Method and system for data aggregation for real-time emergency resource management

• US 20070297589A1
• Filed: 08/27/2007
• Published: 12/27/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EMSystems LLC
• Original Assignee: EMSystems LLC
• Inventors: Barthell, Edward, Hedgcock, Robert, Schweitzer, Elaine, Felton, Chris, Greischar, Patrick, Colwell, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,428,961 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/201.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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: H04M 3/5116 for emergency applications

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and a method for providing information about resource availability, especially during an emergency such as a natural disaster. The system stores resource information about multiple facilities, across cities, counties, states and even countries. Such information can be provided to designated users based on specified access levels for the user and the resource information. Further, the system is able to exchange the resource availability information with external systems and databases. The resource information is also automatically updated to reflect the most current information. The system is useful in directing resources to participate in an emergency. Further the system aggregates resource information based on one or more attributes, such as region, hospital, city, state, etcetera, that is associated with the resource information.

Claims

1. A system for providing resource information to a user, the resource information comprising availability of resources in at least one facility in at least one region, the system comprising:

a. at least one database, the at least one database storing the resource information for at least one facility;

b. an access control module for controlling access to the resource information stored in the database;

c. at least one client for viewing the resource information;

d. a resource interface module for collecting resource information from the at least one facility in the at least one region; and

e. a data aggregation module for aggregating the collected resource information based on one or more attributes associated with the resource information, wherein the data aggregation module is operable to access the information on the at least one database.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource interface is a web service that connects to at least one Hospital Availability Exchange (HAVE) compatible resource information data store over a network to collect resource information about the at least one facility.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the resource interface connects to the at least one HAVE compatible resource information data store at specified time intervals to collect updated information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource interface is a web portal that allows at least one second user to manually input resource information for the at least one facility in the at least one region.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource information comprises medical resource availability information that identifies medical resource by type and a medical facility, associated with the medical resource.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the attribute for aggregation is the medical facility.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the resource information includes a region to which the medical facility belongs.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the attribute for aggregation is the region of the medical facility.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein the medical resource is a hospital bed.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the resource information comprises elements specified in Hospital Available Beds in Emergencies and Disasters (HAvBED) specifications.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a data exchange module for providing the aggregated resource information to a central repository.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the data exchange module provides the aggregates resource information in a format that is compatible with HAVE guidelines.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the central repository polls the data exchange module for the aggregated information.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising a performance metric module for calculating performance metrics based on the collected resource information.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the resource interface module requests information from a HAVE guideline compatible source.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one database storing the resource information stored the resource information in a manner compatible with HAVE standards.

17. A method for providing resource information to at least one user, the resource information comprising availability of resources associated with one or more facilities in one or more regions, the method comprising the steps of:

a. collecting resource availability information from at least two facilities, the resource availability information further comprising a region associated with the facility;

b. storing the resource information in a database along with a timestamp identifying a date and time at which the information was collected;

c. aggregating resource availability information by summing resource availability based on the region associated with each of the facilities;

d. providing the aggregated resource information to the at least one user.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the resource information includes data elements required by HAVE standards.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the resource information includes data elements required by HAvBED standards.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the resource information is collected automatically through a web interface from one or more facilities.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein the resource information for one or more facilities is provided by a user having access to the resource information for the one or more facilities.

22. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of providing the aggregated resource availability information to a web service requesting the information.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein the web service collects the aggregated resource information to maintain a central aggregated resource information repository.

24. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of generating performance metrics from the aggregated resource availability information.

25. A system for providing resource information to a user, the resource information comprising availability of resources in at least one facility in at least one region, the system comprising:

a. at least one database, the at least one database storing the resource information for at least one facility;

b. an access control module for controlling access to the resource information stored in the database;

c. at least one client for viewing the resource information;

d. a first resource interface module for collecting resource information from the at least one facility in the at least one region, wherein the resource interface is a web service that connects to at least one HAVE compatible resource information data store over a network to collect resource information about the at least one facility;

e. a second resource interface module for collecting resource information from the at least one facility in the at least one region, wherein the resource interface is a web portal that allows at least one second user to manually input resource information for the at least one facility in the at least one region;

f. a data aggregation module for aggregating the collected resource information based on one or more attributes associated with the resource information, wherein the data aggregation module is operable to access the information on the at least one database; and

g. a data exchange module for providing the aggregated resource information to a central repository, thereby providing gathering, aggregating, storing, and exchanging information to support regional or federal guidelines including HAVE guidelines and HAvBED specifications.