Wireless monitoring and communication for sanitizer dispenser systems

• US 8,564,431 B2
• Filed: 01/07/2010
• Issued: 10/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ecolab USA Incorporated (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: UltraClenz LLC (Ecolab, Inc.)
• Inventors: Snodgrass, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Hoi
• Application Number:
  US12/684,019
• Publication Number:
  US 20110163870A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,384 Days
• Field of Search: 340/539.11, 340/539.1, 340/539.13, 340/10.1, 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 707/722, 707/769, 222/181.3, 222/372, 222/325
• US Class Current: 340/539.11
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0008 Temperature signals
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/01 Measuring temperature of body parts ; Diagnostic temperature sensing, e.g. for malignant or inflamed tissue clinical contact thermometers G01K13/20
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1113 Local tracking of patients, e.g. in a hospital or private home
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1122 of movement trajectories
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6889 Rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A monitoring and communication system for sanitizer compliance monitoring, comprises a plurality of sanitizer monitoring sensors for collecting sanitize compliance data at a respective plurality of sanitizer stations, each sensor located to monitor whether a person passing through a portal has undergone a sanitization procedure, at least one hub which wirelessly receives sanitizer compliance data transmitted from said plurality of sanitizer monitoring stations, a gateway which wirelessly receives sanitizer compliance data transmitted from the hub, and a wireless cellular telephone link for transmitting the sanitizer compliance data from the gateway to a central monitoring station.

Claims

1. A monitoring and communication system for sanitize compliance monitoring comprising:

a detector for detecting the identity of a person;

a sanitizer monitoring sensor for collecting sanitizer compliance data at a sanitizer station, said sensor located to monitor and store sanitizer activation event data indicating whether a person passing through a portal has undergone a sanitization procedure and to store sanitizer activation event data for such procedures; and

a wireless link for transmitting the sanitizer compliance data including sanitizer activation event data, wherein at least part of the link is over a cellular telephone network to a central monitoring station, the compliance data including the identity of the person passing through the portal and whether that person has undergone a sanitization procedure, wherein sanitizer activation event data can be buffered with a time offset during the time that data for another sanitizer activation event is transmitting.

2. The monitoring and communication system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring sensor transmits sanitizer compliance data to a central hub before transmission over the cellular telephone network.

3. The monitoring and communication system according to claim 1, wherein the wireless link comprises a gateway which wirelessly receives the sanitizer compliance data from the monitoring sensor before transmission over the cellular telephone network.

4. The monitoring and communication system according to claim 2, comprising a plurality of hubs which wirelessly communicate to a gateway before transmission over the cellular network.

5. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, further including a remote server and database store at the central monitoring station.

6. The monitoring and communication system of claim 5, further including an internet connection at the central station to enable internet access to the remote server and database store.

7. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, including a plurality of hubs, wherein at least one hub of the plurality can receive sanitize compliance data transmitted from another hub, and retransmit the data.

8. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a passive RFID tag reader, to detect RFID tags worn by users.

9. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the system includes a sanitizer dispenser.

10. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a sanitizer dispenser and detects whether the sanitizer dispenser has dispensed sanitizer within a time period before a person is detected passing through a portal, and produces a hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal if sanitizer has not been dispensed during said time period.

11. The monitoring and communication system of claim 10, including an alarm which generates a signal in response to the hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal.

12. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the detector comprises an infrared detector to detect a person.

13. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the detector comprises a laser for producing a laser beam.

14. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, wherein the detector is mounted along the perimeter of the portal.

15. The monitoring and communication system of claim 1, comprising a plurality of sanitizer monitoring sensors for collecting sanitizer compliance data at a respective plurality of sanitizer stations.

16. A monitoring and communication system for sanitizer compliance monitoring, comprising:

a detector for detecting the identity of a person;

a sanitizer monitoring sensor for collecting sanitizer compliance data including sanitizer activation event data at a sanitizer station, said sensor located to monitor whether a person entering a door has undergone a sanitization procedure, said sensor transmitting the sanitizer activation event data, and a memory for buffering sanitizer activation event data with a time offset during the time that data for another sanitizer activation event is transmitted;

at least one hub which wirelessly receives sanitizer compliance data transmitted from said sanitizer monitoring station, the compliance data including the identity of the person entering the door and whether that person has undergone a sanitization procedure;

a gateway which wirelessly receives sanitizer compliance data transmitted from the hub; and

a wireless cellular telephone link for transmitting the sanitizer compliance data from the gateway to a central monitoring station.

17. The communication system according to claim 16, comprising at least two hubs, each of which wirelessly receives sanitizer compliance data from a sanitizer monitoring sensor.

18. The communication system of claim 16, further including a remote server and database store at the central monitoring station.

19. The communication system of claim 18, further including an internet connection at the central station to enable internet access to the remote server and database store.

20. The communication system of claim 16, including a plurality of hubs, wherein at least one hub of the plurality can receive sanitize compliance data transmitted from another hub, and retransmit the data.

21. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein each sensor comprises a passive RFID tag reader, to detect RFID tags worn by users.

22. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein the system includes a sanitizer dispenser.

23. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein the sensor comprises a sanitizer dispenser and detects whether the sanitizer dispenser has dispensed sanitizer within a time period before a person is detected passing through a portal, and produces a hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal if sanitizer has not been dispensed during said time period.

24. The monitoring and communication system of claim 23, including an alarm which generates a signal in response to the hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal.

25. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein the detector comprises an infrared detector to detect a person.

26. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein the detector comprises a laser for producing a laser beam.

27. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, wherein the detector is mounted along the perimeter of the portal.

28. The monitoring and communication system of claim 16, comprising a plurality of sanitizer monitoring sensors for collecting sanitizer compliance data at a respective plurality of sanitizer stations.

29. A method for monitoring and communicating sanitizer compliance data, comprising:

detecting the identity of a person;

collecting sanitizer compliance data from a sanitizer station having a monitoring sensor, the compliance data including data of a sanitization activation event indicating the identity of the person and when that person has undergone a sanitization procedure;

transmitting the collected sanitizer compliance data wirelessly, wherein at least part of the transmission is over a cellular telephone network to a central monitoring station; and

storing in memory sanitization activation event data and a time offset for an activation event while data for a prior sanitization event is being transmitted.

30. The method of claim 29, including the step of wirelessly transmitting the sanitizer compliance data from the sanitizer station to a central hub, before transmitting the data wirelessly over the cellular network.

31. The method of claim 29, including using a gateway which wirelessly receives the sanitizer compliance data from the sanitizer monitoring sensor before transmission over the cellular telephone network.

32. The method of claim 29, including transmitting the data wirelessly over a plurality of hubs to a gateway before transmission over the cellular network.

33. The method of claim 29, including providing a remote server and database store at the central monitoring station.

34. The method of claim 29, including providing an internet connection at the central station to enable internet access to the remote server and database store.

35. The method of claim 29, including providing a plurality of hubs, wherein at least one hub of the plurality receives sanitize compliance data transmitted from another hub, and retransmits the data.

36. The method of claim 29, comprising using a passive RFID tag reader to detect RFID tags worn by users.

37. The method of claim 29, further comprising providing a sanitizer dispenser.

38. The method of claim 29, comprising detecting whether a sanitizer dispenser has dispensed sanitizer within a time period before a person is detected passing through the portal, and providing a hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal if sanitizer has not been dispensed during said time period.

39. The method of claim 38, including producing an alarm signal in response to a hygiene non-compliant, portal-passage event signal.

40. The method of claim 29, comprising using an infrared detector.

41. The method of claim 29, comprising locating a detector along the perimeter of the portal.

42. A monitoring and communication system for sanitize compliance monitoring comprising:

a detector for detecting the identity of a person;

a sanitizer monitoring sensor for collecting sanitizer compliance data at a sanitizer station, said sensor located to monitor whether a person passing through a portal has undergone a sanitization procedure, said sensor having a cover which opens and closes, and a battery, and also collecting sensor event conditions including at least one of cover closed, low battery, and whether the sensor is blocked by an object; and

a wireless link for transmitting the sanitizer compliance data and sensor event conditions data over a cellular telephone network to a central monitoring station, the compliance data including the identity of the person passing through the portal and whether that person has undergone a sanitization procedure.

43. A monitoring and communication system for sanitize compliance monitoring comprising:

a detector for detecting the identity of a person;

a sanitizer monitoring sensor for collecting sanitizer compliance data at a sanitizer station, said sensor located to monitor whether a person passing through a portal has undergone a sanitization procedure; and

a hub which receives sanitizer compliance data from the monitoring sensor; and

a wireless link for receiving sanitizer compliance data from the hub and transmitting the sanitizer compliance data over a cellular telephone network to a central monitoring station, the compliance data including the identity of the person passing through the portal and whether that person has undergone a sanitization procedure, said sensor buffering sanitizer activation event data with a time offset during the time that data for another sanitizer activation event is being transmitted, and wherein the hub creates a time-date stamp indicating when the activation event is received and adjusts the time-date stamp of occurrence of the activation event.