The system consists of a small board that goes inside a health care worker's Personal Sanitizer Unit (PSU). The PSU can communicate with two other devices: Zone Alarm Emitter Unit (ZAEU) and Base Station Unit (BSU).

A Zone Alarm Emitter Unit (ZAEU) is placed on each patient’s bed in the hospital and waits for a PSU to enter its range. When the PSU enters the range of a ZAEU, it alerts the health care worker to sanitize his/ her hands. The PSU records if he/ she has complied or not.

The Base Station Unit (BSU) is plugged into the nurse's station. When the health care worker walks by the nurse’s station, the PSU uploads the data on the number of times the he/ she has complied to sanitizing alerts to the BSU, where it is stored in a database.

If the health care worker proactively sanitizes his/ her hands before entering a patient zone, the PSU will not trigger an alert. The purpose of the system is to track hand sanitizing habits and encourage proper hygiene by alerting when health care workers should sanitize their hands. It also allows their supervisors to monitor the data to see if they have been complying with hygiene standards.