Workflow server for medical records imaging and tracking system

• US 5,319,543 A
• Filed: 06/19/1992
• Issued: 06/07/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/1992
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Mckesson Technologies Incorporated (UnitedHealth Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Magellan Medicaid Administration Incorporated (Centene Corporation)
• Inventors: Wilhelm, Richard K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Envall, Jr., Roy N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Poinvil, Frantzy
• Application Number:
  US07/901,362
• Time in Patent Office: 718 Days
• Field of Search: 364/401, 364/413.02, 364/413.13, 364/284, 364/284.3
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• 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 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

A computer system with a workflow server provides for automatic and prioritized assignment of work involving processing of medical information records, or "charts", to particular resources (personnel) in a hospital. In particular, as the system stores data regarding additional medical information records in a relational database, the workflow server identifies which such additional records constitute a new encounter for a particular patient. For each encounter, the system defines one or more visit cases, and may identify for each visit further subset cases for one or more of a number of application programs. Such application programs may include coding/abstracting of documents and assigning deficiencies in documents for completion. The system defines states corresponding to each application program. In response to requests from the application programs, the workflow server routes each defined case to a particular workqueue within the proper state, and then can assign each case to a particular resource (employee) within the proper workqueue. The criteria for the type and number of workqueues within each state, and the criteria for the assignment of resources within each workqueue, can be identified with whatever sophistication or prioritization that a hospital may desire.

Claims

1. A computer system for storing and tracking medical information records comprising:

means for storing data in a run-time memory;

means for storing data regarding the medical information records in a relational database;

means for loading the data regarding the medical information records into the run-time memory;

means for running one or more application programs, each of which performs one or more operations on the data regarding the medical information records;

means for identifying when data constituting a predefined set of data has been added to the database;

means for forming one or more first subsets of said predefined set of data, each subset being formed according to predefined first subset criteria;

means for forming one or more second subsets of each of said one or more first subsets, each second subset being formed according to predefined second subset criteria for a specific application program;

workqueue routing means, responsive to a request from one of the application programs, for routing each first subset, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for one of the application programs, and for routing each second subset, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for the application program whose predefined second subset criteria were used to form the second subset;

resource assigning means for assigning each first subset and second subset, according to predefined resource assigning criteria, to a resource for one workqueue; and

means for allowing a user identified to the system as a particular resource running a particular application program access only to those first subsets or second subsets assigned to that particular resource for that resource'"'"'s associated workqueue for the particular application program that is running.

2. A computer system as claimed in claim 1 further comprising means for storing configuration data regarding the application programs, the workqueues for each application program, the resources for each workqueue, the predefined first and second subset criteria, the predefined workqueue routing criteria, and the predefined resource assigning criteria.

3. A computer system as claimed in claim 2 wherein said means for storing configuration data comprises a run-time configuration file.

4. A computer system for storing and tracking medical information records comprising:

means for storing data regarding the medical information records in a relational database;

means for running one or more application programs, each of which performs one or more operations on data in said database;

means for identifying when data constituting a predefined set of data has been added to the database;

means for forming one or more subsets of said predefined set of data, each subset being formed according to predefined subset criteria;

workqueue routing means for routing each subset, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for one of the application programs;

resource assigning means for assigning each subset, according to predefined resource assigning criteria, to a resource for one workqueue; and

means for allowing a user identified to the system as a particular resource running a particular application program access only to those subsets assigned to that particular resource for that resource'"'"'s associated workqueue for the particular application program that is running.

5. A computer system as claimed in claim 4 further comprising means for storing configuration data regarding the application programs, the workqueues for each application program, the resources for each workqueue, the predefined subset criteria, the predefined workqueue routing criteria, and the predefined resource assigning criteria.

6. A computer system as claimed in claim 5 wherein said means for storing configuration data comprises a run-time configuration file.

7. A method for storing and tracking medical information records on a computer system comprising the steps of:

storing data regarding the medical information records in a relational database;

identifying when data constituting a predefined set of data has been added to the database;

loading the data regarding the medical information records into a run-time memory in response to a request to load the data from the database;

forming one or more first subsets of said predefined set of data, each subset being formed according to predefined first subset criteria;

forming one or more second subsets of said first one or more subsets, each second subset being formed according to predefined second subset criteria for a specific one of one or more application programs that can run on the system, each of which performs one or more operations on data in said database;

routing each first subset in response to a request from one of the application programs, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for one of the application programs, and routing each second subset, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for the application program whose predefined second subset criteria were used to form the second subset; and

assigning each first subset and second subset, according to predefined resource assigning criteria, to a resource for one workqueue,

whereby a user identified to the particular resource running a particular application program is allowed access only to those first subsets or second subsets assigned to that particular resource for that resource'"'"'s associated workqueue for the particular application program that is running.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 further comprising the step of storing on a storage medium configuration data regarding the application programs, the workqueues for each application program, the resources for each workqueue, the predefined subset criteria, the predefined workqueue routing criteria, and the predefined resource assigning criteria.

9. A computer system as claimed in claim 8 wherein said step of storing configuration data comprises storing the configuration data in a run-time configuration file.

10. A method for storing and tracking medical information records on a computer system comprising the steps of:

storing data regarding the medical information records in a relational database;

identifying when data constituting a predefined set of data has been added to the database;

forming one or more subsets of said predefined set of data, each subset being formed according to predefined subset criteria;

routing each subset, according to predefined workqueue routing criteria, to a workqueue for one of the application programs; and

assigning each subset, according to predefined resource assigning criteria, to a resource for one workqueue,

whereby a user identified to the system as a particular resource running a particular application program is allowed access only to those subsets assigned to that particular resource for that resource'"'"'s associated workqueue for the particular application program that is running.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of storing on a storage medium configuration data regarding the application programs, the workqueues for each application program, the resources for each workqueue, the predefined subset criteria, the predefined workqueue routing criteria, and the predefined resource assigning criteria.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein said step of storing configuration data comprises storing the configuration data in a run-time configuration file.