Method of hospital bed network connectivity

• US 10,548,475 B2
• Filed: 03/18/2019
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: Collins, Jr., Williams F., Allen, James M., Huster, Keith A., Riley, Carl W., Glidewell, Patricia A., Vanderpohl, III, Irvin J., Schuman, Richard J., Howell, Benjamin E., Wildman, Timothy D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pope, Daryl C
• Application Number:
  US16/356,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20190209008A1
• Time in Patent Office: 323 Days
• Field of Search: 34028602, 34028607, 340 31, 340517, 340521, 34053912
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/024 Detecting, measuring or recording pulse rate or heart rate A61B5/0205, A61B5/021 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1115 Monitoring leaving of a patient support, e.g. a bed or a wheelchair
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/447 specially adapted for aiding the prevention of ulcer or pressure sore development, i.e. before the ulcer or sore has developed
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 12/00 Accommodation for nursing, e.g. in hospitals, not covered by groups A61G1/00 - A61G11/00, e.g. trolleys for transport of medicaments or food service or tea-tables, trolleys or wagons A47B31/00; Prescription lists
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 7/018 Control or drive mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 3/00 Registering or indicating the condition or the working of machines or other apparatus, other than vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/22 using electric transmission; using electromagnetic transmission
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/222 Personal calling arrangements or devices, i.e. paging systems selective calling systems and call receivers H04W84/00, H04W68/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A hospital bed is programmable with new firmware that is downloaded to the bed over a network. The firmware is downloaded to the bed automatically from a remote computer device. The remote computer device receives a message from the hospital bed which includes data regarding the version number of the bed'"'"'s current firmware, and if the version number indicates that the firmware is an outdated version, the remote computer device downloads a new version of the firmware to the bed.

Claims

1. A method of hospital bed network connectivity in a healthcare facility having a network, the method comprising:

sending software upgrades via the network to a hospital bed having circuitry including a wireless communication module and at least one wired module,

receiving at least a first portion of the software upgrades at the wireless communication module of the hospital bed,

receiving at least a second portion of the software upgrades at the wired module of the hospital bed, and

storing the software upgrades in the circuitry of the hospital bed.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the first portion of the software upgrades received at the wireless communication module to the circuitry via a wired link of the hospital bed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the wired link comprises a serial peripheral (SPI) link.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing communications between the wireless communication module and the network via an 802.11 link.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing communications between the wireless communication module and at least one wireless access point of the network.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing bed data related to a plurality of functions of the hospital bed in the circuitry, transmitting a first subset of the bed data to the network via the at least one wired module, and transmitting a second subset of bed data to the network via the wireless communication module.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the software upgrades comprise a new version of firmware for the hospital bed.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising storing the new version of firmware in a flash memory of the circuitry for use by the at least one wired module.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending a firmware-downloaded message from the hospital bed via the wireless communication module or the wired module if the flash memory is successfully programmed with the new version of firmware.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising operating an indicator coupled to the circuitry to indicate that the circuitry is successfully communicating over the network of the healthcare facility.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the indicator comprises a light emitting diode (LED).

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving at the circuitry via the wireless communication module or the wired module one or more messages from the network indicating which functions of the hospital bed are to be monitored by the circuitry.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a heartbeat message from the circuitry to the network via the wireless communication module or the wired module.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the heartbeat message comprises a copyright notice.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving from at least one user input coupled to the circuitry a signal to enable or suspend monitoring of bed status conditions.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one user input comprises a button and successive presses of the button sequentially enables and suspends monitoring of the bed status conditions.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting to the network via the wireless communication module or the wired module a signal in response to at least one user input of the hospital bed being used to request that housekeeping personnel attend to cleaning the hospital bed.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the user input comprises a button and successive presses of the button sequentially requests housekeeping personnel and cancels the request for housekeeping personnel.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising operating a visual indicator of the hospital bed to indicate whether housekeeping personnel has been requested.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving via the wireless communication module or the wired module a location ID and retransmitting the location ID to the network via the wireless communication module or the wired module along with a bed ID.