HOME CARE LOGISTICS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM

• US 20080058615A1
• Filed: 03/14/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Health Hero Network Incorporated (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Brown, Stephen J., Clapp, Geoffrey
• Granted Patent: US 8,852,093 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/301
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/02055 Simultaneously evaluating both cardiovascular condition and temperature
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/14532 for measuring glucose, e.g. by tissue impedance measurement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• 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 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A mobile home care logistics and quality assurance system to enhance the efficiency, accuracy, accountability, and overall level of care for nurses visiting patients in their home. The system has a patient home health communication interface to establish a communication between a patient and a central server to receive instructions from and to transmit collected data/information to a remote server. The remote server generates various reports including a home visit prioritization report and a routing report based on the collected and stored data. The information and reports are used for billing, performance reviews, and patient data for assessment of each homecare nurse'"'"'s in-field assignments.

Claims

1. A mobile home care logistics and quality assurance system, comprising:

a patient home health communication interface system installed at a patient'"'"'s home to collect patient data and to transmit collected patient data to central server;

a remote server communicatively coupled to patient home health communication interface system to receive collected patient data and provided with databases for storing collected patient data, scripted contents, and applications for processing collected patient data and for generating reports containing home prioritization data and routing data for visiting patient home; and

a mobile unit held by a nurse visiting a patient at a home and communicatively coupled to remote server to receive report data and to transmit patient call visit data; and

a home care service provider interface coupled to remote server to receive collected patient data, generated report data and nurse call visit data to provide logistic support to patient at home, to visiting nurse and to monitor nurse visits.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein the said patient home health communication interface comprises a microprocessor, a memory for storing scripted content, program instructions and data, a user interface and a communication unit.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein the patient home health communication interface is connected with plurality of sensors to collect patient data.

4. The system according to claim 3 wherein said at least one sensor comprises any of a blood pressure monitor, a blood glucose level monitor, a pulse and heart rate variability monitor, a pulse oximeter device, a blood coagulation monitor, a respiratory sensor, a weight scale and body fat sensor, a smoke detector, a fire alarm detector, a gas leak sensor, and a humidity sensor.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein said patient home health communication interface is connected through a communication channel to receive instructions from the said remote server and to transmit collected data to the said remote server.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein said remote server with databases processes data/information for generating various reports including a home visit prioritization report and routing report. The data/information is combined with map data to create an optimized and prioritized route for a visiting home care nurse.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said homecare provider interface comprise of a computer that is connected to a remote server in order to view patient data and reports, enter patient data, assign programs to patients, and send messages to patients.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein said mobile unit acts like a portable proxy for the provider interface.

9. The system according to claim 1, wherein said mobile unit includes a location awareness device where the mobile unit records the nurse location in the memory of the mobile unit at regular time intervals.

10. The system according to claim 1, wherein said mobile unit transmits the information to the said remote server.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein said mobile unit enables nurse to receive the patient scripts and educational content needed pertaining to patient health.

12. A mobile home care logistics and quality assurance method, comprising:

installing a patient home health communication interface system at patient'"'"'s home for collecting patient data and for transmitting collected patient data to a central server; and

communicatively connecting a remote server with the patient home health communication interface system for collecting and storing patient data at databases to generate reports containing a patient prioritization data and a routing data for visiting the patients at home; and

transmitting the generated reports to nurse through a mobile unit held by a nurse visiting a patient at home and collecting data regarding a nurse visit; and

transmitting collected patient data, generated report data and nurse visit data to a homecare provider interface from a remote computer to provide a logistics support to a patient and to monitor a nurse visit.

13. The method according to claim 12 wherein the home health communication interface is connected to several sensors to collect patient data.

14. The method according to claim 12 wherein said at least one sensor comprises any of a blood pressure monitor, a blood glucose level monitor, a pulse and heart rate variability monitor, a pulse oximeter device, a blood coagulation monitor, a respiratory sensor, a weight scale and body fat sensor, a smoke detector, a fire alarm detector, a gas leak sensor, and a humidity sensor.

15. A method according to claim 12, wherein said patient home health communication interface is connected through a communication channel to receive instructions from a remote server and to transmit collected data to the remote server

16. The method according to claim 12, wherein said mobile unit is a portable proxy for the provider interface.

17. The method according to claim 12, wherein said mobile unit includes a location awareness device where the mobile unit records the nurse location in the memory of the mobile unit at regular time intervals.

18. The method according to claim 12, wherein said mobile unit transmits the information to the said remote server.