Systems and methods for managing patient devices

• US 10,262,110 B2
• Filed: 11/17/2016
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Utah (State of Utah)
• Original Assignee: University of Utah Research Foundation (State of Utah)
• Inventors: Tonna, Joseph, Brooke, Benjamin, Beynon, Julia
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phung
• Application Number:
  US15/354,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20170229006A1
• Time in Patent Office: 880 Days
• Field of Search: 340506, 340527, 3405391, 3405731, 3405721-5729
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/006 Alarm destination chosen according to type of event, e.g. in case of fire phone the fire service, in case of medical emergency phone the ambulance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

An alarm manager identifies responders that are confirmed to be available to receive an alarm notification pertaining to a patient device through one or more computing devices. An alarm of the patient device may be suppressed in response to verifying that responders are available to receive the alarm notification. The alarm notification may be transmitted to the identified responders, and verification of receipt, acceptance, and/or completion of the alarm notification is received. An alarm notification may be retransmitted in response to a failure to verify receipt, acceptance, and/or completion within a time threshold.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an integration module configured to monitor a patient device for detection of an alarm condition at the patient device;

an alarm manager configured to select a computing device to receive an alarm notification pertaining to the detected alarm condition, wherein selecting the computing device comprises;

evaluating responder assignment data stored in a non-transitory data store to determine a responder to assign to the alarm notification,

selecting a first computing device based on alarm routing data pertaining to computing devices registered to the assigned responder, wherein the first computing device is selected in response to determining that the first computing device is available to receive the alarm notification for the assigned responder; and

a communication layer configured to verify receipt of the alarm notification by the assigned responder at the first computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the alarm manager is further configured to maintain the alarm routing data within the non-transitory data store, the alarm routing data comprising network address data of computing devices registered to respective responders of a plurality of responders and availability data pertaining to the registered computing devices, the availability data to distinguish registered computing devices that are available to receive alarm notifications via an electronic communication network from registered computing devices that are unavailable to receive alarm notifications via the electronic communication network, wherein to determine the availability data, the alarm manager is further configured to:

transmit availability requests to network addresses of respective registered computing devices, and

record availability data pertaining to the respective registered computing devices based on responses to the transmitted availability requests.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein recording the availability data pertaining to a registered computing device comprises one or more of:

recording that the registered computing device is unavailable to receive alarm notifications in response to failing to receive a response within a response time threshold,

recording that the registered computing device is available to receive alarm notifications in response to receiving a response within the response time threshold, and

recording that the registered computing device is available to receive alarm notifications for a particular responder in response to validating an authentication credential of the particular responder within the response time threshold.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the alarm manager is further configured to register a first computing device to the assigned responder in the alarm routing data in response to verifying an authentication credential received from the first computing device through the electronic communication network, and

the first computing device is selected to receive the alarm notification in response to the alarm routing data indicating that the first computing device is available to receive the alarm notification.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the alarm manager is further configured to transmit the alarm notification to the first computing device by use of the communication layer, and wherein the alarm notification comprises a request for one or more of:

verification of receipt of the alarm notification, acceptance of responsibility for the alarm notification, and confirmation that the alarm condition of the alarm notification has been resolved.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the alarm manager is further configured to send the alarm notification to a second computing device in response to one or more of:

determining that a message verifying receipt of the alarm notification has not been received by the communication layer within a receipt verification threshold,

determining that a message indicating acceptance of responsibility for the alarm notification has not been received by the communication layer within an acceptance threshold,

receiving a message rejecting acceptance of responsibility for the alarm notification,

determining that a message confirming resolution of the alarm notification has not been received within a resolution threshold, and

determining that a time elapsed since detection of the alarm condition at the patient device exceeds an alarm duration threshold.

7. A method, comprising:

monitoring a patient device to detect an alarm condition at the patient device;

selecting a responder to receive an alarm notification pertaining to the detected alarm condition, wherein selecting the responder comprises;

identifying one or more responders designated to receive alarm notifications pertaining to the patient device based on responder assignment data of a plurality of responders, and

selecting the responder from the one or more identified responders based on availability data pertaining to computing devices registered to the identified responders, the availability data indicating that a first computing device registered to the selected responder is available to receive alarm notifications through an electronic communication network;

transmitting the alarm notification to the first computing device through the electronic communication network; and

verifying receipt of the alarm notification by the selected responder at the first computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising maintaining alarm routing data on a non-transitory storage medium, the alarm routing data comprising network address data of computing devices registered to respective responders and availability data that distinguishes registered computing devices that are available to receive alarm notifications via the electronic communication network from registered computing devices that are unavailable to receive alarm notifications via the electronic communication network.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

assigning a criticality level to the alarm notification, wherein assigning the criticality level comprises one or more of evaluating state data of the patient device pertaining to the detected alarm condition, identifying one or more other alarm conditions pertaining to a patient corresponding to the alarm condition, and matching a condition of a patient corresponding to the alarm condition to the detected alarm condition;

wherein the one or more responders are identified based on the assigned criticality level.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining a response type for the alarm notification, wherein determining the response type comprises one or more of;

matching an identifier of the patient device to one of a plurality of pre-defined response types, and applying evaluation rules to one or more of state data of the patient device, patient data of a patient associated with the detected alarm condition, and one or more other detected alarm conditions associated with the patient;

wherein the one or more responders are identified based on the determined response type.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

assigning a criticality level and response type to the alarm notification based on data pertaining to one or more of the patient device and a patient associated with the patient device;

wherein identifying the one or more responders comprises identifying responders having responder assignment data matching the assigned criticality level and response type.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting the alarm notification to a second computing device through the electronic communication network in response to one or more of:

failing to verify receipt of the alarm notification by the selected responder at the first computing device within a verification threshold,

the selected responder failing to accept responsibility for the alarm notification within an acceptance threshold,

the selected responder reiecting responsibility for the alarm notification,

the alarm notification not being resolved within a resolution threshold,

an elapsed time from detection of the alarm condition at the patent device exceeding an alarm duration threshold.

13. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising executable instructions configured to cause a computing device to perform operations, comprising:

generating an alarm notification record to represent an alarm condition detected at a patient device;

selecting a responder to receive the generated alarm notification, wherein selecting the responder comprises,

evaluating assignment data of responder records stored in a non-transitory data store to identify a set of one or more responder records that are assigned to receive the alarm notification, and

selecting a responder record from the identified set based on availability data of contact records registered to the responder records, the availability data identifying computing devices available to receive alarm notifications for specified responders through an electronic communication network;

transmitting electronic data of the alarm notification record to one or more computing devices registered to the selected responder through the electronic communication network; and

verifying receipt of the electronic data of the alarm notification record at one or more of the computing devices registered to the selected responder.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising verifying availability of contact records registered to the responder records, wherein verifying availability of a contact record comprises one or more of:

receiving data from the computing device through the electronic communication network, and

authenticating a credential transmitted from the computing device through the electronic communication network.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 14, the operations further comprising configuring the patient device to silence an alarm output of the patient device in response to verifying availability of a contact record of a responder record having alarm assignment data corresponding to the patient device.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising monitoring, the patient device to detect the alarm condition at the patient device.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16, the operations further comprising monitoring the patient device through one or more of a standard interface of the patient device, a proprietary interface of the patient device, and a third-party interface of the patient device.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

acquiring state data from the patient device; and

detecting the alarm condition at the patient device in response to acquiring the state data from the patient device.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

transmitting electronic data of the alarm notification record to one or more computing devices registered to a responder other than the selected responder in response to one or more of;

determining that receipt of the electronic data of the alarm notification record by the selected responder has not been verified within a first time threshold,

determining that the selected responder has failed to accept responsibility for the alarm condition within a second time threshold,

determining that the selected responder has rejected responsibility for the alarm condition, and

determining that an elapsed time from detection of the alarm condition at the patent device exceeds a third time threshold.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising suppressing a status output of the patient device in response to acquiring state data from the patient device.