Patent ID: 8154412

Claim:
A system for monitoring cleaning of the hands of one or more monitored individuals, comprising: (a) an enclosed area accessed by one or more doors; (b) one or more identity sensors located within the enclosed area, each identity sensor being proximate to one of the doors; (c) one or more cleaning stations located within the enclosed area; each cleaning station comprising one or more sinks, each sink having one or more water faucets, one or more soap dispensers and one or more drains; (d) one or more indicator readers located within each of the cleaning stations, each indicator reader being proximate to one of the sinks, such that each sink has proximate to it one or more indicator readers; (e) an identification device that is worn by each monitored individual, such that when the monitored individual enters or leaves the enclosed area through one of the doors, the identity sensor that is proximate to the door senses the identification device and transmits the identity of the monitored individual who has passed through the door to a system control device; (f) one or more indicator devices that is/are worn on or about one or both hands of each monitored individual, such that when the hands of the monitored individual are placed in the vicinity of one of the sinks, the indicator reader(s) sense(s) the presence of the indicator device(s) and transmit two signals: (i) an indication signal to the system control device indicating that the monitored individual has washed his/her hands, and (ii) an activation signal to a dispensing controller, which dispensing controller responds to the signal by activating the soap dispenser to deposit a hand wash solution on the hands of the monitored individual; and (g) an alarm that generates a warning signal whenever the system control device has received transmissions from the identity sensor(s) indicating that the monitored individual has entered and exited from the enclosed area without the system control device also having received an indication signal from the indicator reader(s) that the monitored individual has washed his/her hands.