Wireless bed locating system

• US 10,566,088 B2
• Filed: 09/23/2016
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: McNeely, Craig A., Riley, Carl W., Huster, Keith A., Vanderpohl, III, Irvin J., Glidewell, Patricia A., Ferguson, David, Zhao, Simeon, Bhatia, Daleep
• Primary Examiner(s): Swarthout, Brent
• Application Number:
  US15/273,831
• Publication Number:
  US 20170011181A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,243 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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: G06Q 50/22 Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Systems, methods, beds, supports surfaces and machine readable medium for associating beds and support surface of a healthcare facility are disclosed. A surface association system for a healthcare facility may comprise a plurality of beds. The system may further comprise a computing device and a plurality of support surfaces to be placed upon beds of the plurality of beds. The computing device may associate a support surface of the plurality of support surfaces with a bed of the plurality of beds. The computing device may make the association based upon status data received from the plurality of beds and the plurality of support surfaces. The support surface and/or bed to be associated may initiate a surface association request. The computing device, in response to the surface association request, may request performance of one or more actions on the bed and/or support surface to be associated to identify the bed and/or support surface from the beds and support surfaces of the healthcare facility.

Claims

1. A bed locating system for use in a healthcare facility having a network, the bed locating system comprising

a bed station located in a room of a healthcare facility and having a transmitter operable to wirelessly transmit a location ID indicative of the room in which the bed station is located,

a bed located in the room and spaced from the bed station, the bed having a bed ID, the bed having bed control circuitry including a receiver and a network interface, the receiver receiving the location ID transmitted by the transmitter, the network interface of the bed wirelessly transmitting the location ID and the bed ID to the network, wherein the bed station also has at least one port for connecting equipment used to care for a patient supported by the bed, wherein the bed has an indicator to indicate a status regarding whether the bed is successfully communicating wirelessly with the network via the network interface, and

a remote computer device that receives the bed ID and the location ID and that is operable to associate the bed having the bed ID with the location corresponding to the location ID, wherein the remote computer device has an unassociate control that is manually selectable by a user to unassociate the bed from the location while concurrently also unassociating other beds from other locations.

2. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed station also includes at least one power outlet.

3. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein bed station is configured to receive an audio message or a text message from the network.

4. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed station is configured for bidirectional voice communications with communicators carried by caregivers.

5. The bed locating system of claim 4, wherein the communicators comprise handsets, wireless telephones, personal digital assistants, or pagers having voice communication capability.

6. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the remote computer device that receives the bed ID and the location ID and is also operable to associate a support surface to the bed having the bed ID or to the location corresponding to the location ID.

7. The bed locating system of claim 6, wherein the remote computer device has a user interface that is operable by a user to confirm the association of the bed with the location.

8. The bed locating system of claim 6, wherein the user interface is also operable by a user to unassociate the support surface from the location.

9. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed has a housekeeping button that is pressed to signal the bed control circuitry to transmit a housekeeping request from the bed via the network interface.

10. The bed locating system of claim 9, wherein a successive press of the housekeeping button after the housekeeping request is made, cancels the housekeeping request.

11. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the network interface is communicatively coupled to the network via a wired communications link.

12. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the network interface is communicatively coupled to the network via a wireless communications link.

13. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed is configured to transmit data to the remote computer device indicating that the bed has been unplugged.

14. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the indicator is mounted to a base frame of the bed.

15. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the indicator is mounted to a siderail of the bed.

16. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed station is communicatively coupled to the receiver via a wired communications link.

17. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed station is communicatively coupled to the receiver via a wireless communications link.

18. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed control circuitry includes a user interface including a display screen on which is displayed a request to perform at least one identifying action using a mechanism of the bed to confirm association of the bed to the location.

19. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the bed control circuitry is configured to receive control commands from a remote computer via the first network interface to control at least one bed function.

20. The bed locating system of claim 1, wherein the network interface is configured to communicate with a wireless access point of the network.