System and method for designing a medical care facility

• US 20060271378A1
• Filed: 05/25/2005
• Published: 11/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 05/25/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Day, Andrew Phelps
• Application Number:
  US11/136,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20060271378A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/13 Architectural design, e.g. computer-aided architectural design [CAAD] related to design of buildings, bridges, landscapes, production plants or roads
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

Systems and methods for designing a medical care facility are provided. The method includes receiving usage data relating to a medical care facility and selecting at least one metric for evaluating a medical care facility design. The method further includes processing with a processor the usage data to determine a value for the at least one metric corresponding to the medical care facility design.

Claims

1. A method for designing a medical care facility, said method comprising:

receiving usage data relating to a medical care facility;

selecting at least one metric for evaluating a medical care facility design; and

processing with a processor the usage data to determine a value for the at least one metric corresponding to the medical care facility design.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising developing a flow model based on the usage data to generate an initial medical care facility design.

3. A method in accordance with claim 2 further comprising using at least one of projected usage data and projected technology data to develop the flow model.

4. A method in accordance with claim 2 further comprising using weighted usage data to develop the flow model.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising simulating work flows based on the usage data and corresponding to the medical care facility design.

6. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising modifying the medical care facility design based on the processed usage data.

7. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising iteratively modifying the medical care facility design and processing the usage data until a predetermined threshold level for the metric is reached.

8. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the metric comprises at least one of distance traveled, time of travel, number of trips, and time in motion for at least one of clinicians, patients and families.

9. A method in accordance with claim 1 wherein the usage data comprises at least one of inpatient volume data (e.g., DRG data), outpatient procedure volume data (e.g., APC/CPT data), and departmental or equipment use data from log sheets or Hospital Information Systems (HIS).

10. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising selecting a plurality of service lines in connection with which to process usage data corresponding thereto and prioritizing service lines based on the usage data.

11. A method in accordance with claim 1 further comprising generating a plurality of medical care facility designs based on the usage data.

12. A system for evaluating the design of a medical care facility, said system comprising:

a computing component configured to receive at least one of usage data, metrics data and workflow data corresponding to a medical care facility design and to process the data to generate a metric value output;

a user interface configured to receive user inputs relating to processing the received data; and

a display for displaying the metric value output.

13. A system in accordance with claim wherein the computing component comprises a memory connected to the processor.

14. A system in accordance with claim wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of user definable fields including at least one of a Design field, Metrics field, Metrics value field and Difference field.

15. A system in accordance with claim wherein the metric data comprises at least one of distance traveled, time of travel, number of trips, and time in motion for at least one of clinicians, patients and families.

16. A system in accordance with claim wherein the usage data comprises at least one of inpatient volume data (e.g., DRG data), outpatient procedure volume data (e.g., APC/CPT data), and departmental or equipment use data from log sheets or Hospital Information Systems (HIS).

17. A system in accordance with claim wherein the processor is configured to iteratively process a plurality of input data corresponding to a plurality of medical care facility designs to generate a difference values for at least one metric.

18. A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium for evaluating the design of a medical care facility, said program comprising a code segment that receives usage data and then:

determines based on a user input a metric value to calculate corresponding to medical care facility design; and

processes the received usage data to calculate the metric value corresponding to the medical care facility design.

19. A computer program in accordance with claim 18 further comprising a code segment that:

compares metric values from a plurality of medical care facility designs and calculates a difference value for the metric corresponding to each of the medical care facility designs.

20. A computer program in accordance with claim 18 wherein the metric value corresponds to at least one of distance traveled, time of travel, number of trips, and time in motion for at least one of clinicians, patients and families.