanitizing compliance monitor devices.

8. A method of improving hand-sanitizing compliance at a facility, comprising:

transmitting a first wireless message from a hand sanitizer unit when the hand sanitizer unit is activated to clean or disinfect a user'"'"'s hands;

transmitting a second wireless message from an arming station;

receiving the first wireless message from the hand sanitizer unit and the second wireless message from the arming station; and

displaying a visible indication attached to the user, said visible indication to permit a viewer to estimate a length of time since the user last cleaned or disinfected his hands, wherein

reception of the first wireless message causes the visible indication to change so that the viewer will estimate that the user just cleaned or disinfected his hands;

passage of a period of time causes the visible indication to change so that the viewer will estimate that a similar length of time has passed since the user cleaned or disinfected his hands; and

reception of the second wireless message causes the visible indication to change immediately so that the viewer will estimate that an increased length of time has elapsed since the user last cleaned or disinfected his hands even though the increased length of time has not elapsed.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the wireless message includes an identifier of the hand sanitizer unit, the method further comprising:

recording the identifier of the hand sanitizer unit.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

recording a time at which the wireless message was received; and

uploading the identifier of the hand sanitizer unit and the time at which the wireless message was received to an analysis computer.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the visible indication is a light having a varying intensity.

12. The method of claim 8 wherein the visible indication is a light having a varying flash rate.

13. The method of claim 8 wherein the visible indication is a light having a varying color.