CleanHands: an integrated monitoring system for control of hospital acquired infections

Abstract

A leading cause of mortality of hospitalized patients are hospital acquired infections (HAI). Unclean hands of healthcare personnel (HCP) are the most common factor contributing to HAI, but their strict compliance to hand hygiene protocols is difficult to supervise. In this work, we propose CleanHands: a simple, low-cost and scalable monitoring and alerting system to ensure adequate thoroughness of disinfection. CleanHands uses a combination of low-cost Bluetooth low energy (BLE) beacon tags and mobile phones for HCP tracking. It integrates infection control models and state-following algorithms for alarming in the event of noncompliance to hand hygiene. Our preliminary experiments in a mockup, small scale intensive care unit (ICU) facility shows promising results with less than 5% false positives.