TRACKING SYSTEM FOR HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
First Claim
1. A process for performing asset tracking in a patient care environment, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a plurality of data elements from a tracking system in the patient care environment, each data element having a reader identification code corresponding to one of a plurality of readers, a tag identification code corresponding to an identification tag attached to one of a plurality of assets and read by one of the readers, and a timestamp corresponding to a time that the identification tag was read by the reader;
storing interaction records in an electronic database wherein each interaction record corresponds to one or more of the plurality of data elements received from the tracking system;
generating a plurality of interaction sequence plans, each interaction sequence plan including a defined time period and an expected sequence of interactions between assets in the patient care environment during the defined time period; and
performing an analysis for each interaction sequence plan, the analysis comprising the steps of;
searching the database;
identifying interaction records in the database having timestamps within the defined time period and identification data corresponding to one or more of the assets;
comparing the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions; and
generating a metric based upon the comparison of the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A location/tracking system for use in hospitals and similar healthcare facilities is based upon a “last seen” location for patients, clinicians, or high value equipment. The system uses portal readers to determine when and where an item to be tracked passes through a portal, bed or exam chair mounted proximity reader to determine when and how long an item is proximate to a reader in order to determine when and for how long the item is proximate to a particular task area. Real time tracking and retrospective analysis of transaction data enables locating an item to be tracked and allows higher level analysis of the transaction data to determine metrics for “time to test”, “time to treatment”, and similar statistics.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A process for performing asset tracking in a patient care environment, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a plurality of data elements from a tracking system in the patient care environment, each data element having a reader identification code corresponding to one of a plurality of readers, a tag identification code corresponding to an identification tag attached to one of a plurality of assets and read by one of the readers, and a timestamp corresponding to a time that the identification tag was read by the reader; storing interaction records in an electronic database wherein each interaction record corresponds to one or more of the plurality of data elements received from the tracking system; generating a plurality of interaction sequence plans, each interaction sequence plan including a defined time period and an expected sequence of interactions between assets in the patient care environment during the defined time period; and performing an analysis for each interaction sequence plan, the analysis comprising the steps of; searching the database; identifying interaction records in the database having timestamps within the defined time period and identification data corresponding to one or more of the assets; comparing the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions; and generating a metric based upon the comparison of the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for performing asset tracking in a patient care environment, comprising:
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a computer processor and electronic database connected to a network, wherein the computer processor includes a data capture module configured to track assets in the patient care environment and a data analysis module configured to analyze a plurality of interaction sequence plans; the data capture module programmed to receive a plurality of data elements from a tracking system in the patient care environment, each data element having a reader identification code corresponding to one of a plurality of readers, a tag identification code corresponding to an identification tag attached to one of a plurality of assets and read by one of the readers, and a timestamp corresponding to a time that the identification tag was read by the reader; and
to store interaction records in the electronic database wherein each interaction record corresponds to one or more of the plurality of data elements received from the tracking system; andthe data analysis module programmed to generate a plurality of interaction sequence plans, each interaction sequence plan including a defined time period and an expected sequence of interactions between assets in the patient care environment during the defined time period;
to search the database and to identify interaction records in the database having timestamps within the defined time period and identification data corresponding to one or more of the assets;
to compare the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions; and
to generate a metric based upon the comparison of the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for performing asset tracking in a patient care environment, the instructions comprising the steps of:
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receiving a plurality of data elements from a tracking system in the patient care environment, each data element having a reader identification code corresponding to one of a plurality of readers, a tag identification code corresponding to an identification tag attached to one of a plurality of assets and read by one of the readers, and a timestamp corresponding to a time that the identification tag was read by the reader; storing interaction records in an electronic database wherein each interaction record corresponds to one or more of the plurality of data elements received from the tracking system; generating a plurality of interaction sequence plans, each interaction sequence plan including a defined time period and an expected sequence of interactions between assets in the patient care environment during the defined time period; and performing an analysis for each interaction sequence plan, the analysis comprising the steps of; searching the database; identifying interaction records in the database having timestamps within the defined time period and identification data corresponding to one or more of the assets; comparing the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions; and generating a metric based upon the comparison of the identified interaction records with the expected sequence of interactions.
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Specification