HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION AND WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20090313046A1
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Aionex, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Aionex, Inc.
• Inventors: Smith, Lee, Badgett, Becky, Rodgers, Jeremy, Freemyer, Curt
• Granted Patent: US 8,571,884 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• 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 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

A communication and workflow management system and method is provided for integrating a wide range of health care organization workflow management functions, generated by automated systems, manual and automated events associated with patients and staff interactions, through input-output devices such that requests and dispatch requests can be handled locally or over a widely distributed network, and can be tracked and escalated as required. The invention features a rules engine and database that identifies and defines resources, patients, tasks, and task handling. The invention uses extensive logic for the assignment of tasks and communication with resources that can execute tasks, tracking, completion of task, and escalation of tasks. The communication system can be integrated with staff and equipment tracking for automated closure of tasks.

Claims

1. A method for managing workflow of a healthcare facility, comprising:

(a) receiving an invocation condition over a healthcare facility information network, said invocation condition having one or more associated task requests;

(b) identifying resources at the healthcare facility qualified for responding to the task request, wherein said resources are stored in a database;

(c) assigning one or more qualified resources to complete the task request;

(d) communicating the task request to the assigned resource;

(e) tracking progress towards completion of the task request;

(f) escalating the task request if the completion of the task request is unsatisfactory; and

(g) documenting the completion of the task request.

2. The method of claim 1, where the task request comprises a patient request.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of automatically associating patient information with the task request.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the patient information is stored in a database comprising a transactional database and a federated data model.

5. The method of claim 1, where the task request comprises a housekeeping request.

6. The method of claim 1, where the task request comprises a dietary request.

7. The method of claim 1, where the task request comprises an emergency request related to a patient.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of automatically associating patient information with the task request.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the patient information is stored in a database comprising a transactional database and a federated data model.

10. The method of claim 1, where the task request comprises a scheduled task.

11. The method of claim 1, where the resources comprise personnel who are present at the healthcare facility.

12. The method of claim 1, where the progress towards completion of the task request is tracked according to a timer.

13. The method of claim 1, where the unsatisfactory completion of a task request comprises an incomplete task.

14. The method of claim 1, where the escalation of the task request comprises a reminder message to the qualified resources.

15. The method of claim 1, where the escalation of the task request comprises a dispatch to alternative qualified resources.

16. The method of claim 1, where the escalation of the task request comprises notification of supervisory personnel.

17. The method of claim 1, where the documenting the completion of the task request is stored electronically in said database for later analysis.

18. The method of claim 1, where the workflow of the healthcare facility is managed from a geographically remote patient response center.

19. A method for managing workflow of a healthcare facility, comprising:

(a) storing patient data and resource data in a database comprising a transactional database and a federated data model, said resource data comprising resources qualified to respond to a plurality of tasks;

(b) storing a plurality of tasks in a rules engine, said rules engine in communication with said database and in communication with one or more application bindings;

(c) receiving in the rules engine from an application binding an invocation condition associated with one or more of said tasks;

(d) assigning qualified resources to said task;

(e) communicating said task to one or more qualified resources; and

(f) monitoring if the task is completed in a predefined amount of time.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising escalating the assignment if the completion of the task fails.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing documentation regarding the status of the task.

22. A method for managing workflow of a healthcare facility, comprising:

(a) receiving an input indicative of an invocation condition at a healthcare facility;

(b) identifying tasks associated with the invocation condition;

(c) identifying resources at the healthcare facility qualified to address the task;

(d) assigning one or more qualified resources to the task;

(e) communicating the task to the one or more qualified resources;

(f) setting a timer for completion of the task; and

(g) communicating the task to alternative qualified resources if the task is not completed before the timer expires.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of documenting the receipt of the invocation condition, assignment of resources, and completion of the task in an electronic database for later reporting and analysis.