Hygiene monitoring system

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring a person;
• monitoring an object;
• associating a status with the person, the status being one of contaminated and non-contaminated;
• and
• associating a status with the object, the status being one of contaminated and non-contaminated;
• the status of the object being switchable between contaminated and non-contaminated.

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring a non-person object;
• establishing at least one contamination zone;
• and
• updating status information associated with the non-person object to indicate that the non-person object is contaminated in response to the monitoring step determining that the non-person object is in a contamination zone.

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance, comprising the steps of:

• monitoring an object;
• establishing at least one contamination zone;
• updating status information associated with the object to indicate that the inanimate object is contaminated in response to the monitoring step determining that the object is in a contamination zone;
• and
• updating status information associated with the object to indicate that the object is contaminated in response to the monitoring step determining that the object has encountered a person who is associated with a status of contaminated.

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance for a plurality of items including at least one of persons and objects, the method comprising:

• tracking a first item;
• establishing at least one contamination zone;
• updating status information associated with the first item if the first item enters a contamination zone such that the first item is associated with being contaminated;
• updating status information associated with a second item if the second item enters a zone proximate the first item that is associated with being contaminated such that the second item is associated with being contaminated;
• and
• updating status information associated with the first item when the first item is subjected to a decontamination process such that the first item is associated with being non-contaminated.

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance for a plurality of items including at least one of persons and objects, the method comprising:

• tracking a first item;
• tracking a second item;
• assigning a status to the first item indicating whether the first item is one of contaminated and non-contaminated;
• and
• assigning a status to the second item indicating whether the second item is one of contaminated and non-contaminated, wherein if the first item encounters the second item and one of the first and second items is assigned a status of contaminated, then the other of the first and second items is also assigned a status of contaminated.

The method of monitoring hygiene compliance in items including at least one of persons and objects including the steps of:

• establishing at least one contamination zone;
• tracking a plurality of items;
• associating a first item with a status of contaminated when the first item enters a contamination zone;
• and
• associating a second item with a status of contaminated when the second item encounters the first item and the first item is associated with the status of contaminated during the encounter.

A method of monitoring hygiene compliance in items including at least one of persons and objects including the steps of:

• tracking a plurality of items;
• associating a first item with a second item;
• associating a third item with the second item;
• and
• logging a violation unless the second item is decontaminated before being associated with the third item.