Fully automated vehicle dispatching, monitoring and billing
First Claim
32. A system for controlling ambulances so as to ensure reimbursement for transportation services provided by said ambulances, comprising:
- a database including records each documenting needed transportation services;
processing circuitry performing a dispatching process including reviewing said records, and locating a record indicating a need for immediate transportation service, and instructing a vehicle to provide said vehicle service, an instruction produced by said processing circuitry including an identification of a route to be followed by said vehicle, said dispatching process selecting said route in accordance with routing demanded by governmental or insurance entities in order to ensure reimbursement for transportation services provided by ambulances.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for controlling vehicles to provide transportation services without need for human intervention. A database stores records each documenting needed transportation services. Processing circuitry (which may be one or several networked computers) reviews these records, locates records indicating a need for immediate transportation service, and instructs vehicles to provide the service. The processing circuitry also monitors vehicle activities by reviewing the records, and automatically obtained vehicle activity information, to identify transportation services which are not being adequately provided, and refer these to human dispatchers for special attention. A variety of methods for obtaining and updating vehicle activity information are disclosed, as are various applications for the system.
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Citations
35 Claims
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32. A system for controlling ambulances so as to ensure reimbursement for transportation services provided by said ambulances, comprising:
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a database including records each documenting needed transportation services;
processing circuitry performing a dispatching process including reviewing said records, and locating a record indicating a need for immediate transportation service, and instructing a vehicle to provide said vehicle service, an instruction produced by said processing circuitry including an identification of a route to be followed by said vehicle, said dispatching process selecting said route in accordance with routing demanded by governmental or insurance entities in order to ensure reimbursement for transportation services provided by ambulances.
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33. A system for ensuring that appropriate mileage charges are being applied to transportation services submitted for reimbursement to a governmental or insurance entity, comprising:
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a database including records each documenting transportation services provided and submitted for reimbursement, said records indicating a starting and ending point of said transportation services and a mileage purportedly travelled in providing said transportation services;
processing circuitry reviewing said records, determining from a record said starting and ending points and mileage purportedly travelled, determining a shortest route from said starting point to said ending point, and comparing a mileage associated with said shortest route to said mileage purportedly travelled to determine if said mileage purportedly travelled is appropriate for said services. - View Dependent Claims (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 35)
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34. A system for controlling vehicles to provide transportation services, comprising:
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a database including records each documenting needed transportation services requested by customers;
processing circuitry performing a system status management process including reviewing said records and current vehicle activity information to determine and predict future needs for transportation services and comparing said future needs to expected availability of transportation services to identify future times at which available transportation services will not meet predicted needs.
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35-1. The system of claim 34 wherein said system status management process instructs a vehicle to pre-position to a location where said vehicle will be better able to meet predicted future needs for transportation services.
Specification