Patient Discharge System and Associated Methods

• US 20070214011A1
• Filed: 02/23/2007
• Published: 09/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hospital Transitions, LLC
• Original Assignee: Hospital Transitions, LLC
• Inventors: Demers, Marc
• Application Number:
  US11/678,320
• Publication Number:
  US 20070214011A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• 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 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system and method for improving patient discharge from a healthcare facility automates several areas of the patient discharge process, using automatically placed contacts with communications devices. The system includes a website that is accessible by registered users, primarily nurses and physicians. Critical elements of patient discharge, currently requiring many telephone calls between nurses and other personnel are converted to a largely automated “discharge cascade.” The cascade is initiated by the patient'"'"'s nurse a predetermined period, for example, 24 hours, prior to a possible discharge, via the website. The website initiates an automatic communication with any or all involved physicians with a scripted, interactive call to elicit physician approval for the discharge. If the physician approves the discharge, a secondary set of automated communications are made to downstream parties, such as nursing operations, housekeeping, patient transport, home health, pharmacy, and patient family member.

Claims

1. A method for improving an efficiency of discharging a patient from a healthcare facility comprising the steps of:

initiating a communication with a physician remote from a patient requesting approval to discharge the patient from a healthcare facility within a predetermined time;

receiving a communication from the physician including an approval to discharge the patient from the healthcare facility within the predetermined time;

receiving from the physician, if desired, an order for an update to a medication protocol for the patient; and

automatically communicating physician approval to at least one healthcare facility department for implementing patient discharge within the predetermined time.

2. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the initiating step comprises initiating a telephone call to a physician telephonic device, and further comprising the steps of:

prompting the physician to utter a spoken message into the telephonic device;

analyzing the spoken message via a voice recognition protocol to ensure that the spoken message was uttered by the physician intended to be called;

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is not from the intended physician, terminating the telephone call; and

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is from the intended physician, proceeding to the communication-receiving step.

3. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps, following the communication-initiating step, of offering the physician an option to:

contact a nurse directly;

terminate the discharge process; and

proceed to the communication-receiving step.

4. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the physician comprises a primary physician, and further comprising the steps, following the communication-receiving step, of:

contacting a consulting physician different from the primary physician, the consulting physician remote from the patient;

receiving a communication from the consulting physician including an approval to discharge the patient from the healthcare facility within the predetermined time;

receiving from the consulting physician, if desired, an order for an update to a medication protocol for the patient; and

automatically communicating consulting physician approval to the at least one healthcare department for implementing discharge within the predetermined time.

5. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the consulting-physician-contacting step comprises initiating a telephone call to a consulting physician telephonic device, and further comprising the steps of:

prompting the consulting physician to utter a spoken message into the telephonic device;

analyzing the spoken message via a voice recognition protocol to ensure that the spoken message was uttered by the consulting physician intended to be called;

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is not from the intended consulting physician, terminating the telephone call; and

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is from the intended consulting physician, proceeding to the communication-receiving step.

6. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising the steps, following the consulting-physician-contacting step, of offering the consulting physician an option to:

contact a nurse directly;

terminate the discharge process; and

proceed to the step of receiving a communication from the consulting physician.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the physician-approval-communicating step comprises contacting at least one of nursing operations, patient transport, and social work department.

8. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step, following the physician-approval-communicating step, of automatically initiating contact with an extra-healthcare-facility site for communicating data on the patient discharge.

9. The method recited in claim 8, wherein the extra-healthcare-facility site comprises at least one of a patient relative/responsible party, a home health agency, and a pharmacy.

10. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the steps, following the physician-approval-communicating step, of discharging the patient and initiating activities attendant upon re-use of a hospital space being vacated by the patient.

11. A system for improving an efficiency of discharging a patient from a healthcare facility comprising:

a healthcare facility communication device adapted to transmit a signal to, and receive a signal from, a physician communication device remote therefrom;

a processor in signal communication with the healthcare facility communication device and having software resident thereon comprising;

a code segment for initiating a communication from the healthcare facility communication device to the physician communication device requesting approval to discharge a patient from a healthcare facility within a predetermined time;

a code segment for receiving a communication from the physician communication device via the healthcare facility communication device including an approval to discharge the patient from the healthcare facility within the predetermined time;

a code segment for receiving from the physician communication device via the healthcare facility communication device an order for an update to a medication protocol for the patient; and

a code segment for automatically communicating physician approval to at least one healthcare facility department for implementing patient discharge within the predetermined time.

12. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the physician communication device comprises a telephonic device, and the initiating code segment comprises initiating a telephone call to the physician telephonic device, and wherein the software further comprises code segments adapted to:

prompt the physician to utter a spoken message into the telephonic device;

analyze the spoken message via a voice recognition protocol to ensure that the spoken message was uttered by the physician intended to be called;

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is not from the intended physician, terminate the telephone call; and

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is from the intended physician, proceed to the communication-receiving code segment.

13. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the software further comprises code segments adapted to, following the communication-initiating code segment, of offer the physician an option to:

contact a nurse directly;

terminate the discharge process; and

proceed to the communication-receiving step.

14. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the physician comprises a primary physician, the healthcare facility communication device is further adapted to transmit a signal to, and receive a signal from, a consulting physician communication device remote therefrom and wherein the software further comprises code segments adapted to, following the communication-receiving code segment, of:

contact a consulting physician different from the primary physician, the consulting physician remote from the patient;

receive a communication from the consulting physician including an approval to discharge the patient from the healthcare facility within the predetermined time;

receive from the consulting physician, if desired, an order for an update to a medication protocol for the patient; and

automatically communicate consulting physician approval to the at least one healthcare department for implementing discharge within the predetermined time.

15. The system recited in claim 14, wherein the consulting-physician-contacting code segment comprises a code segment for initiating a telephone call to a consulting physician telephonic device, and wherein the software further comprises code segments adapted to:

prompt the consulting physician to utter a spoken message into the telephonic device;

analyze the spoken message via a voice recognition protocol to ensure that the spoken message was uttered by the consulting physician intended to be called;

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is not from the intended consulting physician, terminate the telephone call; and

if the analysis indicates that the spoken message is from the intended consulting physician, proceed to the communication-receiving step.

16. The system recited in claim 14, wherein the software further comprises code segments, following the consulting-physician-contacting code segment, adapted to offer the consulting physician an option to:

contact a nurse directly;

terminate the discharge process; and

proceed to the step of receiving a communication from the consulting physician.

17. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the physician-approval-communicating code segment is adapted to contact at least one of nursing operations, patient transport, and social work department.

18. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the software further comprises a code segment adapted to, following the physician-approval-communicating code segment, automatically initiate contact with an extra-healthcare-facility site for communicating data on the patient discharge.

19. The system recited in claim 18, wherein the extra-healthcare-facility site comprises at least one of a patient relative/responsible party, a home health agency, and a pharmacy.

20. The system recited in claim 11, wherein the software further comprises a code segment, following the physician-approval-communicating code segment, of communicating with at least one department in the healthcare facility to initiate activities attendant upon re-use of a hospital space being vacated by the patient.