System and method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10692355-B2
Application number	US-201816197782-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 21, 2018
Priority date	Sep 4, 2018
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

A system and computer-implemented method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene is provided. The system comprises one or more sensors configured to determine presence of one or more individuals in vicinity. The system further comprises one or more controllers configured to ascertain identity of the one or more individuals. The one or more controllers are further configured to send one or more alerts to the one or more identified individuals to wash their hands. Furthermore, the one or more controllers are configured to monitor one or more handwashing instances by the one or more identified individuals and generate one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances. The one or more controllers are also configured to initiate one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on the generated one or more compliance results.

First claim

We claim:

1. A system for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene, the system comprising:
one or more sensors configured to determine presence of one or more individuals in vicinity; and
a processor configured to execute instructions stored in a memory and configured to:
ascertain identity of the one or more individuals;
send one or more alerts to the one or more identified individuals to wash their hands;
monitor one or more handwashing instances by the one or more identified individuals;
generate one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances, wherein the one or more compliance results comprise information which indicates whether the one or more identified individuals complied with handwashing guidelines comprising a set of minimum requirements with respect to pattern, sequence, timing and energy used during washing for complete hand hygiene and wherein the handwashing guidelines are configurable based on requirement;
initiate one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on the generated one or more compliance results, wherein the compliance results comprise data related to washing liquid and chemical levels, dispenser condition and status of sensors and controllers, and wherein the one or more compliance results are analyzed to generate insights comprising information related to least and most non-compliant individuals, gamification, dispenser and controller diagnostics, dispenser refilling prediction and most and least compliant zones and places; and
provide gamification elements comprising individual scores, leaderboards, rankings, incentive models and compliance percentages using the one or more compliance results.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise cameras, beacons, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) readers, proximity sensors, movement sensors, audio sensors, light sensors, activity sensors, motion sensors and olfactory sensors.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the presence of the one or more individuals in vicinity of the one or more sensors is determined by tracking one or more user devices of the one or more individuals.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the one or more user devices are electronic communication devices comprising mobile phones, tablets and wearable devices.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more alerts are notifications comprising a haptic motion, an audio notification and a visual notification.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more handwashing instances are monitored using one or more motion sensing technologies comprising an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer and a camera.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more compliance results comprise information which indicates whether the one or more identified individuals complied with the handwashing guidelines during the one or more handwashing instances.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances comprise sending the one or more generated compliance results to at least one of: one or more user devices, one or more dispensers, a cloud platform, a server, a web application, an edge computing platform, a fog computing platform and an Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

9. A computer-implemented method for efficiently monitoring hand hygiene, via program instructions stored in a memory and executed by a processor, the computer-implemented method comprising:
determining presence of one or more individuals in vicinity of one or more sensors;
ascertaining identity of the one or more individuals;
sending one or more alerts to the one or more identified individuals to wash their hands;
monitoring one or more handwashing instances by the one or more identified individuals;
generating one or more compliance results for each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances, wherein the one or more compliance results comprise information which indicates whether the one or more identified individuals complied with handwashing guidelines comprising a set of minimum requirements with respect to pattern, sequence, timing and energy used during washing for complete hand hygiene and wherein the handwashing guidelines are configurable based on requirement;
initiating one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances based on the generated one or more compliance results, wherein the compliance results comprise data related to washing liquid and chemical levels, dispenser condition and status of sensors and controllers, and wherein the one or more compliance results are analyzed to generate insights comprising information related to least and most non-compliant individuals, gamification, dispenser and controller diagnostics, dispenser refilling prediction and most and least compliant zones and places; and
providing gamification elements, wherein gamification elements comprises individual scores, leaderboards, rankings, incentive models and compliance percentages using the one or more compliance results.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise cameras, beacons, Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) readers, proximity sensors, movement sensors, audio sensors, light sensors, activity sensors, motion sensors and olfactory sensors.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the presence of the one or more individuals in vicinity of the one or more sensors is determined by tracking one or more user devices of the one or more individuals.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more user devices are electronic communication devices comprising mobile phones, tablets and wearable devices.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more alerts are notifications comprising a haptic motion, an audio notification and a visual notification.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more handwashing instances are monitored using one or more motion sensing technologies comprising an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer and a camera.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more compliance results comprise information which indicates whether the one or more identified individuals complied with the handwashing guidelines during the one or more handwashing instances.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more actions corresponding to each of the one or more monitored handwashing instances comprise sending the one or more generated compliance results to at least one of: one or more user devices, one or more dispensers, a cloud platform, a server, a web application, an edge computing platform, a fog computing platform and an Internet of Things (IoT) platform.

Assignees

• Cognizant Tech Solutions India Pvt Ltd

Inventors

• Waghode Nitesh Dattu
• Diwanji Vivek Vasant
• Pingle Amit Bindumadhav
• Pradhan Himanshu
• Patil Mandar Pandurang
• Singhal Aman
• Sharma Ashish

Classifications

• G08B21/245 Primary

  Reminder of hygiene compliance policies, e.g. of washing hands · CPC title

• G16H40/20

  for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms · CPC title

• G16H40/63

  for local operation · CPC title