Method and system for customer service process management

• US 20060167735A1
• Filed: 03/27/2006
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Reward Health Sciences Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Richard E. Ward
• Inventors: Ward, Richard E.
• Granted Patent: US 7,707,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/8
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06316 Sequencing of tasks or work
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A method and system for managing customer service processes for individual customers and populations of customers. In a specific embodiment within the health care field, a clinician creates or updates a draft care plan for a patient using generic or locally-adapted template metadata and tailors the draft care plan to the particular patient. The draft care plan includes a list of specific services (health care interventions) to be provided to the patient. The draft care plan can be routed to members of an inter-disciplinary team for input. Once finalized, workflow processes are instantiated for each intervention on the care plan. An itinerary is created for any required patient encounters, optimized using an algorithm that considers pre-existing process instances. A workflow automation server manages the execution of each workflow process instance, invoking resources according to workflow process specification metadata and workflow task type metadata. Care plans and encounter itineraries are automatically translated to a patient-understandable form and made available to patients online and via printed copy. Clinical practice and outcomes data are analyzed to identify opportunities for improvement of the metadata. The method and system also allows for the selection of a population of patients, the analysis of population data to identify opportunities for interventions (needed services), and the initiation of population interventions through batch updates to individual care plans.

Claims

1. A method for generating a service plan that describes a plurality of services and associated workflow for a customer using a computer based system comprising the steps of:

creating the service plan, the service plan including a plurality of structured sentences for each of a plurality of specific needs of a particular customer in an electronic storage area, wherein the plurality of structured sentences together form a part of the service plan, said plurality of structured sentences including structured sentences for services, each structured sentence for service identifying a needed service corresponding to one of the specific customer needs; and

creating the electronic workflow in addition to the service plan, which is adapted to assist in providing each needed service, the step of creating the electronic workflow including the step of using each structured sentence for service to create a workflow process instance for each needed service, wherein at least certain ones of the workflow process instances include a plurality of tasks corresponding to steps for providing one of the services to the particular customer, which one service relates to the corresponding structured sentence for service.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of structured sentences have a subject and a plurality of attributes contained therein, wherein certain of the attributes associated with the structured sentences for services contain a selected attribute value chosen from among a group of possible attribute values, and wherein the certain ones of said workflow process instances have at least one decision step, task firing condition or routing rule that creates a plurality of possible sequences of tasks, one sequence of which becomes the plurality of tasks invoked as part of a further step of executing one of said workflow process instances.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the service plan is a care plan, the customer is a patient, and the plurality of specific customer needs are health related problems to be addressed as part of the patient'"'"'s care.

5. A method according to claim 1 further including the steps of automatically generating a translation of the service plan and transmitting the translation of the service plan to the customer.

6. A method according to claim 5 further including the step of revising the automatically generated translation prior to the step of transmitting.

7. A method according to claim 5 wherein the step of transmitting transmits the translation to a remote computer associated with the customer.

8. A method according to claim 1 further including the step of creating other structured sentences, said other structured sentences including structured sentences for a goal, a fact, a protocol, and a finding.

9. A method according to claim 1 further including the step of activating the workflow.

10. A method for creating a service plan and associated workflow for a particular customer using a computer based system comprising the steps of:

providing electronically;

a plurality of structured sentence data items for each of a plurality of possible customer needs in an electronic storage area, said plurality of structured sentence data items including structured sentence data items for services, each structured sentence data item for service identifying a needed service corresponding to one of the possible customer needs;

a generic electronic workflow process specification, in addition to the plurality of structured sentence data items, that is adapted to assist completion of each needed service; and

at least first and second templates, each of said at least first and second templates comprising a different set of certain ones of said plurality of structured sentence data items, different ones of said plurality of structured sentence data items relating to different possible customer needs and each including a subject and at least one attribute;

selecting at least a first template that relates to an identified customer need;

creating the service plan for the particular customer, the step of creating the service plan including the step of selecting structured sentence data items within the first template that relate to a specific need of the particular customer to obtain the service plan for the particular customer with structured sentences therein corresponding to the selected structured sentence data items, the structured sentences in the service plan being in addition to the selected structured sentence data items, and wherein the step of selecting structured sentence data items also causing the selection of workflow instances includes the step of determining a value for the at least one attribute for each of the selected structured sentences in the service plan for the particular customer; and

creating the workflow in addition to the service plan using the generic workflow specification and the service plan, the workflow being adapted to assist completion of each needed service, wherein the step of creating the workflow includes the step of using each structured sentence for service to create a workflow process instance for each needed service.

4. A method according to claim 15, wherein the service plan, including some of the plurality of structured sentences, is created by the interdisciplinary team of clinicians using a workflow automation process to route a draft of the service plan, including the some of the plurality of structured sentences therein, to the interdisciplinary team.

11. A method according to claim 10, wherein the service plan is a care plan, the customer is a patient, the plurality of possible customer needs are health related problems, and the specific need of the particular customer is a health related problem of the particular customer.

12. A method according to claim 10 further including the step of activating the workflow, the step of activating the workflow being caused by a user verifying the accuracy of the service plan.

13. A method according to claim 10 wherein the plurality of structured sentences data items in at least one of said first and second templates include a group of structured sentences data items that are associated with a customer need.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the step of selecting the structured sentence data items includes the steps of:

visually displaying certain ones of the structured sentence data items on a screen of a display; and

creating one structured sentence corresponding to the specific need of the particular customer by selecting one of the displayed certain ones of the structured sentence data items.

15. The method according to claim 14 wherein the certain ones of the structured sentence data items displayed on the screen resemble a substantially grammatically correct phrase.

16. The method according to claim 14 wherein:

the step of visually displaying includes the step of visually displaying attributes of one of the certain ones of the structured sentence data items; and

the step of creating the one structured sentence corresponding to the specific need of the particular customer includes selecting a selected value obtained from one of the attributes.

17. The method according to claim 14 further including the step of displaying the one structured sentence on the screen of the display after the step of creating the one structured sentence corresponding to the specific need of the particular customer.

18. The method according to claim 17 wherein the one structured sentence displayed on the screen resembles a substantially grammatically correct phrase.

19. The method according to claim 10 wherein at least certain ones of the workflow process instances including a plurality of tasks corresponding to steps for providing one service to the particular customer, which one service relates to the corresponding structured sentence for service.

20. The method according to claim 19 further including the step of executing the workflow, the step of executing the workflow including tracking a status of each workflow process instance through the plurality of tasks as required to assist in execution and follow-up of the one service.

21. The method according to claim 10 wherein the subject and the attribute in some of the structured sentence data items are displayed together in essentially grammatically correct form, and the corresponding structured sentence contains both the subject and the attribute also displayed together in essentially grammatically correct form.

22. The method according to claim 19 wherein the step of creating the workflow includes the steps of:

activating the service plan; and

using the activated service plan to create the workflow from the generic workflow specification.

23. The method according to claim 22 further including the steps of:

activating the workflow; and

executing the activated workflow.

24. An apparatus for generating a service plan and associated electronic workflow for a customer comprising:

means for creating, in an electronic storage area, the service plan for the customer, the service plan including a plurality of structured sentences for each of a plurality of specific customer needs of customers, said plurality of structured sentences including structured sentences for services, each structured sentence for service identifying a needed service corresponding to one of the specific customer needs; and

means for creating the electronic workflow, the electronic workflow being in addition to the service plan, and capable of assisting completion of each needed service, the means for creating including means for using each structured sentence for service to create a workflow process instance for each needed service, wherein at least certain ones of the workflow process instances include a plurality of tasks corresponding to steps for providing one of the services to the particular customer, which one service relates to the corresponding structured sentence for service.

25. An apparatus according to claim 24 wherein said plurality of structured sentences have a subject and a plurality of attributes contained therein, wherein certain of the attributes associated with the structured sentences for services contain a selected attribute value chosen from among a group of possible attribute values, and wherein certain ones of said workflow process instances have at least one decision step, task firing condition or routing rule that create a plurality of possible sequences of tasks that are invoked as part of the execution of said workflow process instances.

26. An apparatus according to claim 24, wherein the service plan is a care plan, the customer is a patient, and the plurality of specific needs of the particular customer are health related problems of the particular customer.

27. An apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the means for creating a the service plan includes means for transmitting a draft of the service plan, including some of the plurality of structured sentences, among an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, said means for transmitting implementing a workflow automation process.

28. An apparatus according to claim 24 further including means for automatically generating a translation of the service plan and means for transmitting the translation of the service plan to the customer.

29. An apparatus according to claim 28 further including means for revising the automatically generated translation.

30. An apparatus according to claim 28 wherein the means for transmitting transmits the translation to a remote computer associated with the customer.

31. An apparatus according to claim 24 further including means for creating other structured sentences, said other structured sentences including structured sentences for a goal, a fact, a protocol, and a finding.

32. An apparatus according to claim 24 further including means for activating the associated electronic workflow.