Medical facility employee scheduling method using patient acuity information
First Claim
1. A computerized method for scheduling employees at a medical facility, said method comprising:
- assigning acuity levels to patients at the medical facility;
determining, in response to the acuity levels of the patients, a number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients; and
scheduling a plurality of employees at the medical facility, in response to the number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients, thereby producing an employee work schedule.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An acuity level is assigned to each inpatient at a medical facility and an employee scheduling program uses the patient acuity levels to calculate the number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients. A profile is compiled for each employee specifying that person'"'"'s patient care capability. The calculated number of employees and the employee profiles are used to schedule employees during the work shifts at the medical facility. At various points in time, the actual amount of time an each employee has worked and the amount of time each employee is scheduled to work in the future are utilized to project whether an employee will work overtime. A supervisor is alerted to projected overtime and may reschedule employees to avoid incurring overtime.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computerized method for scheduling employees at a medical facility, said method comprising:
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assigning acuity levels to patients at the medical facility;
determining, in response to the acuity levels of the patients, a number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients; and
scheduling a plurality of employees at the medical facility, in response to the number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients, thereby producing an employee work schedule. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computerized method for scheduling employees at a medical facility, said method comprising:
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compiling a plurality of patient profiles, each associated with a different patient and containing an acuity level for the associated patient;
in response to the acuity levels of the patients, determining a number of employees that are required to provide care to the patients;
compiling a plurality of employee profiles, each associated with a different employee and specifying a patient care capability of the associated employee, employing the number of employees that are required and the plurality of employee profiles to schedule employees at the medical facility, thereby producing an employee work schedule defining a scheduled amount of time for each of a plurality of employees;
recording information indicating an actual amount of time each of the plurality of employees worked during completed work periods; and
employing the scheduled amount of time for work periods which terminate in the future and the actual amount of time to project whether any of the plurality of employees will work overtime in the future. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification