Hand hygiene verification/tracking system and method

A hand hygiene verification and tracking system for determining whether or not a group of individuals involved, for example, in a facility providing heath care or processing/handling food, have cleaned/disinfected their hands to an acceptable standard in which proper hygiene is determined by detecting an acceptable level of induced phosphorescent/fluorescent light emitted from a fluorescent/phosphorescent marker provided as a constituent of a soap/disinfectant solution comprising:

• a) at least one dispenser for dispensing a given quantity of a soap/disinfectant solution containing the marker;
• b) at least one marker activator for illuminating the marker present on an individual's hands with U.V. or IR light;
• c) at least one photometric detector for providing a light level signal representative of the induced fluorescent/phosphorescent intensity emitted by the hands;
• d) an interactive radio frequency tag to be worn by each individual;
• e) a tag reader associated with each photometric detector for providing an individual ID code identifier signal representative of the individual;
• f) data processing means responsive to the detector and tag reader for comparing the light level signal with a preset level representative of an acceptable hand hygiene standard for providing a pass or fail signal and for recording data representing the pass/fail condition along with the time, date and individual's identity.

A method of verifying and tracking the effectiveness of hand hygiene of each of a group of individuals involved, for example, in the heath care or food processing/handling fields, comprising:

• a) providing a plurality of soap/rinse-less disinfectant dispensers which when activated will dispense a given quantity of the disinfectant, the disinfectant including a marker visibly detectable when exposed to light in the UV, IR or visible spectrum;
• b) each individual possessing individual identifying means;
• c) providing a plurality of monitors possessing the capability of (1) ascertaining the presence and identity of an individual in the proximate vicinity, (2) detecting the quantity of the marker on an individual's hands when presented thereto, and (3) providing a passing or failing grade when the quantity of the marker is at or above a preset amount or below the amount, respectively;
• d) directing each individual when in the proximity of a monitor to (1) activate the respective dispenser, (2) cleanse his/her hands with the same;
• and (3) expose the hands to the monitor for examination;
• e) reading and recording the time, date, grade and the identity of each individual undergoing the cleansing/examination event;
• and
• f) correlating the data with respect to all of the individuals to provide a history of the hand hygiene of each individual and of the group.