RFID hand washing system to ensure health standard compliance

Filed in archive Companies on June 22, 2007

Healthcare facilities have been using RFID for quite some time and now it is being used to monitor hand washing activities of workers in health care institutions. Around two million people get affected as a result of health care associated infections and cause eighty thousand deaths each year. CleanTech IC line of automated hand-washing systems are being unveiled by Resurgent Health and Medical which uses RFID tags and interrogators to keep a track on people washing their hands and the duration for which they wash them. Hygiene is quite important in healthcare institutions and it has been found out that healthcare related pathogens transmission most commonly occurs through the hands of healthcare workers. This has increased the importance of promoting and tracking of hand hygiene of health care workers.

Under this system the workers are recognized by the RFID badges they are wearing. When the worker inserts his or her hand in the cylindrical openings of the machine the washing cycle starts in an automated manner where water and sanitizing solution is applied for ten seconds through twenty high pressure nozzles for cleaning hands from fingertips to wrists. In case the healthcare worker removes his or her hand before the completion of the washing cycle the information is transmitted to the back end database in order to ensure that health standards are complied with. This system is expected to enhance the healthcare standards in the world of healthcare and prevent contagious infections which are a cause of death.