METHODS FOR DETECTING AND HANDLING FALL AND PERIMETER BREACH EVENTS FOR RESIDENTS OF AN ASSISTED LIVING FACILITY

• US 20170193787A1
• Filed: 10/31/2016
• Published: 07/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lifeline Systems Company (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Blue Willow Systems, Inc. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Devdas, Vikram, Erichsen, Dan, Wagner, Kenneth D., Heaton, Richard J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,922,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/00 Measuring for diagnostic purposes radiation diagnosis A61B6/00; diagnosis by ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves A61B8/00; Identification of persons
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0002 Remote monitoring of patients using telemetry, e.g. transmission of vital signals via a communication network A61B5/07 takes precedence; transmission systems for measured values G08C; transmission H04B; transmission of digital information H04L; wireless communication networks H04W
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0015 characterised by features of the telemetry system
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0024 for multiple sensor units attached to the patient, e.g. using a body or personal area network
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/103 Detecting, measuring or recording devices for testing the shape, pattern, colour, size or movement of the body or parts thereof, for diagnostic purposes A61B5/08 takes precedence; measuring aids for tailors A41H1/00; measuring instruments specially adapted for dentistry A61C19/04
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/00 Alarms responsive to a single specified undesired or abnormal condition and not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/02 Alarms for ensuring the safety of persons
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0261 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect trespassing over a fixed physical boundary, e.g. the end of a garden
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0272 System arrangements wherein the object is to detect exact location of child or item using triangulation other than GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/043 detecting an emergency event, e.g. a fall
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0446 worn on the body to detect changes of posture, e.g. a fall, inclination, acceleration, gait
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/0461 integrated or attached to an item closely associated with the person but not worn by the person, e.g. chair, walking stick, bed sensor
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 25/005 Alarm destination chosen according to a hierarchy of available destinations, e.g. if hospital does not answer send to police station
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

One variation of a method for detecting and handling falls by residents of a facility includes: receiving a notification for a fall event from a resident wearable device associated with a resident; determining a location of the resident within a facility at a time of the fall; in response to the notification, distributing a fall response prompt to a set of computing devices, each computing device associated with a care provider; in response to receipt of a fall response confirmation from a first computing device, deescalating the fall response prompt at a second computing device; and, in response to proximity of the first computing device to the resident wearable device, authorizing edit permissions for an electronic incident report by a first care provider exclusive of a second care provider.

Claims

1. A method for detecting and handling falls by residents of a facility, the method comprising:

receiving a notification for a fall event from a resident wearable device associated with a resident;

determining a location of the resident within a facility at a time of the fall event based on proximity of the resident wearable device to a wireless communication hub arranged at a known location within the facility;

in response to the notification, distributing a fall response prompt to a set of computing devices within the facility, each computing device in the set of computing devices associated with a care provider, the fall response indicating the location;

in response to receipt of a fall response confirmation from a first computing device within the set of computing devices, deescalating the fall response prompt at a second computing device within the set of computing devices; and

in response to proximity of the first computing device to the resident wearable device, authorizing edit permissions for an electronic incident report by a first care provider associated with the first computing device exclusive of a second care provider associated with the second computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein deescalating the fall response prompt at the second computing device comprises, in response to receipt of the fall response confirmation from the first care provider through the first computing device:

silencing the fall response prompt at the second computing device; and

transmitting an indicator of response to the fall event by the first care provider to the second computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to absence of a fall event confirmation from a computing device within the set of computing devices within a threshold period of time following distribution of the fall event prompt to the set of computing devices, distributing a second fall event prompt to a second set of computing device comprising a computing device associated with a supervisor of the facility.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to absence of a fall event confirmation from a computing device within the second set of computing devices within a second threshold period of time following distribution of the second fall event prompt to the second set of computing devices, transmitting an alarm to an external emergency responder.

5. The method of claim 1:

further comprising verifying arrival of the first care provider at the location of the resident based on establishment of a wireless connection between the first computing device of the first care provider and the resident wearable device worn by the resident; and

wherein authorizing edit permissions for the electronic incident report by the first care provider comprises authorizing edit permissions for the electronic incident report by the first care provider in response to arrival of the first care provider at the location of the resident.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

recording a duration of time between distribution of the fall event prompt to the set of computing devices and arrival of the first care provider at the location of the resident; and

writing the duration of time to the incident report.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to completion of the electronic incident report at the first computing device:

uploading the electronic incident report to an electronic incident report database;

predicting a type of specialist care needed by the resident based on data contained in the electronic incident report; and

transmitting a specialist care prompt to observe the resident to a care specialist associated with the type of specialist care.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving a fall event magnitude from the resident wearable device;

associating the fall event magnitude with a type of specialist care needed by the resident based on a medical history of the resident; and

transmitting a specialist care prompt to serve the resident to a care specialist associated with the type of specialist care.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at the resident wearable device;

passing an output of a motion sensor and an output of a pressure sensor integrated into the resident wearable device into an abbreviated fall detection model stored on the resident wearable device;

in response to an output of the abbreviated fall detection model exceeding a threshold confidence score over a threshold period of time, transmitting the notification for the fall event, the output of the motion sensor, and the output of the pressure sensor to a local wireless hub for distribution to a remote computer system;

at the remote computer system;

passing the output of the motion sensor and the output of the pressure sensor into an enlarged form of the abbreviated fall detection model;

wherein distributing the fall response prompt to the set of computing devices comprises distributing the fall response prompt to the set of computing devices in response to an output of the enlarged form of the abbreviated fall detection model exceeding the threshold confidence score over the threshold period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to completion of the electronic incident report by the first care provider, identifying corroboration of the fall event from the electronic incident report;

in response to identification of corroboration of the fall event in the electronic incident report, labeling the output of the motion sensor and the output of the pressure sensor with the fall event;

retraining the enlarged form of the abbreviated fall detection model based on the output of the motion sensor, the output of the pressure sensor, and corroboration of the fall event;

generating a second abbreviated fall detection model based on the retrained enlarged form of the abbreviated fall detection model; and

uploading the second abbreviated fall detection model to the resident wearable device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

populating a virtual map of the facility with positions of the set of computing devices and a set of resident wearable devices at a time of the fall event, the set of computing devices issued to a set of care providers comprising the first care provider, and the set of resident wearable devices issued to a set of residents of the facility comprising the resident; and

inserting the virtual map into the electronic incident report.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

calculating a frequency of fall events occurring within proximity of a second resident at the facility based on the virtual map contained within the electronic incident report and virtual maps contained within a set of electronic incident report corresponding to previous fall events at the facility; and

prompting the set of care providers to increase observation of the second resident in response to the frequency of fall events occurring within proximity of a second resident exceeding a threshold frequency.

13. The method of claim 1:

wherein receiving the notification for the fall event comprises receiving a unique identifier associated with the resident wearable device;

further comprising;

retrieving resident identification data associated with the unique identifier of the resident wearable device;

inserting the resident identification data into the electronic incident report;

at the first computing device, prompting the first care provider to confirm that the resident identification data corresponds to the resident; and

in response to entry of alternate resident identification data into the electronic incident report, re-associating the unique identifier of the resident wearable device with the alternate resident identification data.

14. The method of claim 1,

wherein determining the location of the resident within the facility at the time of the fall event comprises:

retrieving a first wireless signal strength of wireless communications between the resident wearable device and the wireless communication hub arranged at the known location within the facility;

retrieving a second wireless signal strength of wireless communications between the resident wearable device and a second wireless communication hub arranged at a second known location within the facility;

transforming the first wireless signal strength and the second wireless signal strength into a position of the resident wearable device relative to the wireless communication hub and the second wireless communication hub; and

transforming the position of the resident wearable device relative to the wireless communication hub and the second wireless communication hub into a region of the facility likely occupied by the resident based on the known position of the wireless communication hub and the second known position of the second wireless communication hub; and

wherein distributing the fall response prompt to the set of computing devices transmitting the fall response dispatching care providers to the region of the facility likely occupied by the resident.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein distributing the fall response prompt to the set of computing devices within the facility comprises:

determining positions of computing devices in a group of computing devices assigned to care providers occupying the facility based on wireless communications between the group of computing devices and wireless communication hubs arranged at known locations within the facility;

selecting the set of computing devices from the group of computing devices, each computing device within the set of computing devices occupying a position within a threshold distance of the location of the resident at a time of the fall event; and

transmitting the fall response prompt to each computing device in the set of computing devices.

16. A method for detecting and handling falls by occupants within an facility, the method comprising:

receiving notification for a fall event from an occupant computing device associated with an occupant of the facility in Block S170;

determining a location of the occupant within the facility at a time of the fall event in Block S112;

in response to the notification, distributing a fall response prompt indicating the location to a set of care provider computing devices, each care provider computing device in the set of care provider computing devices assigned to with a care provider affiliated with the facility in Block S130;

in response to receipt of a fall response confirmation from a first care provider computing device within the set of care provider computing devices, deescalating the fall response prompt at a second computing device within the set of computing devices in Block S140;

in response to the notification generating, an electronic incident report;

at the computer system, populating the electronic incident report with data stored in an electronic database and representative of the occupant and a first care provider associated with the first care provider computing device; and

in response to proximity of the first care provider computing device to the occupant wearable device, authorizing edit permissions for the electronic incident report by the first care provider exclusive of a second care provider associated with the second care provider computing device in Block S150.

17. A method comprising:

assigning a first access perimeter within a facility to a first resident;

determining a location of a resident wearable device associated with the first resident based on wireless communications between the resident wearable device and a set of wireless communication hubs within the facility;

in response to the location of the resident wearable device falling outside of the access perimeter, distributing a perimeter event prompt indicating the location of the first resident to a set of computing devices, each computing device in the set of computing devices associated with a care provider affiliated with the facility;

in response to receipt of a perimeter event confirmation from a first computing device within the set of computing devices, deescalating the perimeter event prompt at a second computing device within the set of computing devices;

in response to confirmation of the first computing device proximal the resident wearable device, authorizing edit permissions for an electronic incident report by a first care provider associated with the first computing device exclusive of a second care provider associated with the second computing device.

18. The method of claim 17:

further comprising;

at an initial time, determining an initial location of the resident wearable device based on wireless communications between the resident wearable device and the set of wireless communication hubs; and

in response to the initial location of the resident wearable device approaching the first access perimeter, distributing a perimeter observation prompt of the first resident to the set of computing devices, the perimeter observation prompt indicating the initial location of the resident and comprising a prompt to observe the resident; and

wherein distributing the perimeter event prompt comprises distributing the perimeter event prompt to the set of computing devices in response to the resident moving beyond the first access perimeter following the initial time.

19. The method of claim 17:

further comprising assigning a generic access perimeter to residents of the facility;

wherein assigning the first access perimeter to the first resident comprises;

calculating a perimeter event risk of the first resident based on a frequency of perimeter events noted in a set of previous electronic incident reports identifying the first resident; and

in response to the perimeter event risk of the first resident exceeding a risk threshold, assigning the first access perimeter contained fully within the generic access perimeter to the first resident.

20. The method of claim 17:

wherein determining the location of the resident wearable device comprises calculating a duration of time that the location of the resident wearable device has fallen outside of the access perimeter; and

wherein distributing the perimeter event prompt comprises distributing the perimeter event prompt to the set of computing devices in response to the duration of time exceeding a threshold period of time, the perimeter event prompt indicating the location of the first resident and the duration of time that the location of the resident wearable device has fallen outside of the access perimeter.