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Patent US7817046
Issued 2010-10-19
Method And Apparatus For Cataloging And Poling Movement In An Environment For Purposes Of Tracking And/or Containment Of Infectious Diseases
A system and method for containing and restricting spread of infectious diseases within hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities by cataloguing and delimiting movement of patients, medical staff, employees, visitors, contractors and other personnel attending or on-site. The system also provides for tracking and cataloguing contaminated medical apparatus, medicine trolleys, food trolleys, medical gas stations, laundry baskets and other mobile or movable medical equipment or facility equipment to prevent spread of the infectious disease or viral entities. According to another aspect, the system includes a poling or supervisory network for auditing the presence or absence of patients, medical staff and other personnel; and medical apparatus, movable equipment or other facility equipment.
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- 1. A system for tracking and auditing the movement of persons in a facility, said system comprising:
a first network having a plurality of passive receivers, each of said passive receivers having an input for receiving an identification signal, each of the persons in the facility having an associated identification signal, and each of said passive receivers including an output for outputting an output signal for each of said identification signals, each passive receiver having a scanning antenna installed around a perimeter of a passageway in the facility, the plurality of scanning antennas being located throughout the facility; a plurality of transmitters, each of the persons wearing one of said transmitters, and each of said transmitters transmitting the identification signal associated with the person; a controller having an input port for receiving the output signals, and including a component for generating a temporal record for each of the persons in response to the detection of said identification signal of the person by one or more of said passive receivers; a second network having a plurality of active transceivers, each of said active transceivers having a poling transmitter for transmitting a periodic poling request to said transmitters, and each of said active transceivers having a poling receiver for receiving identification signals in response to said poling requests; and said controller further including an interface for receiving said poled identification signals, and having a component for generating an audit record for each of said transmitters in response to said poling request.
- 5. A system for tracking and auditing the movement of persons in a facility, said system comprising:
a first network having a plurality of receivers, each of said receivers having an input for receiving an identification signal, each of the persons in the facility having an associated identification signal, and each of said receivers including an output for outputting an output signal for each of said identification signals; a plurality of transmitters, each of the persons wearing one of said transmitters, and each of said transmitters transmitting the identification signal associated with the person; said plurality of receivers being located throughout the facility; a controller having an input port for receiving the output signals, and including a component for generating a temporal record for each of the persons in response to the detection of said identification signal of the person by one or more of said receivers and having a component for reconciling identification signals associated with persons who have left the facility, and the absence of a poled identification signal in response to the poling request; a second network having a plurality of transceivers, each of said transceivers having a poling transmitter for transmitting a poling request to said transmitters, and each of said transceivers having a poling receiver for receiving identification signals in response to said poling requests; and wherein the component for reconciling identification signals further includes a component for monitoring persons who have left the facility and remain on call for a possible call to return to the facility.
- 6. A method for tracking and auditing the movement of persons in a facility, said method comprising the steps of:
assigning an identifier to each person having access to the facility, and providing each of said persons with a transmitter for transmitting the assigned identifier; passively detecting transmission of the identifiers for said persons at locations in the facility using a first network of scanning antennas installed around perimeters of passageways in the facility so as to track movement of said persons; establishing a record for each of said persons, each of said records including temporal data indicating time and date for detection of the identifier for said associated person; storing said records and making said records available for retrieval; actively poling said transmitters by sending one or more poling requests using a second network of active antennas located throughout the facility; receiving at the active antennas identification signals from said transmitters in response to said poling request; generating an audit record for said transmitters based on the identification signal received in response to said poling request.
- 9. A method for tracking and auditing the movement of persons in a facility, said method comprising the steps of:
assigning an identifier to each person having access to the facility, and providing each of said persons with a transmitter for transmitting the assigned identifier; detecting transmission of the identifiers for said persons at one or more locations in the facility based on movement of said persons; establishing a record for each of said persons, each of said records including temporal data indicating time and date for detection of the identifier for said associated person; storing said records and making said records available for retrieval; poling said transmitters by sending one or more poling requests to one or more of said transmitters; receiving identification signals from said transmitters in response to said poling request; generating an audit record for said transmitters based on the identification signal received in response to said poling request; and monitoring persons who have left the facility and remain on call for a possible call to return to the facility, said monitoring operation utilizing said poled identification signals.
