Hygiene compliance monitoring system

• US 8,823,525 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOJO Industries Incorporated
• Original Assignee: GOJO Industries Incorporated
• Inventors: Cartner, Todd J., Wegelin, Jackson W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Hoi
• Application Number:
  US12/987,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20110169645A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,331 Days
• Field of Search: 340/573.1, 340/573.4, 340/540, 340/541, 340/567, 340/539.1, 340/539.11, 340/539.12, 340/517, 340/523, 340/526, 4 3/9, 4 5/2, 422/2, 422/3, 422/26, 422/28, 422/123, 422/124, 700/236, 700/238, 222/39, 222/52, 222/222, 222/223
• US Class Current: 340/573.1
• 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 50/80 for detecting, monitoring or modelling epidemics or pandemics, e.g. flu
• CPC Class Codes: Y02A 90/10 Information and communication technologies [ICT] supporting adaptation to climate change, e.g. for weather forecasting or climate simulation

Abstract

An electronic hand hygiene compliance system and award indicator that provides realtime reporting of the percent number of hand hygiene events against a programmed target number of hand hygiene events for a given functional area over a given period of time, yielding hand hygiene compliance. The system keeps up to date compliance for an established group interval until the data is written over by compliance data for the same group interval the following day. In addition, a random hand hygiene event can be identified for a given functional area during a given period of time to trigger an alarm for encouraging hand hygiene activity for a given dispenser or group of dispensers.

Claims

1. A hygiene compliance monitoring system for a dispenser maintaining material to be dispensed, the hygiene compliance monitor system comprising:

a controller having at least one shift time interval and a target value of hand hygiene events corresponding to said at least one shift time interval; and

an activation switch that communicates an at least one actual hand hygiene event data to a memory unit, said memory unit having at least one memory bank corresponding to said at least one shift time interval, such that said controller compares the at least one actual hand hygiene event data to the target value of hand hygiene events;

wherein the memory unit has at least a first memory bank and a second memory bank, wherein said first memory bank corresponds to a first shift time interval and said second memory bank corresponds to a second shift time interval, and further wherein said first and second memory banks operate in a cycle wherein each of said first and said second shift time intervals has a start time and an end time, and further wherein said start time of said second shift time interval immediately follows said end time of said first shift time interval.

2. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the hygiene compliance monitor system includes a data acquisition unit having a display and a keypad.

3. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 2, wherein the hygiene compliance monitor system includes a manager'"'"'s key to enable operation of said keypad and said display.

4. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 3, wherein said manager'"'"'s key is a personal identification number that can be entered on said keypad.

5. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 4, wherein said keypad allows the display to be adjusted from no display to information regarding hand hygiene compliance data.

6. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein a number of said memory banks is equal to a number of said shift time intervals.

7. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said target value is provided as a function of time.

8. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 1, wherein said target value is set to a fixed number.

9. A hygiene compliance monitoring system for a dispenser maintaining material to be dispensed, the hygiene compliance monitor system comprising:

a controller having at least one shift time interval and a target value of hand hygiene events corresponding to said at least one shift time interval;

an activation switch that communicates an at least one actual hand hygiene event data to a memory unit, said memory unit having at least one memory bank corresponding to said at least one shift time interval, such that said controller compares the at least one actual hand hygiene event data to the target value of hand hygiene events;

an award indicator; and

a second controller associated with a second memory unit, said second controller being associated with said controller and providing a random event over a preselected reward time period, wherein said random event triggers said award indicator and can only happen once per said shift time interval.

10. A hygiene compliance monitoring system for a dispenser maintaining material to be dispensed, the hygiene compliance monitor system comprising:

a controller having at least one shift time interval and a target value of hand hygiene events corresponding to said at least one shift time interval;

an activation switch that communicates an at least one actual hand hygiene event data to a memory unit, said memory unit having at least one memory bank corresponding to said at least one shift time interval, such that said controller compares the at least one actual hand hygiene event data to the target value of hand hygiene events; and

a transceiver in communication with said controller, such that said transceiver relays said actual hand hygiene events to other dispensers, and receives other dispenser hygiene event data from said other dispensers, and wherein said controller sums the actual hand hygiene events and the other dispenser hygiene event data;

wherein each dispenser has an award indicator and a second controller associated with a second memory unit, said second controller is also associated with said controller and provides a random event over a preselected reward time period, wherein said random event triggers at least one of said award indicators and can only happen once per said shift time interval.

11. The hygiene compliance monitoring system of claim 10, wherein the target value corresponds to the sum of said dispenser target value and other dispensers target data.

12. A hygiene compliance monitoring system for a functional grouping of dispensers wherein said functional grouping of dispensers includes more than one dispenser maintaining material to be dispensed, said hygiene compliance monitor comprising:

a dispenser controller that is coupled to an actuator of each dispenser within said functional grouping of dispensers, wherein said actuator initiates the dispensation of material from the dispenser when actuated;

a data transmission unit adapted to be coupled to said dispenser controller of each dispenser within said functional grouping of dispensers, said data transmission unit including a data collection memory unit and an internal clock in synchronization with the other dispensers of said functional grouping of dispensers, said memory unit having at least one memory bank for receiving data, said data transmission unit generating a series of successive shift time intervals wherein said shift time intervals are periods to which said at least one memory bank stores data from said internal clock, said shift time intervals being repeated in a sequence, and each of said at least one memory bank is deleted at the start of each said shift time interval; and

at least one data acquisition unit configured to set said clock and being further configured to receive at least one piece of data of said at least one actuation.

13. The hygiene compliance monitor of claim 12, wherein there is only one said data acquisition unit.

14. The hygiene compliance monitor of claim 13, wherein the one said data acquisition unit is affixed to one of the dispensers of the functional grouping.

15. The hygiene compliance monitor of claim 13, wherein the one said data acquisition unit is contained within a computer.

16. A method of hygiene compliance monitoring, comprising:

providing a data transmission unit maintained by a dispenser, said dispenser including an actuator to initiate the dispensation of material from a refill container and a plurality of memory banks, wherein said data transmission unit performs the steps of;

storing a target value of dispensations;

generating a plurality of shift time intervals of a predetermined duration that repeat in a sequence, wherein each said shift time interval corresponds to each said memory bank;

clearing the memory bank at the beginning of each said shift time interval;

monitoring the engagement of said actuator; and

storing the number of engagements for each shift time interval into each memory bank; and

providing a data acquisition unit having a display and keypad, said data acquisition unit configured to communicate with said data transmission unit, and wherein said data transmission unit transfers the number of engagements and associated shift time intervals to the display of the data acquisition unit.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

providing an award indicator having a indicator controller and indicator memory in said data acquisition unit, wherein said award indicator;

stores an alarm to provide an indication;

provides that an actuation creates a random event;

allows a user to select a time segment to which said alarm shall occur;

generates said indication at the award indicator when said random event occurs; and

resets said alarm at the end of said time segment for next random event.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said step of providing a data transmission unit includes providing multiple data transmission units.

19. A dispenser monitoring unit to monitor hand hygiene compliance of at least one dispenser that transmits a hand hygiene event each time an actuator is engaged to dispense material therefrom, the dispenser monitoring unit comprising:

a monitoring controller;

a monitoring transceiver coupled to said monitoring controller to receive the hand hygiene events transmitted from the at least one dispenser; and

a data collection memory unit and an internal clock each coupled to said monitoring controller, said memory unit having at least one memory bank for receiving at least one hand hygiene event, said monitoring controller generating a series of successive shift time intervals, wherein said shift time intervals are periods to which said at least one memory bank stores data from said internal clock, said shift time intervals being repeated in a sequence, and each of said at least one memory bank is deleted at the start of each said shift time interval.

20. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 19, wherein said monitoring controller sums the hand hygiene events received from the dispensers.

21. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 20, wherein said monitoring controller is programmed with a target value of hand hygiene events, said monitoring controller comparing said sum and said target value to generate hygiene compliance data.

22. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 21, further comprising:

a display coupled to said monitoring controller to present said hygiene compliance data.

23. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 19, wherein said monitoring controller is configured to set said clock.

24. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 19 further comprising:

a grouping mode switch coupled to said monitoring controller, wherein when said grouping mode switch is activated, said monitoring transceiver acquires a dispenser identification code from each dispenser and associates each dispenser identification code with a group code generated by said monitoring controller.

25. The dispenser monitoring unit of claim 19, wherein said monitoring controller provides a random event over a preselected reward time period, such that said random event triggers a dispenser indicator provided by at least one dispenser.