MEDICAL DATA TRACKING, ANALYSIS AND AGGREGATION SYSTEM

• US 20100161345A1
• Filed: 12/23/2008
• Published: 06/24/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Abbott Medical Optics Incorporated (Johnson & Johnson)
• Original Assignee: Integrated Surgical Solutions LLC (Abbott Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Markwood, Michael A., Cain, Perry M., Rago, Angelo, Espersen, David T., Burkle, John M., Kuzmik, Nicholas A.
• Application Number:
  US12/342,855
• Publication Number:
  US 20100161345A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A medical item tracking method including storing inventory levels of items which are for use in medical procedures and receiving input for reserving the use of a facility for a medical procedure, which medical procedure is projected to use at least one of the inventoried items. The input identifies at least one individual projected to participate in the medical procedure. The method further includes retrieving data relating to the predicted usage of the inventoried item in the medical procedure, wherein the data is based upon the participation of the at least one individual. The method further includes adjusting the levels of inventory based upon the retrieved predicted usage data.

Claims

1. A medical item tracking method comprising:

storing inventory levels of items which are for use in medical procedures;

receiving input for reserving the use of a facility for a medical procedure, which medical procedure is projected to use at least one of said inventoried items, and wherein said input identifies at least one individual projected to participate in said medical procedure;

retrieving data relating to the predicted usage of said inventoried item in said medical procedure, wherein said data is based upon the participation of said at least one individual; and

adjusting the levels of inventory based upon the retrieved predicted usage data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein input received includes a facility identifier, the type of medical procedure, and projected start and end times of the medical procedure.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, in response to input received during the receiving step, associating a facility with a particular patient.

4. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving information from a user in the form of a request from said user to order items from a supplier, automatically configuring said received information in a format acceptable to or chosen by said supplier, and forwarding said configured information to said supplier.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of storing information relating to the desired form of orders for a plurality of suppliers in a supplier format database, and wherein the method includes accessing said supplier format database after said information in the form of a request is received from said user to determine the format of information that is acceptable to or chosen by said supplier.

6. The method of claim 4 further including the step of storing at least part of the information forwarded to the supplier, and, upon receipt of at least part of the order from the supplier by the user, retrieving said stored information relating to the order to aid the user in processing the receipt of at least part of the order.

7. The method of claim 1 further including the step of automatically ordering, or suggesting orders to a user, of items if the levels of inventory for said item fall below predefined limits.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of tracking usage trends of items by said user of items, and wherein the quantity of items in said order or said suggested order is based upon usage trends by said user for the particular item to be ordered.

9. The method of claim 1 further including the step of tracking maximum, minimum, and par levels for each inventoried item, providing an output when the level of a particular inventoried items falls or is projected to fall below the minimum or par levels, and providing an output when the level of a particular inventoried items exceeds or is projected to exceed the maximum level.

10. The method of claim 1 further including the step of tracking maximum, minimum, and par levels for each inventoried item, and automatically adjusting, or automatically providing a suggestion to adjust, the maximum, minimum or par levels for an inventoried item, wherein said adjustment or suggested adjustment is based at least in part upon historical information relating to levels of actual inventory relative to the associated maximum, minimum or par value.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein if said level of inventory in said adjusting step lowers inventory for an item below a predefined level, suggested levels of orders of said item are automatically provided.

12. The method of claim 1 further including the step of providing a reorder form to a user to aid the user in placing an order for items, and wherein at least some fields of the reorder form are automatically populated.

13. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of storing a bundling relationship for a plurality of said items, said bundling relationship defining a ratio of quantities between said plurality of items in a bundle, and effectively displaying said bundling relationship to a user when said user is placing an order for items.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said bundling relationship is defined based on the projected use of said bundled items in a medical procedure.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein said bundling relationship is based on a pricing model provided by a supplier of said bundled items.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of authenticating the identify of an individual, comparing said authenticated identity to an authorization table to determine whether that authenticated individual is authorized, and providing access to the authorized individual to adjust the levels of inventory, reserve the use of a facility for medical procedures or place orders for items.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of determining the average delivery time for items, and displaying the average delivery time to a user when the user is ordering items.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of displaying order information to a user, the order information displaying a plurality of suppliers arranged based upon a legal or contractual relationship between said user and that supplier.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving accounting tracking designations relating to said inventoried items as assigned by a user, and wherein said user-assigned accounting tracking designations are used in accounting for inventory levels for the associated items.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving usage tracking designations relating to said inventoried items as assigned by a user, wherein said user-assigned usage tracking designations relate to the usage of items by either whole numbers, or percentages, or fractions of whole numbers, and wherein said user-assigned usage tracking designations are used in tracking inventory for the associated items.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving label information relating to said inventoried items as assigned by said user and displaying said user-defined label information in association with the associated items.

22. The method of claim 1 further including the step of receiving scanned bar code data or RFID tag data from a user, automatically extracting relevant information from said scanned bar code data or RFID tag data to identify an item, and transmitting information relating to said identified item to said user.

23. The method claim 1 wherein said items include uniquely-identified items, and wherein the storing and adjusting steps track unique identifiers associated with each uniquely-identified item.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein said unique identifier associated with each said uniquely-identified items is affixed to packaging that is associated with but separable from said uniquely-identified items.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein the storing step includes storing information related to expiration date, acquisition date, acquisition cost, a physical property, and manufacturer information for said inventoried items.

26. The method of claim 1 wherein the predicted use data is based at least in part upon historical information relating to usage of items in said medical procedure in which said at least one individual participated.

27. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of calculating the total costs of items which are predicted to be used in said medical procedure.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the said storing step stores said levels in an inventory database, and wherein said inventory database associates each inventoried item with a cost, and wherein the cost for each item which is predicted to be used in said medical procedure are provided from said inventory database.

29. The method of claim 27 further comprising the step of calculating the total costs of items which were actually used in said medical procedure, and comparing the total costs to the predicted costs.

30. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of calculating the total costs of items which were actually used in said medical procedure.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the said storing step stores said levels in an inventory database, and wherein said inventory database associates each inventoried item with a cost, and wherein the cost for each item which was used in said medical procedure are provided from said inventory database.

32. The method of claim 1 further including the steps of tracking the use of inventoried items during said scheduled procedure and adjusting the levels of inventory based upon the tracked usage of said items.

33. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving scanned bar code data or RFID tag data relating to the usage of items in said medical procedure, and extracting relevant information relating to the identity of said items.

34. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of providing a user interface such that a user can view the levels of inventory stored in said storing step.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein said user interface is accessible by a user via the internet or via a mobile electronic device.

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising the step of receiving an order for an item from a remotely located user, and automatically forwarding said order to a remotely located supplier.

37. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of providing an output relating to the availability status of said facility for medical procedures over a particular period of time to aid a user who is seeking to reserve the use of a facility.

38. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of, in response to said input received in said receiving step, adjusting the availability status of said facility.

39. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving input adjusting the predicted usage of said inventoried items for said medical procedure.

40. The method of claim 1 wherein said storing, receiving, retrieving, and adjusting steps are each carried out on a computer.

41. The method of claim 1 further including the step of graphically displaying a calendar and said input in said receiving step is provided by a user manipulating said calendar.

42. The method of claim 1 further including the step of automatically sending a bill and replace notification to a supplier based upon the predicted usage data or actual usage data.

43. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of items which are for use in medical procedures;

a facility planning module for reserving the use of a facility for a scheduled medical procedure using at least some of said inventoried items; and

a predictive usage module for predicting the usage of at least some of said inventoried items in said scheduled procedure based upon at least one individual participating in said scheduled procedure, and wherein said predictive usage module is operatively coupled to said facility planning module such that said predicted usage is generated in response to a reservation made through said facility planning module, and wherein said inventory module is operatively coupled to said predictive usage module such information related to said predicted usage of said inventoried items is provided to said inventory module.

44. The system of claim 43 further including an ordering module for receiving and processing orders for items as placed by a user, wherein said ordering module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that current levels of inventory are displayable to the user when ordering items via said ordering module, and such that information related to placed orders are providable to said inventory module.

45. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module or said inventory module is configured to automatically order, or suggest orders, of items, based upon information relating to the levels of inventory tracked by said inventory module.

46. The system of claim 45 wherein said ordering module or inventory module is configured to automatically order, or suggest orders, in quantities based upon usage trends for the particular item to be ordered.

47. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module or inventory module is configured to provide a reorder form to a user to aid the user in placing an order for items, and wherein at least some fields of the reorder form are automatically populated based upon information relating to the levels of inventory tracked by said inventory module.

48. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module stores a bundle relationship between a plurality of items, said bundle relationship defining a ratio between said items in said bundle, whereby said bundle relationship is defined based on the use of said plurality of items for a specific procedure or a pricing model provided by a supplier of said bundled items.

49. The system of claim 48 wherein said plurality of bundled items have associated or complementary functions.

50. The system of claim 48 wherein said ordering module is configured to identify a needed item from said inventory module which needs to be replenished and form an order or suggested order comprising bundled items which include said needed item.

51. The system of claim 43 further including means for authenticating an individual and comparing said authenticated individual to an authorization table to determine whether that individual is authorized, and wherein said authenticating and comparing means restricts access to said inventory module, said facility planning module or said predictive usage module to authorized individuals.

52. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module is configured to receive, from the received information in a format acceptable to or chosen by a supplier identified by said user, and forward the formatted information to said supplier.

53. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module stores information relating to a placed order such that when all or some items in said placed order are received by a user, the stored information related to the placed order is a retrievable aid in documenting receipt of said all or some items.

54. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module is configured to determine the average delivery time for items ordered via said ordering module.

55. The system of claim 44 wherein said ordering module is configured to display a plurality of suppliers to a user, wherein each supplier is able to supply items to said user, and wherein said suppliers are arranged in said display based upon a legal or contractual relationship between said user and that supplier.

56. The system of claim 43 further including a receiving module which is configured to process received items and provide information regarding said received items to said inventory module, and wherein said receiving module is configured to enable a user to assign an accounting tracking designation to said received items.

57. The system of claim 43 further including a receiving module which is configured to process received items and provide information regarding said received items to said inventory module, and wherein said receiving module is configured to enable a user to assign a label to said received items.

58. The system of claim 43 further including a receiving module which is configured to process received items and provide information regarding said received items to said inventory module, and wherein said receiving module is configured to receive data in the form of a scanned bar code or RFID tag relating to said received items such that said receiving module can automatically extract relevant information from said received data.

59. The system of claim 43 wherein said items tracked by said inventory module include uniquely-identified items and wherein the inventory module tracks a unique identifier associated with each uniquely-identified item.

60. The system of claim 59 wherein said unique identifier associated with each said uniquely-identified items is affixed to packaging that is associated with but separable from said uniquely-identified items.

61. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module is configured to track information relating to the usage of items by either whole numbers, or percentages, or fractions of whole numbers.

62. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module is configured to track maximum, minimum, and par levels for each inventoried item, and wherein the system is configured to provide an output when the count of a particular inventoried items falls or is projected to fall below the minimum or par levels, and wherein the system is configured to provide an output when the count of a particular inventoried items exceeds or is projected to exceed the maximum level.

63. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module is configured to track maximum, minimum, and par levels for each inventoried item, and wherein the system is configured to automatically adjust, or automatically provide a suggestion to adjust, the maximum, minimum or par levels for each inventoried item, wherein said adjustment or suggested adjustment is based at least in part upon historical information relating to levels of actual inventory relative to the associated maximum, minimum or par value.

64. The system of claim 43 wherein the facility planning module includes or is operatively connected to database storing information relating to the associated medical procedure, including the identity of individual participating in the medical procedure, a room identifier, the type of medical procedure, and projected start and end times of the medical procedure.

65. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module tracks information related to each inventoried item, including expiration date, acquisition date, acquisition cost, data relating to a physical property or characteristic of the item, and manufacturer information.

66. The system of claim 43 wherein said facility planning module associates a reserved facility with a particular patient.

67. The system of claim 43 wherein said predicted usage by said predictive usage module is based at least in part upon historical information relating to usage of items in the scheduled medical procedure.

68. The system of claim 43 further comprising a predictive costing module operatively coupled to said predictive usage module, wherein said predictive costing module calculates the total costs of items which are predicted, by said predictive usage module, to be used in said scheduled procedures.

69. The system of claim 68 wherein said predictive costing module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that said predictive costing module assigns costs to the items which are predicted to be used, and wherein said costs are accessed from said inventory module.

70. The system of claim 43 further comprising an actual costing module operatively coupled to said inventory module, wherein said actual costing module calculates the total costs of items actually used in a procedure.

71. The system of claim 70 wherein said actual costing module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that said actual costing module assigns costs to the items which are used, and wherein said costs are accessed from said inventory module.

72. The system of claim 70 further including a predictive costing module operatively coupled to said predictive usage module, wherein said predictive costing module calculates the total costs of items which are predicted, by said predictive usage module, to be used in said scheduled procedures, and wherein the system is configured to calculate the difference between the total predicted costs of items provided by said predictive costing module and the total costs of items actually used as provided by said actual costing module.

73. The system of claim 43 further including a procedure tracking module operatively coupled to said inventory module, wherein said procedure tracking module is configured to track the occurrence of certain events during a scheduled procedure.

74. The system of claim 73 wherein said procedure tracking module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that information relating to the actual usage of items is provided to said inventory module.

75. The system of claim 73 wherein said procedure tracking module is configured to receive data in the form of a scanned bar code or RFID tag relating to the usage of items such that said procedure tracking module can extract relevant information relating to events in said scheduled procedure from said received data.

76. The system of claim 43 further comprising a user interface operatively coupled to said inventory module such the levels of inventory of items tracked in said inventory module are viewable by a user.

77. The system of claim 43 wherein said inventory module, said facility planning module and said predictive usage module reside on a central computer and are accessible by a user interface via the internet.

78. The system of claim 77 wherein said central computer is operatively coupled to an item supplier such that said user can place an order for items via said central computer which order is then automatically forwarded to said supplier.

79. The system of claim 43 wherein said facility planning module is configured to provide an output relating to the availability status of a facility for medical procedures over a particular period of time.

80. The system of claim 43 wherein the predicted usage of said inventoried items in said scheduled procedures is adjustable by a user.

81. A medical item tracking method comprising:

storing inventory levels of items which are for use in medical procedures, and their associated costs, in an inventory database;

retrieving data relating to the predicted usage of said inventoried items in a medical procedure, wherein said data is based upon the participation of at least one individual in said scheduled procedure; and

calculating the total costs of items which are predicted to be used in said medical procedure based upon costs stored in said inventory database.

82. The method of claim 81 further comprising the step of calculating the total costs of items which were actually used in said scheduled procedure, and comparing the total costs to the predicted costs.

83. The method of claim 82, wherein the total costs of items which were actually used are based upon costs stored in said inventory database.

84. The method of claim 81 further including the steps of receiving input for reserving the use of a facility for a medical procedure, which medical procedure is projected to use at least one of said inventoried items, and wherein said at least one individual is projected to participate in said medical procedure, and adjusting the levels of inventory based upon the retrieved predicted usage data.

85. The method of claim 81 further including the step of receiving information from a user in the form of a request from said user to order items from a supplier, automatically configuring said received information in a format acceptable to or chosen by said supplier, and forwarding said configured information to said supplier.

86. The method of claim 81 further including the steps of reviewing the levels of inventory in said inventory database, and automatically ordering, or suggesting orders to a user, of items if the levels of inventory fall below predefined limits.

87. The method of claim 81 further including the step of tracking maximum, minimum, and par levels for each inventoried item, providing an output when the level of a particular inventoried items falls or is projected to fall below the minimum or par levels, and providing an output when the level of a particular inventoried items exceeds or is projected to exceed the maximum level.

88. The method of claim 81 further including the steps of storing a bundling relationship for a plurality of said items, said bundling relationship defining a ratio of quantities between said plurality of items in a bundle, and displaying said bundling relationship to a user when said user is placing an order for items.

89. The method of claim 81 further comprising the steps of authenticating the identify of an individual, comparing said authenticated identity to an authorization table to determine whether that authenticated individual is authorized, and providing access to the authorized individual to adjust the levels of inventory or place orders for items.

90. The method of claim 81 further comprising the step of receiving accounting tracking designations relating to said inventoried items as assigned by a user, and wherein said user-assigned accounting tracking designations are used in tracking inventory levels for the associated items in said inventory database.

91. The method of claim 81 further comprising the step of receiving usage tracking designations relating to said inventoried items as assigned by a user, wherein said usage tracking designations relate to the usage of items by either whole numbers, or percentages, or fractions of whole numbers, and wherein said user-assigned usage tracking designations are used in tracking inventory for the associated items in said inventory database.

92. The method claim 81 wherein said items include uniquely-identified items and wherein said inventory database tracks unique identifiers associated with each uniquely-identified item.

93. The method of claim 81 wherein said inventory database stores information related to expiration date, acquisition date, acquisition cost, a physical property, and manufacturer information for said inventoried items.

94. The method of claim 81 wherein the predicted usage data is based at least in part upon historical information relating to usage of items in the scheduled medical procedure in which said at least one individual participated.

95. The method of claim 81 further comprising the step of receiving input adjusting the predicted usage of said inventoried items for said scheduled procedure.

96. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of items which are for use in medical procedures;

a predictive usage module for predicting the usage of at least some of said inventoried items in a medical procedure; and

a predictive costing module operatively coupled to said predictive usage module and said inventory module, wherein said predictive costing module calculates the total costs of items which are predicted, by said predictive usage module, to be used in said scheduled procedure based upon the cost of said items to be used as provided by said inventory module.

97. A medical item tracking method comprising:

storing inventory levels of uniquely-identified items and non uniquely-identified items which are for use in medical procedures, and their associated costs and any associated unique identifiers, in an inventory database;

tracking the actual usage of said inventoried items in a medical procedure; and

upon receipt of an input, automatically calculating the total costs of items which were used in said medical procedure based upon costs stored in said inventory database.

98. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of uniquely identified items and non-uniquely identified items which are for use in medical procedures, wherein said inventory module tracks the costs and any associated unique identifiers;

a procedure tracking module for tracking the actual usage of items in a procedure; and

an actual costing module operatively coupled to said procedure tracking module and said inventory module, wherein said actual costing module calculates the total costs of items actually used in said procedure as provided by said procedure tracking module based upon the cost of said used items as provided by said inventory module.

99. A medical item tracking method comprising:

storing inventory levels of items which are for use in medical procedures;

receiving a request from a user to order items from a supplier;

forwarding said request said supplier;

storing information relating to the request forwarded to the supplier; and

upon receipt of at least part of the order from the supplier by the user, retrieving said stored information relating to the order to aid the user in processing the receipt of said at least part of the order.

100. The method of claim 99 further comprising the step of storing information relating to the desired form of orders for a plurality of suppliers in a supplier format database, accessing said supplier format database after said request is received from said user to determine the format of information that is acceptable to or chosen by said supplier, and automatically configuring information received from said user in a format acceptable to or chosen by said supplier.

101. The method of claim 99 wherein said supplier is an external supplier or an internal warehouse.

102. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of items which are for use in medical procedures; and

an ordering module for receiving and processing orders for items as placed by a user, wherein said ordering module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that current levels of inventory are displayable to the user when ordering items via said ordering module, and such that information related to placed orders are providable to said inventory module, wherein said ordering module stores information relating to a placed order such that when all or some items in said placed order are received by a user, the stored information related to the placed order is retrievable to document to receipt of said all or some items.

103. A medical item tracking method comprising:

storing, in an inventory database, inventory levels of items which are for use in medical procedures;

receiving input for reserving the use of a facility for a medical procedure, which medical procedure is projected to use at least one of said inventoried items;

tracking the actual usage of said inventoried items in a medical procedure;

automatically adjusting the levels of inventory in said inventory database after said tracking step based upon information obtained during said tracking step; and

automatically ordering, or suggesting orders to a user, of items if the levels of inventory fall below predefined limits.

104. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of uniquely-identified items which are for use in medical procedures;

a facility planning module for reserving the use of a facility for a scheduled medical procedure using at least one of said inventoried items;

a procedure tracking module for tracking the actual usage of items in a medical procedure, wherein said procedure tracking module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that information relating to the actual usage of items is provided to said inventory module; and

an ordering module for receiving and processing orders for items, wherein said ordering module is operatively coupled to said inventory module such that said ordering module automatically orders, or automatically suggests order levels, of items which are determined are needed to be replenished.

105. A medical tracking system comprising:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of items which are for use in medical procedures;

a facility planning module for reserving the use of a facility for medical procedures using at least one of said inventoried items; and

a predictive usage module for predicting the usage of at least some of said inventoried items in said scheduled procedures, and wherein said predictive usage module is operatively coupled to said facility planning module such that said predicted usage is generated in response to a reservation made through said facility planning module, and wherein said inventory module is operatively coupled to said predictive usage module such information related to said predicted usage of said inventoried items is provided to said inventory module;

a predictive costing module operatively coupled to said predictive usage module, wherein said predictive costing module calculates the total costs of items which are predicted, by said predictive usage module, to be used in said scheduled procedures; and

an actual costing module operatively coupled to said procedure tracking module, wherein said actual costing module calculates the total costs of items actually used in a procedure.

106. An item tracking method comprising:

storing inventory levels of items which are for use in procedures;

receiving input for reserving the use of a facility for a procedure, which procedure is projected to use at least one of said inventoried items, and wherein said input identifies at least one individual projected to participate in said procedure;

retrieving data relating to the predicted usage of said inventoried items in said procedure, wherein said data is based upon the participation of said at least one individual; and

adjusting the levels of inventory based upon the retrieved predicted usage data.

107. A system comprising a personal electronic device having:

an inventory module for tracking the levels of inventory of items which are for use in medical procedures;

an input module for receiving an input identifying at least one of said inventoried items; and

a receiving module configured to stored information relating to a placed order such that when all or some items in said placed order are received, the stored information related to the placed order is a retrievable to aid in documenting receipt of said all or some items, wherein said receiving module is configured to provide information regarding said received items to said inventory module.