System and method for managing workflow

• US 20060167738A1
• Filed: 01/05/2006
• Published: 07/27/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: Martin, Jeffery A., Spear, Steven E., Larson, Wendy R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,443,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• 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 system and method for managing workflow is provided. The system includes one or more computer devices which execute workflow software to assign tasks to medical staff. The workflow software may be configured to assign tasks to persons on the medical staff based on a set of criteria including a path length determined by a shortest-path algorithm. The system may include portable wireless communication devices and an interactive voice recognitions (IVR) subsystem to permit persons on the staff to communicate information by voice to the computer devices via the portable wireless communication devices and to receive audio messages from the computer devices via the wireless communication devices. The workflow software may be configured to display a staff screen in which the displayed data is filtered by medical staff role and sorted by medical staff identification.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for managing workflow including assigning tasks to medical staff in a healthcare facility, the method comprising

receiving information indicating that a person on the medical staff has completed an assigned task,

ascertaining the person'"'"'s location in the healthcare facility,

executing a shortest-path algorithm to determine at least one path length between the person'"'"'s location and at least one other location associated with at least one other task, and

assigning a new task to the person based on a set of criteria including the at least one path length.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one path length is indicative of an estimated amount of time for the person to travel from the person'"'"'s location to the at least one other location associated with the at least one other task.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one path length is indicative of an estimated distance between the person'"'"'s location and the at least one other location associated with the at least one other task.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein executing the shortest-path algorithm comprises executing Dijkstra'"'"'s algorithm.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to executing the shortest-path algorithm, a vertex is assigned to each of a plurality of locations throughout the healthcare facility and at least one edge condition is designated between each vertex and at least one other vertex.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the edge conditions corresponds to an estimated time of travel between the associated vertices.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the edge conditions corresponds to at least an approximate distance between the associated vertices.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the edge conditions comprises a bidirectional edge condition.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein at least some of the locations to which vertices are assigned correspond to at least one of a room of the healthcare facility, a zone of the healthcare facility, a care unit of the healthcare facility, and a transition point in the healthcare facility.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the transition point is associated with an elevator or a flight of stairs.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving information indicating that the person on the medical staff has completed the assigned task comprises receiving information via an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving information via the IVR system comprises receiving voice information via a wireless communication device carried by the person.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein receiving information via the IVR system comprises receiving voice information via a telephone of the healthcare facility.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein ascertaining the person'"'"'s location in the healthcare facility comprises ascertaining the person'"'"'s location based on a wireless signal received from a portable device carried by the person.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the portable device comprises a badge worn by the person.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein ascertaining the person'"'"'s location in the healthcare facility comprises associating the person'"'"'s location with a monitoring station at which the person enters the information indicating that the person has completed the assigned task.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of criteria includes whether the person is in possession of a particular type of medical equipment.

18. The method claim 1, wherein the set of criteria includes a role that has been assigned to the person.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of criteria includes an amount of time that a patient or a piece of equipment has been waiting to be transported from one location to another.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein ascertaining the person'"'"'s location in the healthcare facility comprises receiving data regarding the person'"'"'s location from a locating and tracking system.

21. A system for managing workflow including assigning tasks to medical staff in a healthcare facility having a computer network, the system comprising:

at least one computer device that is coupled to the computer network and that executes workflow software which associates tasks that need to be performed with patients and with locations in the healthcare facility and which assigns to the medical staff selected ones of the tasks that need to be performed;

a portable wireless communication device carried by at least one person of the medical staff;

a wireless receiver coupled to computer network, the wireless receiver being configured to receive wireless communications from the portable wireless communication device; and

an interactive voice recognition (IVR) subsystem that is coupled via the computer network to the at least one computer device and to the wireless receiver;

voice communications spoken by the person to indicate that an assigned task has been completed being communicated to the IVR subsystem via the portable wireless communication device and the wireless receiver and being transformed by the IVR subsystem into data that is sent to the at least one computer device;

the at least one computer device operating in accordance with the workflow software to assign another task to the caregiver in response to the data received from the IVR subsystem indicating that the person has completed the assigned task.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the portable wireless communication device carried by the at least one person has a display configured to display alphanumeric messages.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising a plurality of display screens located throughout the healthcare facility and coupled to the network, the display screens displaying at least some of the tasks that need to be performed.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the at least one computer device operates in accordance with the workflow software to assign another task to the caregiver based on a set of criteria including a shortest-path algorithm.

25. A system for managing workflow including assigning tasks to medical staff in a healthcare facility having a computer network, the system comprising

a memory device to store data regarding patient identification, patient status, patient location, tasks that need to be performed by medical staff, medical staff identification, and medical staff roles,

a processor operably coupled to the memory device and operable to execute workflow software to associate the tasks that need to be performed with patients and with locations in the healthcare facility and to assign to the medical staff selected ones of the tasks that need to be performed, and

a display operably coupled to the processor, the display being signaled by the processor to display at least one of a plurality of screens with at least some of the screens displaying at least some of the data stored in the memory device, at least one of the plurality of screens being a staff screen in which the displayed data is filtered by medical staff role and sorted by medical staff identification.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the data regarding medical staff identification comprises respective names associated with each person of the medical staff.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the staff screen comprises a plurality of cells, each cell being associated with a respective person of the medical staff, and at least some of the cells containing task data indicative of at least one task that needs to be performed by the respective person.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the task data comprises at least one task icon.