Tamper-resistant monitoring systems and methods

• US 8,736,447 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dov Ehrman
• Original Assignee: TechIP International Limited
• Inventors: Ehrman, Dov, Vardi, Eyal Dov
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US13/331,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20130154835A1
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• Field of Search: 340/568.1, 340/539.1, 34053911-53912, 340/572.1, 340/10.1, 340/8.1, 340/6.1, 340/501, 340/5.61, 340/286.07, 340/539.22
• US Class Current: 340/568.1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0211 Combination with medical sensor, e.g. for measuring heart rate, temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0261 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect trespassing over a fixed physical boundary, e.g. the end of a garden
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0286 Tampering or removal detection of the child unit from child or article
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0453 worn on the body to detect health condition by physiological monitoring, e.g. electrocardiogram, temperature, breathing detecting, measuring or recording for diagnostic purposes A61B5/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0492 Sensor dual technology, i.e. two or more technologies collaborate to extract unsafe condition, e.g. video tracking and RFID tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons

Abstract

A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility including a plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices, each of the devices being uniquely associated with a resident of the facility, a multiplicity of device detectors operative to communicate with the monitoring devices and a computer subsystem operative to communicate with the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices via the multiplicity of device detectors, and to thereby monitor the residents of the facility.

Claims

1. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility comprising:

a plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices, each of said devices being associated with a resident of said facility;

a plurality of electronic tags for use with staff members of the facility;

a multiplicity of device detectors operative to communicate with at least said monitoring devices;

at least one controller configured to control a door so as to restrict access to certain areas of the facility; and

a computer subsystem configured to;

communicate with said plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices via said multiplicity of device detectors;

track locations of at least the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices based on the communications therewith;

determine that at least one of the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices associated with a resident of the facility is in proximity to the door of the facility;

perform an authorization access determination based on whether or not at least one of the staff members of the facility is accompanying the resident of the facility; and

send an instruction to the at least one controller to cause the door to operate based on the performed authorization access determination.

2. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring devices are operative to monitor health-related parameters of said residents.

3. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 2 and wherein said health-related parameters include heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

4. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1 and wherein said computer subsystem resides on a computer server connected to an enterprise-wide network.

5. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 4, wherein said enterprise-wide network connects between a plurality of systems for monitoring residents of health care facilities.

6. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1 and wherein said monitoring devices are configured to be worn by said residents.

7. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 6, wherein the door includes a magnetic door lock that is controlled in response to signals from the computer subsystem.

8. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 7 and wherein said locking mechanisms are operative to lock or unlock said doors responsive to signals received from said resident location authorization functionality via said door controllers.

9. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1, wherein the at least one controller controls the door of an elevator to restrict access to use of an elevator.

10. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 9, wherein authorization for the resident of the facility to use the elevator is controlled in accordance with determining that the staff member is accompanying the resident on the elevator.

11. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1, and wherein said monitoring devices comprise a wristband and a monitoring portion.

12. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 11 and wherein said wristband is tamper-resistantly connected to said monitoring portion.

13. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 12 and wherein said wristband is formed of an electrically conductive material and is galvanically connected to said monitoring portion, thereby creating an electrical circuit through said wristband and said monitoring portion.

14. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 13 and wherein said electrically conductive material comprises a conductive thermoplastic elastomer.

15. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 13 and wherein said monitoring device is operative, upon opening of said electrical circuit caused by breaching of said wristband or disconnecting of said wristband from said monitoring portion of said monitoring device, to send a tampering signal to said computer subsystem via at least one of said device detectors, said tampering signal indicating that said monitoring device has been tampered with.

16. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 15 and wherein said computer subsystem is operative, responsive to receiving said tampering signal from said monitoring device, to provide an alert to staff members of said health care facility that said monitoring device has been tampered with.

17. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 16 and wherein said alert comprises at least one of an audio alert and a visual alert, and also comprises information pertaining to an identity of the resident with whom said monitoring device is associated and information pertaining to a last known location of the resident with whom said monitoring device is associated.

18. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 15 and wherein said computer subsystem is operative, responsive to receiving said tampering signal from said monitoring device, to instruct said door controllers associated with all the doors of said health care facility to employ said magnetic door locking mechanisms to lock said doors and to thereby prevent unauthorized exit of said resident from said health care facility.

19. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 11 and wherein:

said wristband comprises first and second wristband elements;

a first end of said first wristband element is tamper-resistantly connected to one end of said monitoring portion;

a first end of said second wristband element is tamper-resistantly connected to an opposite end of said monitoring portion;

said second wristband element comprises a buckle at a second end thereof for accommodating said first wristband element;

said buckle comprises a buckle pin for insertion to a selectable one of apertures formed in said first wristband element, and is thereby operable for interlinking said first and second wristband elements; and

said first and second wristband elements are tamper-resistantly locked together by at least one tamper-resistant pin which is irremovable engaged with a pin receiving element via at least one pin aperture formed in said second wristband element.

20. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 11 and wherein said monitoring portion comprises a distress button operable for signaling said computer subsystem that the resident with whom said monitoring device is associated with is in distress.

21. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1 and wherein said computer subsystem is a portable computer subsystem.

22. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 21 and wherein at least one of said device detectors is integrated into said portable computer subsystem.

23. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1 and wherein said multiplicity of device detectors are operative to wirelessly communicate with said monitoring devices.

24. A system for monitoring residents of a health care facility according to claim 1 and wherein said computer subsystem is also operative, responsive to a failure to communicate with one of said plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices, to alert the staff of said health care facility that the resident with whom said monitoring device is associated with is unaccounted for.

25. A method of using a computer system to monitor residents of a health care facility, the method comprising:

uniquely associating each of a plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices with a different resident of said facility in a storage medium of the computer system;

communicating with a multiplicity of device detectors that are configured to communicate with the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices vis the computer system;

receiving information sent to the computer system from at least one of the multiplicity of device detectors that is indicative of a location of a tamper-resistant resident monitoring device of the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices;

determining, by using the computer system, that the tamper-resistant resident monitoring device is in proximity to a door of the facility;

performing, by using a computer system, an authorization access determination based on whether or not at least one of the staff members of the facility is accompanying the resident of the facility; and

causing an instruction to be sent from the computer system to a door controller to control the door based on the performed authorization access determination.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising continuously monitoring the location of said residents via the computer system.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising monitoring health-related parameters of said residents via the computer system.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said health-related parameters include heart rate and blood oxygen levels.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein said monitoring devices are configured to be worn by said residents.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the door is configured to being locked in place by a magnetic door lock that is controlled by the door controller.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein the authorization access determination includes determining whether the resident uniquely associated with the tamper-resistant resident monitoring device is authorized to open the door.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the instruction includes an instruction for locking or unlocking the door based on a result of the authorization access determination.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein the door is associated with an elevator of the facility and the an authorization access determination includes determining whether a resident of said facility is authorized to operate the elevator.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the at least one of the multiplicity of device detectors is located in proximity to an elevator access location.

35. The method of claim 25, wherein the plurality of tamper-resistant resident monitoring devices comprise a wristband and a monitoring portion.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein said wristband is tamper-resistantly connected to said monitoring portion.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein said wristband is formed of an electrically conductive material and is galvanically connected to said monitoring portion, thereby creating an electrical circuit through said wristband and said monitoring portion.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein said electrically conductive material comprises a conductive thermoplastic elastomer.

39. The method of claim 25, further comprising receiving information, via the computer system, that is indicative of a tamper detection event from at least one of the device detectors.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising causing, by using the computer system, an alert to be sent to at least one staff member of the health care facility that the tamper-resistant resident monitoring device associated with the tamper detection event has been tampered with.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the alert includes at least one of an audio alert and a visual alert, information pertaining to an identity of the resident associated with the tamper-resistant resident monitoring device associated with the tamper detection event, and a location associated with a last known location of the resident.

42. The method of claim 39, further comprising, in response reception of the tamper detection event, causing, by using the computer system, a signal to be sent to door controllers that as associated with doors of the health care facility to lock said doors and to thereby prevent unauthorized exit.

43. The method of claim 25, wherein said communicating comprises wirelessly communicating.

44. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

determining, by the computer system, that a resident is unaccounted for, responsive to failure to communicate with a monitoring device associated therewith; and

causing an alert to be sent, via the computer system, to at least one staff member in response to the determining that the resident is unaccounted for.

45. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

receiving positional information from an electronic tag that is associated with the at least one of the staff members,

wherein the determination that the at least one of the staff members is accompanying the resident is based on positional correspondence between the receiving positional information from an electronic tag and the information that is indicative of the location of the tamper-resistant resident monitoring device.

46. A band for use by residents of a health care facility that has a plurality of device detectors, the band comprising:

a housing that includes electronic circuitry configured to wirelessly communicate with at least one of the plurality of device detectors, the housing defining an aperture that extends between (a) an inner portion of the housing that contains the electronic circuit and (b) an outer portion of the housing;

a strap configured to connect to the housing and wrap around an extremity of a resident of the health care facility, the strap defining a first recess area and a second recess area, the first recess area being in alignment with the aperture at the outer portion of the housing when the strap is secured to the housing, the second recess area being formed so as not to be aligned with the aperture when the strap is secured to the housing; and

an electrically conductive retaining element configured to extend from the inner portion of the housing through the aperture and into the first recess area when the strap is secured to the housing to thereby galvanically connect the electronic circuit to strap, the electrically conductive retaining element having a retaining flap configured to lodge into the second recess area when the strap is secured.

47. The band of claim 46, wherein the electrically conductive retaining element includes first and second members, the first member extending through the aperture and into the first recess area, the second member transversely formed to the first member and disposed in the inner portion of the housing.

48. The band of claim 46, further comprising a battery disposed in the inner portion of the housing and powering the electronic circuitry, wherein the electrically conductive retaining element is configured to retain the battery.

49. The band of claim 46, wherein, after securing the strap to the housing, the retaining flap of the electrically conductive retaining element is configured to be torn from the electrically conductive retaining element upon a subsequent disconnection of the strap from the housing.