METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING PHYSICIAN PROFILE AND HEALTHCARE APPOINTMENT SERVICES

• US 20100228564A1
• Filed: 03/12/2010
• Published: 09/09/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ZocDoc, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ZocDoc, Inc.
• Inventors: Kharraz Tavakol, Oliver D., Massoumi, Cyrus E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,185,929 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• 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: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

Method and apparatus for the collection and management of healthcare practitioner profile information prior to inclusion in a hospital directory of affiliated practitioners or insurance provider directory of participating practitioners. Healthcare practitioners (e.g., physicians) enter and communicate changes to their profile data to a central database to increase their compliance and decrease the frequency of providing updated or incomplete information in a hospital or insurance provider directory. The profile data can be credentialed according to rules specific to each hospital or insurance provider, prior to inclusion in the directory. The directory may further provide online booking of available appointment times for affiliated physicians from multiple practice groups. The online booking process can simultaneously be available on multiple websites of a hospital, insurance provider, physician practice group and/or centralized provider (aggregator).

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a computer apparatus for managing and storing a central managed database of physician profiles for physicians having affiliations with multiple hospitals and/or participations with multiple insurance providers, the database containing multiple categories of physician profile data (PPD) for each physician;

a portal accessible by computer to physicians over a public network for submitting the PPD to the database; and

a computer implemented selection filter for retrieving from the database different select categories of the PPD for a specified physician based on the physician'"'"'s hospital affiliations and/or insurance participations.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a set of computer implemented credentialing rules specific to a hospital or insurance provider for application to the PPD prior to inclusion of the PPD in an on-line physician profile directory of the respective hospital or insurance provider.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the set includes rules for:

excluding the selected PPD from the directory;

including the selected PPD in the directory;

requiring approval by the respective hospital or insurance provider before including the selected PPD in the directory.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the categories comprise of one or more of:

physician name;

phone number;

practice location;

office hours;

title;

department;

professional suffixes;

board membership;

gender;

specialties;

procedures performed;

insurances;

awards; and

publications.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the database includes a different unique identifier for each physician.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the categories include practice location and a geographic indicator of the practice location.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a central managed database of available appointments with the physicians.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, further comprising:

a portal accessible by computer to patients over a public network for booking one of the available appointments.

9. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the hospital or insurance provider directory includes a link to an aggregator'"'"'s website providing online booking of appointments with physicians across multiple practice groups.

10. A method of managing physician profiles comprising:

providing a portal to enable physicians affiliated with multiple hospitals and/or participating with multiple insurance providers to submit specified categories of physician profile data (PPD) to a central managed database;

storing and managing the PPD in the central database; and

providing PPD from the central database for inclusion in an online physician profile directory of a hospital or insurance provider.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

applying a set of credentialing rules specific to the hospital or insurance provider for determining compliance with the rules of some or all of the PPD and, if compliance is found, including the PPD in an online directory of the respective hospital or insurance provider.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing a different unique identifier for each physician in the database.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

comparing the provided PPD to the hospital'"'"'s or insurance provider'"'"'s existing physician profile data and applying a merge process to create a merged profile.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

an aggregator managing the central database and allowing shared access to the PPD as a web-based service.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

an aggregator managing a central database of available appointments with the physicians and providing on-line booking of available appointments with the physicians.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

simultaneously providing the available appointments for online booking on a plurality of websites hosted by two or more of the aggregator, hospital, insurance provider, and/or physician practice group.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

providing a link in the hospital or insurance provider directory to the on-line booking process.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

providing specified procedures available across multiple specialties to enable booking of physician appointments based on a specified procedure and not limited to a specialty.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

wherein the categories include a practice location, and each location is classified by geographic coordinates.

20. A computer-readable storage medium with instructions to one or a plurality of computers for execution of the method of claim 10.

21. A method comprising:

a host providing a hospital online directory of physician profile data (PPD) for physicians affiliated with the hospital;

the hospital providing a website having a link to a website of the host for accessing the directory;

wherein the host manages physician profile data for the affiliated physicians of the hospital and provides the profile data in the directory of the hospital; and

wherein the host manages and provides multiple such directories, each for a different hospital.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the host manages credentialing of the physician profile information prior to inclusion of the PPD in the directory.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the host manages a central database of available appointments for physicians affiliated with multiple hospitals.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein each directory on the host website provides online booking of appointments with the hospital'"'"'s respective affiliated physicians.

25. A method comprising:

providing a hospital website having an online directory of physician profile data (PPD) for physicians affiliated with the hospital;

accessing the online directory and reviewing the physician profile data to identify a physician;

the hospital website further providing online booking of appointments with the affiliated physicians from multiple practice groups; and

accessing the online booking process including selecting an available appointment and booking the appointment online.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the physicians:

have affiliations with multiple hospitals;

practice in multiple practice groups; and

/or

participate with multiple insurance providers;

and the PPD undergoes a credentialing process specific to each affiliated hospital, practice group or insurance provider prior to inclusion in a directory of the respective hospital, group or provider.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein the physicians:

have affiliations with multiple hospitals;

practice in multiple practice groups; and

/or

participate with multiple insurance providers;

and the online booking process is available on multiple website of the hospital(s), group(s) and provider(s).