REAL-TIME EVIDENCE- AND GUIDELINE-BASED RECOMMENDATION METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PATIENT CARE

• US 20080281639A1
• Filed: 05/08/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Beverly C. Walters, Peter C. Quinn
• Original Assignee: Beverly C. Walters, Peter C. Quinn
• Inventors: Walters, Beverly C., Quinn, Peter C.
• Application Number:
  US12/117,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281639A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/40 relating to mechanical, radiation or invasive therapies, e.g. surgery, laser therapy, dialysis or acupuncture
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

A system and method for providing feedback to a patient caregiver is provided that receives information on a periodic basis, such as every hospital shift, performs a parametric analysis on the treatment given with known standards that are stored in a database, and generates a report that identifies whether the care that is being given is consistent or inconsistent with the guidelines. A source of the guidelines is provided so that a physician can consult with the source information, if desired. The patient data may be entered in by the caregiver, and the feedback may be provided to the caregiver, via a portable device, such as a mobile telephone or PDA (personal digital assistant).

Claims

1. A method for providing continuous patient care, comprising repeated steps of:

entering guidelines and associated parameters in an evidence-based guidelines database that comprises guidelines, treatment recommendations, and guideline source of origin information;

entering, by a caregiver on a caregiver device at a caregiver facility, patient status and treatment information on a periodic basis;

securely transmitting the entered patient information to a secure assessment system;

immediately after receipt of the patient information by the secure assessment system, performing the following by the secure assessment system;

retrieving relevant guidelines from the guidelines database;

comparing the retrieved guidelines with the patient information using a parametric comparison;

generating a patient customized assessment report by the secure assessment system that includes an assessment of the patient treatment information; and

securely transmitting the patient customized assessment report to the caregiver.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

analyzing peer-reviewed published guidelines;

converting the analyzed peer-reviewed published guidelines into the entered guidelines and associated parameters;

providing, with a guideline, a source of information and a quality assessment of the source of information; and

including the quality assessment in the patient customized assessment report.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

updating an old guideline in the guidelines database with a new guideline;

identifying changes between the old guideline and the new guideline;

including the identified changes in at least one of the patient customized assessment report and a separate guideline change report.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the assessment of the patient treatment information includes an assessment relative to the guidelines and does not include an assessment of the caregiver'"'"'s performance.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a period of the periodic basis is a shift of a caregiver facility.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

contacting, by the caregiver, a technical or medical support staff and

receiving a respective technical or medical response therefrom.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

storing the patient information;

generating a summary report based on cumulative stored patient information;

securely transmitting the summary report to at least one of a state government, a hospital, a caregiver administrative department, and an insurance carrier.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein steps of the method utilize a client-server architecture, the caregiver device being a client of the client-server architecture and the assessment system being a server of the client-server architecture.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the client-server architecture is a web-based architecture.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the caregiver facility is an intensive care unit, and the patient is a patient with severe traumatic brain injury.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the steps are repeated during the patient'"'"'s entire stay at the caregiver facility or other admission.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the secure transmission utilizes at least one of wireless technology, broadband technology, and telephone technology.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the secure assessment system is remotely located from the caregiver facility.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein access to the secure assessment system utilizes at least one of a fire wall, an access card, biometric identification, a server password, and encryption.

15. A system for providing continuous patient care, comprising:

an evidence-based guidelines database that comprises guidelines, treatment recommendations, and guideline source of origin information;

a caregiver device via which a caregiver enters patient status and treatment information on a periodic basis, the caregiver device comprising a secure communications link; and

an assessment system comprising a secure communications link that securely receives data that includes the patient status and treatment information from the caregiver device communications link, the assessment system having a communications link to the evidence-based guidelines database via which guidelines are accessed and then compared to the patient status and treatment information using a parametric comparison, the assessment system having a report generator that generates a patient customized assessment report, the assessment system transmitting the report over the secure communications link to the caregiver device.