Controlling the spread of pathogens

• US 9,761,117 B2
• Filed: 08/28/2015
• Issued: 09/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Cudak, Gary D., Hardee, Christopher J., Rakshit, Sarbajit K., Roberts, Adam
• Primary Examiner(s): Previl, Daniel
• Application Number:
  US14/838,830
• Publication Number:
  US 20170061774A1
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 3405731, 3405721-5729, 34053912, 3405391, 34053919, 340521, 340582, 3406916
• CPC Class Codes: A41D 1/002 adapted to accommodate electronic equipment patients' garments for medical monitoring A41D13/1281; luminous ornaments A41D27/085
• 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

Methods to perform an operation comprising receiving, based on a unique identifier of an identification device in a room, clinical information of a first patient present in the room, receiving a unique identifier from an identification device associated with a garment worn by a health care professional in the room, receiving a history of the garment based on the unique identifier, and upon determining that the history of the garment violates a predefined rule, outputting a notification of the violation.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving clinical information of a first patient present in a room, wherein the clinical information comprises a disease type of the first patient and is received from a digital record of the first patient, the digital record having been accessed based on a first identifier of a first identification device in the room;

receiving a second identifier from a second identification device associated with a garment worn by a health care professional in the room;

receiving a history of the garment based on the second identifier; and

upon determining that the history of the garment violates a predefined rule associated with—

the clinical information of the first patient, outputting a notification of the violation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the history of the garment comprises:

(i) a set of patients previously exposed to the garment, (ii) clinical information of each of the patients in the set of patients previously exposed to the garment, and (iii) a washing history of the garment, wherein the washing history specifies, for each of a plurality of washes of the garment, a respective date, time, and washing method.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule comprises one of:

(i) a set of medical conditions the first patient cannot be exposed to, (ii) a required method of washing the garment, and (iii) a required timing of washing the garment, the method further comprising prior to receiving the clinical information;

associating the first patient with the first identifier of the first identification device in the room;

identifying the first patient based on the first identifier of the first identification device in the room; and

referencing a data store storing the digital record of the first patient using the first identifier of the first identification device wherein the first patient is of a plurality of patients having a respective digital record in the data store.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the required method of washing the garment and the required timing of washing the garment are based on a medical condition, wherein each of a plurality of required methods of washing the garment are based on a respective medical condition, wherein each of a plurality of required washing times are based on a respective medical condition.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the clinical information stored in the digital record of the first patient further comprises:

(i) a pathogen type of the first patient, (ii) an allergy of the first patient, and (iii) a medical condition of the first patient.

6. The method of claim 1, where the identification devices comprise one or more of:

(i) an radio frequency identification (RFID) device, (ii) a global positioning system (GPS) device, (iii) a Bluetooth device, and (iv) a near field communication (NFC) device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the garment was previously exposed to a second patient, the method further comprising:

determining, based on a digital record of the second patient, that the second patient has a first disease; and

determining that the rule specifies that the first patient does not have the first disease and should not be exposed to the first disease, wherein outputting the notification of the violation prevents the health care professional from wearing the garment in the room of the first patient.