Method and apparatus for automated post-discharge follow-up of medical patients

• US 20050192848A1
• Filed: 02/23/2005
• Published: 09/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Vocantas, Inc. (Valsef Group)
• Original Assignee: Vocantas, Inc. (Valsef Group)
• Inventors: Hannah, Gary, Forster, Alan, Kozminski, Andrew S.
• Application Number:
  US11/063,845
• Publication Number:
  US 20050192848A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring

Abstract

An automated system for post-discharge follow-up of discharged patients automatically contacts each discharged patient after a predetermined period of time. The discharged patient is presented with a series of questions and an answer to each question is collected and analyzed. If the analysis detects an anomaly, an alert message is sent to a predetermined contact person to permit an investigation to be conducted.

Claims

1. A system for automated post-discharge follow-up of discharged patients, comprising:

a system control processor having an interface for obtaining discharge information related to each of the discharged patients;

communications equipment controlled by the system control processor to establish communications with a discharged patient and to present the discharged patient with a plurality of questions about their post-discharge status and gather answers to the questions from the discharged patient; and

a messaging system controlled by the system control processor for generating an alert message sent to a predetermined contact person if the system control processor determines that given the answers gathered from the discharged patient an alert message should be sent.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the interface for obtaining discharge information comprises a database query that permits the system control processor to retrieve information from a patient discharge database.

3. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the interface for obtaining discharge information comprises notifications sent by a patient discharge database to the system control processor.

4. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the communications equipment controlled by the system control processor to establish communications with the discharged patient comprises a telephony server used to establish a voice connection through the public switched telephone network, and a speech server used to present the questions to the discharged patient and receive answers from the discharged patient.

5. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the communications equipment controlled by the system control processor to establish communications with a discharged patient comprises a voice over internet protocol server for establishing a voice session through the internet, and a speech server used to present the questions to the discharged patient and receive answers from the discharged patient.

6. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the communications equipment controlled by the system control processor to establish communications with a discharged patient comprises at least one of a web server for providing a personalized web page for the discharged patient, an email service for sending a text questionnaire to the discharged patient, and an instant message service for sending the text questionnaire to the discharged patient.

7. The system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the messaging system controlled by the system control processor to generate an alert message comprises at least one of an email system, and instant message service, and a short message service.

8. The system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an interface for updating a patient post-discharge statistics database for storing information gathered by the system control processor about discharged patients.

9. A method for the post-discharge follow-up of discharged patients, comprising:

accessing discharged patient contact preference information and a discharge time for each discharged patient to be followed up;

determining when discharge follow-up is to occur using the discharge time to compute a discharge follow-up time;

automatically communicating with the discharged patient after the discharge follow-up time to present the discharged patient or a primary care giver of the discharged patient with a series of predetermined questions respecting a status of the discharged patient;

collecting answers for each of the questions presented;

analyzing the answers to determine whether an alert message to a predetermined contact person should be generated; and

generating the alert message and forwarding the alert message to the predetermined contact person if the analysis indicates that the alert message should be sent.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein accessing discharged patient information comprises querying a patient discharge database to retrieve information related to patients discharged during a pre-selected time interval.

11. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein accessing discharged patient information comprises receiving notifications sent from a patient discharge database, the notifications containing the patient contact preference information and the discharge time for each patient.

12. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein automatically communicating with the discharged patient comprises automatically establishing a voice communications session with the discharged patient.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein establishing the voice communications session comprises establishing a dial-up connection through the public switched telephone network to a telephone associated with the discharged patient.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12 wherein establishing the voice communications session comprises establishing a voice over internet protocol session with an internet protocol phone associated with the discharged patient.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13 wherein presenting the discharged patient or a primary care giver of the discharged patient with a series of predetermined questions comprises prompting a speech server to orally present each question and to wait for a response from the discharged patient or the primary care giver.

16. The method as claimed in claim 14 wherein presenting the discharged patient or a primary care giver of the discharged patient with a series of predetermined questions comprises prompting a speech server to orally present each question and to wait for a response from the discharged patient or the primary care giver.

17. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein automatically communicating with the discharged patient comprises at least one of:

automatically generating and making available a personal worldwide web page to the discharged patient;

automatically generating and sending an electronic mail questionnaire to the discharged patient;

automatically generating and sending to the discharged patient a text questionnaire using an instant messaging service.

18. The method as claimed in claim 9 wherein analyzing the answers comprises comparing each answer with a preferred answer and generating the alert message if any answer does not conform to the preferred answer.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18 wherein generating the alert message comprises generating at least one of an instant message, a short message service message, and an email message that is sent to the predetermined contact person.

20. A product comprising a computer readable memory and computer executable program instructions stored in the memory for performing the method claimed in claim 9.