INDICATOR APPARATUS FOR HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM

• US 20130162414A1
• Filed: 02/22/2013
• Published: 06/27/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hill-Rom Services Incorporated (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: Schuman, Richard J., Collins, Williams F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,803,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/286.07
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7465 Arrangements for interactive communication between patient and care services, e.g. by using a telephone network telemetry of measured physiological signal A61B5/0002
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/00 Alarm systems in which the location of the alarm condition is signalled to a central station, e.g. fire or police telegraphic systems
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/016 Personal emergency signalling and security systems emergency non-personal manually actuated alarm activators G08B25/12
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 5/222 Personal calling arrangements or devices, i.e. paging systems selective calling systems and call receivers H04W84/00, H04W68/00
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 7/06 using electric transmission , e.g. involving audible and visible signalling through the use of sound and light sources
• 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: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

An indicator apparatus is configurable for use in a healthcare communication system, such as a nurse call system. The indicator apparatus includes a visual indicator. The visual indicator is operable to selectively display one or more colors in response to calls received by the healthcare communication system.

Claims

1. A control for an indicator apparatus of a patient-nurse communication system, configured to:

receive a plurality of call parameters from the patient-nurse communication system, the call parameters comprising an indicator of a location at which a call to the patient-nurse communication system originated and an indicator of a call type associated with the call;

determine a notification type based on one or more of the call parameters, the notification type being audio, visual, or a combination thereof;

determine, based on the call parameters and the notification type, a sound file selected from a plurality of sound files to be output by the indicator apparatus in response to the call; and

send a control signal to the indicator apparatus, the control signal comprising data relating to the selected sound file.

2. The control of claim 1, configured to receive the call parameters from a call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system.

3. The control of claim 1, configured to receive a plurality of different call parameters relating to a plurality of different calls to the patient-nurse communication system and select different sound files in response to different types of calls.

4. The control of claim 3, configured to determine a color selected from a plurality of colors to be output by the indicator apparatus in response to the call.

5. The control of claim 4, wherein the indicator apparatus comprises a plurality of visual indicators and the control is configured to send a first electrical signal identifying a first color to a first visual indicator in response to a first call having a first call parameter and send a second electrical signal identifying a second color to a second visual indicator in response to a second call having a second call parameter different from the first call parameter.

6. The control of claim 4, configured to vary the color depending on criteria relating to at least one of a call-originating device, the call type, a call priority, and a patient location.

7. The control of claim 1, configured to vary the sound file depending on criteria relating to at least one of a call-originating device, the call type, a call priority, and a patient location.

8. A method for controlling an indicator apparatus of a patient-nurse communication system, the method embodied in a computing device coupled to the patient-nurse communication system, the method comprising:

receiving electrical signals from the patient-nurse communication system indicative of at least one color to be displayed by a multi-color light source of the indicator apparatus;

determining at least one parameter relating to a call from a call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system;

identifying at least one color to be illuminated by the light source based on the at least one parameter; and

sending an electrical signal to the light source to illuminate the at least one selected color in response to the call.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the at least one parameter comprises a call type of the call from the call-originating device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the indicator apparatus comprises a speaker, and the method comprises selecting a sound file in response to a call from the call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system and sending an electrical signal to the indicator apparatus to play the sound file through the speaker in response to the call.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising selecting the sound file from a plurality of sound files stored in memory of the indicator apparatus.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising receiving data indicative of changes to the at least one parameter from a network and storing the parameter changes in the memory.

13. An indicator apparatus for a patient-nurse communication system, comprising:

an indicator housing;

a plurality of visual indicators supported by the indicator housing, the visual indicators being configured to selectively illuminate in response to signals received from a call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system; and

a slot defined by the indicator housing, wherein the slot is configured to receive a visual indicator in a plurality of different orientations.

14. The indicator apparatus of claim 13, wherein the plurality of orientations includes a first orientation and a second orientation substantially perpendicular to the first orientation.

15. The indicator apparatus of claim 13, comprising electrical circuitry operably coupled to the visual indicators and configured to receive electrical signals indicative of a plurality of colors to be displayed by the visual indicators in response to calls from the call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system.

16. The indicator apparatus of claim 15, wherein each of the visual indicators comprises a face and opposing edges adjacent the face, wherein the face is configured to selectively display the colors across the face and each edge is configured to prevent the displayed color from bleeding over to an adjacent visual indicator.

17. The indicator apparatus of claim 13, comprising a speaker and electrical circuitry to play a sound file through the speaker in response to a call from the call-originating device of the patient-nurse communication system, wherein the sound file to be played is variable depending on a call type.

18. The indicator apparatus of claim 13, comprising a plurality of icons coupled to the visual indicators, the icons comprising one or more of a graphic, a symbol, and an alphanumeric character.

19. The indicator apparatus of claim 18, wherein the icons are configured for vertical and horizontal alignment of the visual indicators.

20. The indicator apparatus of claim 19, wherein the icons are part of a label set that extends across at least two of the visual indicators.