Method And Apparatus For Managing And Locating Hospital Assets, Patients And Personnel
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating managing patient care within a healthcare facility, including:
- placing one or more signal detecting devices in a location within a healthcare facility, said range of said signal detecting device comprising a zone;
associating with a patient an RFID tag;
sensing the RFID tag as the patient moves within the range of a signal detecting device;
establishing one or more zones of detection within the healthcare facility;
providing data storage and collection means for collecting information;
collecting the information to determine the location of a patient in the care facility;
generating a display indicating the location of a patient within the care facility;
generating an alert when the patient location information corresponds with an event triggering threshold.generating an alert when the number of RFID devices meets a threshold.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus and method for facilitating locating, tracking and managing of hospital assets, patients and hospital personnel within a healthcare facility, providing one or more signal detecting devices configured in locations within a healthcare facility, providing associated patient RFID tags which may be sensed as the patient moves within the range of a signal detecting device, where one or more zones of detection within the healthcare facility are configured to correspond with hospital units, and where the information may be collected and used in real-time to manage patients, assets and staff through the collection of location and dwell times, and alerting and reporting of events associated with the collected information.
106 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method for facilitating managing patient care within a healthcare facility, including:
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placing one or more signal detecting devices in a location within a healthcare facility, said range of said signal detecting device comprising a zone; associating with a patient an RFID tag; sensing the RFID tag as the patient moves within the range of a signal detecting device; establishing one or more zones of detection within the healthcare facility; providing data storage and collection means for collecting information; collecting the information to determine the location of a patient in the care facility; generating a display indicating the location of a patient within the care facility; generating an alert when the patient location information corresponds with an event triggering threshold. generating an alert when the number of RFID devices meets a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An apparatus for facilitating managing patient care within a healthcare facility, including
at least one signal detecting device adapted for positioning in a location within a store, said signal detecting device having a range corresponding to a zone; -
an RFID tag adapted to be carried on one or more of a patient, hospital asset and personnel; wherein said RFID tag carried by said one or more of a patient, hospital asset and personnel is configured to be detectible when said RFID tag is in said zone corresponding to said signal detecting device; a device for collecting data from said signal detecting device for collecting the information to determine the number of RFID devices in a particular zone; an event engine for determining whether the number of RFID devices detected within said particular zone meets a threshold, said event engine being configured to generate an alert to correspond with detection criteria.
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16. An apparatus for facilitating managing patient care within a healthcare facility, comprising:
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at least one storage device; at least one display, and a processor connected to the storage device, the storage device storing a program for controlling the processor; and the processor operative with the program to receive information inputs comprising signals relayed from at least one or more detection devices, and displaying on a display an indication of a location of one or more of a patient, an asset and a person providing services at the healthcare facility; at least one detectable element provided on at least one or more of a patient, an asset, and a person providing services at the healthcare facility, wherein said at least one detectable element is uniquely identifiable from other said detectable elements; at least one detection device for detecting said at least one detectable element; said program being provided with instructions for associating a detection device with a location, and displaying on said display means information indicating the location of said patient, asset or person providing services at the healthcare facility. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification