Clinical database of classified out-patients for tracking primary care outcome

• US 5,508,912 A
• Filed: 06/25/1990
• Issued: 04/16/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Barry Schneiderman
• Original Assignee: Barry Schneiderman
• Inventors: Schneiderman, Barry
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes, Gail O.
• Application Number:
  US07/542,752
• Time in Patent Office: 2,122 Days
• Field of Search: 364/413.02
• US Class Current: 705/3
• 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 70/60 relating to pathologies
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A computerized medical database system for the standardized recording and tracking of out-patient care by the simulation through existing software of multiple facets of a typical primary care clinical environment.

Central to the system'"'"'s data processing are office visit records as the primary vehicle for encoded data input and a chronic diagnosis classification table for ranking out-patients into separate, prioritized diagnostic categories. Integrated with both in a relational database are other files storing distinct but related clinical attributes of both the transactional and inventory type. The former, as event-based, include emergency room, medicine activity, specialist, lab tests and an office visit-derived or intermediary file while the latter type, as a fixed pool of clinically descriptive data elements, include long and short-term diagnosis, physical signs and symptoms and a generic medication list.

The data processing is of three kinds; data entry of office visit, one master medical for each out-patient and lab test result records, data query for obtaining summary-type, narrowly focused information for a single or group of related out-patients and, thirdly, the compilation of data from office visits for reporting various clinical results.

Some of the latter type processing, using sets of clinical criteria including diagnostic category for specific record selection, include detecting and justifying excessive office visits, determining lab test overusage, monitoring physician activity during episodes of protracted illnesses of differing severity and the printing of physical, medication and lab test results from the same office visit.

Claims

1. A computerized out-patient primary care medical system for the entry of clinical data stored into a database, said medical system includes;

means for documenting up to three chronic, long term diagnosis in an out-patient office visit record, said record created during said entry of data and said diagnosis represented on a source document by a partial code that consists of the last 4 digits of a full six digit chronic diagnosis code,

means for determining the primary reason for an office visit through the use of either of two single letter codes obtained from said source document, said codes representing either a chronic, long term diagnosis or an acute short term diagnosis,

means for documenting the primary reason for an office visit, said primary reason represented on a source document as a partial code that consists of the last 4 digits of a full six digit chronic or acute diagnosis code,

means for documenting any physical data noted during an office visit, said physical data consisting of signs and symptoms and represented on a source document as partial codes that consist of the last 3 digits of a full 5 digit physical data code,

means for documenting office visit type, said type being either scheduled or unscheduled and represented by either of two single letter codes present on a source document,

means for documenting the clinical status of an out-patient during said office visit, said status being represented by one of five possible single digits that include a 1 indicating normality or baseline, 2 indicating mild instability, 3 indicating serious instability, 4 indicating improvement from the out-patient'"'"'s most recent office visit, and 5 indicating that hospitalization was ordered during that office visit,

means for checking entry of said clinical status according to a set of requirements listed on a screen during entry, said requirements consisting of entering a clinical status of 4 for any improvement in said clinical status of an out-patient in comparison to that out-patient'"'"'s most recent visit and the mandatory entering of at least one physical data item for any clinical status other than 1,

means for updating a related out-patient record during creation and said entry of office visit record, said updating reflecting any changes in any of an out-patient'"'"'s chronic diagnosis and said related record is an out-patient master medical record,

means for identification of an out-patient master medical record, said identification being by entry of an out-patient last name and full first name present on a master medical record source document,

means for dating the creation of a master medical record,

means for documenting up to three chronic diagnosis of an out-patient in said master medical record, alternate data sets used by said documenting means consisting of either a partial code that consists of the last 4 digits of a full six digit chronic diagnosis code as a direct entry means or a clinical group indicator and a full diagnostic text of said chronic diagnosis with or without a diagnostic category indicator as an indirect entry means of said documenting,

means for identifying an out-patient laboratory test record that will store test results, said identification being a nine digit number,

means for documenting the date when laboratory tests were taken, said tests numbering up to fourteen for each out-patient lab test record,

means for assigning a special number to said lab test record, said special number being an invoice and the most unique aspect of identification of said lab test record,

means for linking said lab test record to either of two related out-patient records, said records being either an office visit record or an emergency room record of said out-patient depending upon the location from which the lab tests were ordered,

means for entering parameter or historical data with each current lab test result, said parameter or historical data is in encoded form and represents a compilation of past results of any single lab test including chronicity of abnormality and a most recent result of that test whether normal or abnormal,

means for recalling prior test results from different aspects for each current lab test result, said prior aspects include date and value of first abnormality, date and value of last abnormality, consistency of prior results, and the most recent result for a particular test normal or abnormal.

2. The computerized out-patient primary care medical system of claim 1 wherein said entry of clinical data into a database office visit record further includes;

means for entering an out-patient identification number from an office visit source document, said number entered consisting of 9 digits,

means for obtaining a special six digit number for said office visit record being created, said number is referred to as an invoice and is said record'"'"'s most unique aspect of identification, and said means for obtaining includes,

means for adding one to a number being stored in a data field of the most recent office visit record created, said most recent record is usually that of another out-patient on the database,

means for accessing a full six digit chronic diagnosis code from a chronic long-term diagnosis table, and said means for accessing further includes,

means for first entering a 4 digit partial code from said office visit source document, said partial code consisting of the last 4 digits of a full six digit chronic diagnosis code, and further includes

means for searching by said 4 digit partial code entered upon said chronic, long-term diagnosis table,

means for accessing up to two full 5 digit physical data code from a physical signs table, and said means for accessing includes,

means for first entering a 3 digit partial code from said office visit source document, said partial code is the last 3 digits of a full 5 digit physical signs code, and further includes,

means for searching by said 3 digit code entered upon a said physical signs table,

means for accessing up to two full 5 digit physical symptoms codes from a physical symptoms table, and said means for accessing includes,

means for first entering a 3 digit partial code from said office visit source document, and further includes

means for searching by said 3 digit number entered upon a said physical symptom table, and

means for writing the full 5 digit physical signs and symptoms codes accessed to their appropriate data fields in said office visit record being created,

means for writing a full 6 digit chronic diagnosis codes to one of three chronic diagnosis data fields, said field written to depends upon the clinical urgency or prognosis of that chronic diagnosis in relation to any of the other two possible chronic diagnosis of that out-patient that may also be entered,

means for accessing the primary reason for an office visit, said accessing means further includes,

means for entering a single letter code from said office visit source document, and further includes

means for then entering a 4 digit partial code from said source document, said 4 digit partial code present in a data field of said source document that is designated as said office visit primary reason,

means for obtaining, if said single letter code entered indicates a chronic diagnosis as said primary reason for said office visit, a full six digit code from a chronic, long-term diagnosis table and

means for obtaining, if said single letter code entered indicates a short-term acute diagnosis as the primary reason for said office visit, a full six digit code from an acute diagnosis table,

and said means for checking the entry of said office visit clinical status according to a set of requirements listed on a computer screen during said entry of clinical data further includes,

means for preventing the entry of a status 2 immediately following a status 3 office visit record of that out-patient or a status 1 immediately following a status 2, said prevention is for ensuring that a status 4 indicating clinical improvement intervenes first in both circumstances and further includes,

means for preventing the entry of clinical status other than 1 if there are no physical data partial codes on said office visit source document, and

means for preventing the creation of said office visit record if any of the prior said clinical status conditions on said source document exists,

means for checking that all of an out-patient'"'"'s current chronic diagnosis are present on said source document for entry, and said means for checking further includes,

means for first testing if any chronic diagnosis data field on said source document is blank by absence of any data entered from said field and the corresponding field of that out-patient'"'"'s master medical record is also blank, and said checking further includes,

means for writing from said master medical record any chronic diagnosis of that out-patient that is present but absent from the corresponsign data field on said source document to the corresponding data field of the new office visit record being created, said writing rectifys any ommission of an out-patient'"'"'s chronic diagnosis that should be entered but is absent from said source document, and further

means for testing if any changes in any of an out-patient'"'"'s chronic diagnosis are to be made during an office visit record data entry, and prior said testing includes

means for comparing a said 6 digit code of a chronic diagnosis accessed for writing to a newly created office visit record to that already present in the corresponding field of that out-patient'"'"'s master medical record, and further

means for writing any differences found between the two said corresponding data fields from the field position of said newly created office visit record to the field position of that out-patient'"'"'s master medical record, said writing is for updating any changes in an out-patient'"'"'s chronic diagnosis to that out-patient'"'"'s master medical record.

3. The computerized out-patient primary care medical system of claim 1 wherein said entry of clinical data into a database master medical record further includes;

means for entering the first and last name of an out-patient from a master medical record source document,

means for determining which of two methods, direct or indirect, are to be used for entering up to three chronic diagnosis into said master medical record, said method used depending upon which of two alternate sets of data fields have been filled out on said master medical record source document, and

means for direct entry, if above said determining means finds just a 4 digit partial chronic diagnostic code present on said source document, and said means for direct entry further includes,

means for accessing by said 4 digit partial code entered a full 6 digit code and its corresponding diagnostic text from a chronic diagnosis table,

means for indirect entry, if above said determining means finds a clinical group indicator and a text of the diagnosis to be entered with or without a diagnostic category indicator present instead on said source document, and said means for indirect entry further includes,

means for displaying on a computer screen the contents of a group of chronic diagnosis records from said chronic diagnosis table that are restricted according to said clinical group indicator entered from said source document and further restricted by diagnostic category if that single letter indicator is also entered from said source document, said display of record contents consist of both the full six digit code and the text of each chronic diagnosis displayed and

means responsive to the restricted display means for selecting from said computer screen only the last 4 digits of the full 6 digit chronic diagnosis code that corresponds to and is associated with the diagnostic text also displayed that matches the one present on said master medical record source document, and

means responsive to the selecting means for then entering the said 4 digit partial diagnostic code corresponding to said text of chronic diagnosis code displayed that was found to be identical to that existing on said source document, and

means responsive to entering means for accessing both the full 6 digit diagnostic code and its corresponding text from said chronic diagnosis table by the said 4 digit partial code entered, and further

means for writing to an appropriate data field of said out-patient master medical record both the said full 6 digit code and the diagnostic text accessed from said chronic diagnosis table by said 4 digit partial code entered, and said writing completes the said indirect method of chronic diagnosis entry,

means for determining if a previous master medical record is on file for an out-patient before said record is created and said data entered,

means for informing a data entry operator of the current total after each of up to three chronic diagnosis for each out-patient is entered,

means for checking the proper ordering by clinical urgency or prognosis the relative data field positions occupied by each of up to three chronic diagnosis entered, and said checking means includes,

means for comparing the relative numeric values between the last 4 digits of the full six digits of each chronic diagnosis entered, said value of the last 4 digits of the primary field diagnosis should be less than the last 4 digits of any secondary field diagnosis which in turn should be less than the last 4 digits of any tertiary field diagnosis and,

means for re-writing any chronic diagnosis that is out of order in relation to any other chronic diagnosis for that out-patient into its correct relative field position in said master medical record.

4. The computerized out-patient primary care medical system of claim 1 wherein said entry of clinical data into a database lab test result record futher includes;

means for entering an out-patient identification number consisting of 9 digits

means for entering the date of when said tests were taken, said date may be as much as two or three days after they were ordered,

means for determining the origin of said lab tests, said origin being either an out-patient office visit or an emergency room visit, and said means for determining includes,

means for indicating by a single letter code entered whether or not said tests were ordered during an office visit,

means for accessing, if said determining means indicates an office visit origin of said lab tests, a 6 digit code that most uniquely identifies that office visit record of said origin, and said origin, and said means for accessing includes

means for finding the most recent office visit record for that out-patient,

means for accessing, if said determining means indicates an emergency room origin of said lab tests, a 6 digit code that most uniquely identifies that emergency room record of said origin, and said means for accessing includes,

means for finding the most recent emergency room record for that out-patient,

means for preventing entry of emergency room ordered lab test data in cases of poor patient compliance, and said means for preventing entry includes

means for determining if period of time between the emergency room visit and when test were actually taken is more than a specified amount of days following said emergency room visit,

means for entering first time lab tests for an out-patient of said database,

means for recalling prior lab test results for an out-patient who has current test results present for entry, and said means for recalling includes,

means for generating a list of selections on a computer screen, each said selection enables obtaining any prior test result already on file from different, separate aspects that include date and value of last abnormality, date and value of first abnormality, most recent result for that lab test and the pattern or consistency of a lab test'"'"'s prior results, and said means for recalling further includes,

means for displaying on a computer screen the prior result of a lab test according to any of the prior said aspects selected from said list of prior aspects generated,

means for compiling said prior aspects of results for any lab test into an encoded form for accompanying the current quantitative abnormal result or a normal result into storage in said lab test result record, said compiled data constitute the parameter or historical data for indicating a combination of past results of any lab test to complement the current result stored to said lab test result record,

means for activating a customized data entry screen for each of up to 14 lab tests, said customized screen is for assigning each lab test result to a designated position for entry,

means for creating a lab test result record for the entry and storage of up to 14 different lab test results,

means for linking said lab test record with either the source office visit record or the source emergency room record, said linkage based upon the dual invoice nature of each lab test result record wherein said lab test record contains both a special 6 digit number unique and inherent to it and the special 6 digit number unique to the source or parent record, whether office visit or emergency room, representing from which said lab tests were ordered,

means for assisting a data entry operator in the said compiling of said parameter or historical data into encoded form to accompanying said current results into storage, and said means for assisting further includes,

means for instructing a data entry operator on how to select from a number of possibilities 3 single letter codes for indicating, in the case of an abnormal result, the three encoded elements of said parameter data that consist, in the case of an abnormal result, chronicity of that abnormality, intensity of that abnormality and the most recent result for that test while in the case of a normal result just one encoded letter for indicating whether or not the most recent result for that test, if present, is normal, and said means for instructing further includes,

means for displaying said instructions including sample selections on a computer screen for data entry operator review during said entry of clinical data.

5. A computerized out-patient primary care medical database system for the processing and reporting of clinical data includes;

means for creating by a set of intermediary routines new, office visit-derived intermediary records for the storage of office based clinical data in compiled form; and

said creating means includes,

means for detecting by out-patient diagnostic category early and possibly unnecessary scheduled office visits, said diagnostic category established and defined by either an individual chronic diagnosis or the combined value of up to three chronic diagnosis of an out-patient present in a said office visit-derived record in reference to a table of chronic diagnosis sorted in descending order by clinical urgency or prognosis,

means for detecting by diagnostic category consecutive unscheduled out-patient office visits,

means for determining whether or not said early scheduled office visits were clinically justifiable, said justification being either absolute or tentative,

means for detecting by diagnostic category 3 types of protracted illnesses, said illnesses represented by a continuous string of office visit-derived records of an out-patient that all contain a clinical status indicator other than 1 and each of said three types of protracted illnesses differing by initial level of severity,

means for determining if any, and type of, physician intervention or action occured during each office visit included in any of 3 said types of protracted illness processing for an out-patient, said types of actions include new medication, medication changes, specialty referrals, lab tests ordered and office injections of medication including by what route, intramuscular or intravenous,

and said reporting of clinical data includes,

means for printing by said diagnostic category from said office visit-derived records the physical, medication change and laboratory test results separately but from the same office visit,

means for printing of clinical data that may reveal the overusage of office visit based lab tests ordering, said overusage because of the absence of any documented problems during those office visits when said tests were ordered,

and said reporting of clinical data further includes;

means for querying of said out-patient database summary-type and narrowly formulated out-come based clinical data for computer screen display.

6. The computerized medical database system of claim 5 wherein said means for the querying of out-patient clinical data in a narrowly formulated and summary form includes;

means for accessing from several related and linked files different types of clinical data for each out-patient, said data combined to define and focus upon distinct aspects of ambulatory, primary care medicine and includes,

means for determining by database doctor if a disproportionate number of database out-patients with a particular chronic diagnosis are assigned to and under the care of particular primary care doctor in relation to other primary care doctors on that database, and said means for determining includes,

means for entering a doctor name and the full text of a particular chronic diagnosis, and

means for responsive to the entering means for accessing, by said doctor name and diagnosis entered, out-patients on the database who are both under the care of that doctor and who have that particular chronic diagnosis, and said accessing means further includes,

means for counting amongst a database file both the number of said patients with that diagnosis, and if any, the number of those patients who are under the care of that doctor whose name was entered, said database file that said count is made on is the master medical record file, and further

means for computing the percentage of all database out-patients with that chronic diagnosis, and

means for computing what percent of that percentage consists of those out-patients who are also under the care of that doctor whose name was entered, and further

means for displaying said computed data on a computer screen, said display consisting of both integers and fractions,

and said means for querying out-patient database data further includes,

means for reviewing both the medication change activity and the physical data observed amongst out-patients with a chronic cardiac diagnosis during office visits in which they were observed to be very symptomatic, said very symptomatic being indicated by a clinical status of 3 being found in that data field of office visit records, and further includes

means for entering just the name of a database doctor, and further

means responsive to the entering means for selecting a set of office visit records by both a clinical status of 3 and the presence of a chronic cardiac diagnosis and further

means for accessing the literal text corresponding to the encoded physical data stored in said set of office visit records selected,

said literal text accessed from a physical signs and symptoms table and said means for accessing includes,

means for searching said physical signs and symptoms tables by codes present in physical data fields of an office visit record selected, and

means for accessing medication activity from medication activity records linked to said office visit records selected, said linkage is by a special six digit number unique to each office visit record and also present in each said medication activity record linked, and

means for combining said physical and medication activity from each said office visit record selected with other salient office visit data, said salient data includes out-patient I.D. number and data of office visit and medication activity reported can include an addition, change, deletion or an injection of medication during said office visit, and

means for displaying on a computer screen said clinical data combined from each said office visit record selected first by doctor name entered and then by a clinical status of 3 and the presence of at least one diagnosis that is a chronic cardiac one and,

said means for querying out-patient clinical database data further includes,

means for obtaining prior lab test results for a database out-patient, said said results can be presented by either individual lab test results from any of several prior aspects or a group of tests ordered during the same office visit, and

means for entering an indicator for choosing which of the two above types of presentation of data the user desires and,

means for determining which said choice was entered and

means for entering, if said group of lab tests from an office visit was selected for viewing, an approximate date for that office visit and further

means for re-entering another date if said approximate date previously entered is incorrect until a correct date for the desired office visit is entered and,

means for accessing the related lab record linked to the office visit of the correct date entered, and said accessing means includes

means for searching an out-patient lab test result file that contains a lab record storing a special six digit number that most uniquely identifies that office visit record it is linked to and also found in said lab record, and

means for combining all the lab test results from said office visit along with each'"'"'s parameter or historical data with other salient data from each office visit, said salient data includes patient name, date of visit and the chronic diagnosis of said out-patient, six digit number identifying that office visit, date lab tests drawn and the six digit number identifying that lab record and further

means for selecting one at a time from amongst 14 lab tests if prior said choosing means indicates a desire to view individual test results instead of a group of test results from the same office visit, and further includes

means for generating a menu listing several prior aspects from which to view previous results of a particular lab test of an out-patient currently on file, said prior aspects include the date and value of both the first and last abnormal result for that test if present, result of most recent test, consistency of results for that test and both the highest and lowest abnormal value of that particular lab test, and further includes

means for obtaining from that out-patient'"'"'s lab test records any of said 14 lab test results depending upon what selection from said menu listing of prior aspects of results was made, and said means for obtaining include

means for searching back on said out-patients lab records arranged in chronological order to access a said record or records according to which said prior aspect of results was said selected from said menu listing, and

means for combining said individual test results from any of said prior aspect from said menu listing with other salient data, said salient data includes patient identification, date of test in question, first abnormal result and date as a reference, and further

means for displaying said combined data for computer screen review, and said means for querying clinical data from a database further includes,

means for documenting if there is any impending or actual medication induced toxicity of any databaseout-patient who is currently on medications, said said toxicity indicated by an abnormal result of a lab test that is known to be an especially sensitive marker for the toxic effects of a particular medicine and the degree of abnormality related to the level of toxicity, and said means for documenting further includes,

means for entering both a database doctor name and a medication name, and

means for accessing by doctor name and medication name entered those database out-patients who are taking that medication and are under the care of that doctor whose name was entered, and said accessing means includes

means for searching on a database file by said doctor name entered, said file is the master medical file that stores both the doctor name and the current medications each out-patient is on along with the dosages, and

means for listing by both patient I.D. number and name those out-patients taking that medications, the amounts, who are under the care of that doctor whose name was entered,

means for informing an operator if said doctor whose name was entered does not have any patients currently taking that medication entered,

means for selecting from alist of 14 lab tests, said lab test selected is one presumed by user to be specific for indicating any existing toxic effects from said medication whose name was entered, and further

means for selecting from any of said out-patients listed by name and I.D. no. said selection is by entering the I.D. no. listed alongside any patient name also listed on a computer screen,

means for combining all data accessed for that out-patient selected, said data includes all the results of that lab test currently on file for that out-patient selected in chronological order alongside the medication in question and the amount of that medication that out-patient is currently taking, and

means for displaying that data on a computer screen for user review, said review for the purpose of monitoring for any medication induced toxicity.

7. The computerized medical database system of claim 5 wherein said means for the data processing of a said intermediary routine for the detection of of an early and possibley unnecessary scheduled office visit by diagnostic category further includes;

means for identifying two consecutive minimal-clinical-activity or uneventful types of office visit records for a same out-patient and whose difference in days or length of time between said consecutive office visits is less than that set for that out-patient'"'"'s diagnostic category for any two uneventful visits occuring consecutively for an out-patient belonging to said category, and said uneventful or minimal-clinical-activity type, either unscheduled or scheduled, is defined as having a clinical status of 1 indicating a normal or absence of change in baseline clincal condition, a chronic diagnosis as the primary reason for said office visits and total absence of any physician action or intervention during either of said two consecutive office visits, and another said intermediary routine that includes,

means for identifying an unscheduled office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity type that is followed by a scheduled office visit by the same out-patient that is also of the minimal-clinical-activity type that occurs within the time interval for minimal-clinical-activity types by that diagnostic category, said scheduled type therefore being early and possibley unnecessary and

means for determining if said early and possibley unnecessary scheduled type of uneventful office visit is clinically justifiable, said justification may be absolute or tentative and further includes,

means for accessing a set of other related out-patient records in separate files whose data represent distinct but related aspects of out-patient primary care, said other records includes emergency room, lab tests, out-patient treatment hospital and surgery files and further

means for identifying in any of other related records of that out-patient with an early scheduled office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity type an indication of activity occuring between the two said consecutive office visits of the minimal-clinical-activity type, said activity or event may serve to justify the second early consecutive office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity type if said actvity or event met certain clinical criteria and further

means for determining if any said justification can be found in any of said other related out-patient records and includes,

means for finding an interim emergency room record of that out-patient dated within the interval of time between both said consecutive office visit records of the minimal-clinical-activity type and further

means responsive to the finding means for obtaining the six digit number identifying said interim emergency room record, said six digit number identifying the source of the potential justification for said early, second office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity and scheduled type, and

means responsive to the obtaining means for setting an indicator if there is an indication within said interim emergency room record that either an immediate office visit or a hospitalization was advised at the time of said emergency room visit for that out-patient, said indicator set will establish absolite justification for that out-patient'"'"'s early, consecutive office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity or uneventful type, and said means for determining actual or tentative, potential justification for an early, consecutive office visit of the uneventful type further includes,

means for finding an interim hospitalization record of said out-patient that indicates a stay between said two consecutive office visits of the uneventful type, and further

means responsive to the finding means for obtaining a six digit number from said hospital record that at least identifys the source of a potential or tentative clinical justification for said early, second office visit and

means responsive to the obtaining means for setting an indicator if the discharge diagnosis of said hospital record is the same as the primary reason for the early, consecutive office visit of the uneventful type for that out-patient, said indicator setting establishing absolute justification for that out-patient'"'"'s early, scheduled visit of the uneventful type, and said means for determining clinical justification further includes,

means for finding an interim lab test record of said out-patient that was dated between the two consecutive visits of the minimal-clinical-activity type and

means responsive to the finding means for obtaining a six digit number identifying said interim lab test record, said six digit number representing a potential or tentative source of clinical justification for the said early consecutive office visit of the uneventful or minimal-clinical-activity type and additional

means responsive to the obtaining means for setting an indicator if the parameter or historical data that is encoded and accompanies the actual result of that lab test indicates any change from the previous result for that test, said indicator setting establishing absolute justification for an early, second scheduled office visit of the minimal-clinical-activity or uneventful type and said means for determing any clinical justification amongst that out-patient'"'"'s other related clinical database files further includes,

means for finding an interim out-patient treatment record dated between the two said office visit records of the uneventful type and means responsive to the finding means for obtaining the six digit number of that said treatment record, said six digit number identifying that record as at least a potential or tentative source for clinical justification for the early, second office visit of the uneventful type and further

means responsive to the obtaining means for setting an indicator if the said treatment record contains an indication by the therapist that the out-patient'"'"'s condition for said therapy is getting worse, said setting of the indicator establishes absolute justification for said early, second uneventful scheduled office visit, and said means for determining any clinical justification further includes,

means for finding a most recent surgery record of that out-patient and

means responsive to said finding means for determining the date, category and type of surgery performed on said out-patient, and additional

means for obtaining a six digit number uniqely identifying said surgery record if said surgery type is from a major surgical catergory, said six digit number serves as at least potential or tentative justification for the early, second scheduled visit of the minimal-clinical-activity or uneventful type, and further

means for setting an indicator if said surgery was dated within a particular time interval from the said second, early uneventful visit of the scheduled type said indicator setting establishing absolute justification and

means responsive to said determining means for obtaining a six digit number if said surgery is from the moderate surgical category type, said six digit number establishing a potential or tentative source for clinical justification and additional

means responsive to said obtaining means for setting an indicator if said moderate surgery type occured within a time interval from the second, early visit of the uneventful type that is lesser in amount that the time interval for the said major surgical category type, said indicator setting establishing absolute clinical justification, and additional

means responsive to said determining means for obtaining a six digit number of said surgery record if said surgery is of a minor category and the date of said minor surgery is within a lesser time interval from the second, early uneventful scheduled office visit than that of the major surgical category type,

and means responsive to the obtaining means for setting an indicator if the clinical group indicator of the said minor surgery type is the same as that of the primary reason for the early, second scheduled office visit of the uneventful type for that out-patient, said indicator setting establishing absolute justification on the basis of said past minor surgery because the clinical group or organ system involved in said minor surgery is the same as the primary reason for the said second, early office visit of the scheduled and uneventful type, and additional

means for creating a new office visit-derived record in an intermediary file for each early consecutive scheduled office visit that followed either an unscheduled or scheduled uneventful type for the same out-patient, and

means responsive to said creating means for writing to said newly created office visit-derived record a variety of pertinent clinical data in coded form,

means responsive to said creating means for transferring data from said second, early scheduled uneventful office visit to said newly created office visit-derived intermediary record, said written and transferred data includes I.D. number of out-patient, date of second visit, special six digit number identifying said visit, data indicating a potential or actual clinical justification of said visit, the diagnostic category of the out-patient and an indicator for encoding the name of the intermediary routine that processed said out-patient records, and

means for identifying every successive unscheduled office visit by an out-patient that follows a first one identified,

means responsive to prior said identifying means for creating a new office visit-derived intermediary record for each successive unscheduled office visit record of an out-patient that is found beyond that out-patient'"'"'s first one, and

means for writing to said newly created office visit-derived intermediary record a variety of pertinent data in coded form, and

means for transferring data from each of said successive, unscheduled office visit record to the said newly created office visit-derived record, said written and transferred data includes what number in succession each unscheduled visit represents, out-patient I.D. no., date of visit, special six digit number most uniquely identifying that office visit, encoded name of intermediary routine that processed said record and diagnostic category of that out-patient.

8. The computerized medical database system of claim 5 wherein said means for the detection, by diagnostic category, of three types of protracted out-patient illnesses that differ by initial level of severity further includes,

means for detecting a minimum number of consecutive office visit records of an out-patient that represent only a mild, fluctuating illness in which the clinical condition of said out-patient has not returned to normal or baseline but hasn'"'"'t yet become serious, said clinical condition reflected by a clinical status of 2 with any one of the contiguous office visit records of that out-patient within said minimum number being possibley a 4 indicating an improvement from the previous visit and said minimum number of records being 3, and

means responsive to the detecting means for further detecting all additional subsequent office visit records for that out-patient that are also either a 2 or 4 clinical status,

means for detecting a first office visit record whose clinical condition indicates a serious, prehospital stage, said condition represented by a clinical status of 3, and further

means responsive to prior detecting means for the further detection of all antecedent and subsequent contiguous office visit records of that out-patient in which anything other than a baseline or normal clinical status of 1 is found,

means for detecting the first office visit record of any out-patient in which the clinical status is anything other than a 1, and further

means responsive to the prior detecting means for determining if a most recent office visit record of that out-patient is present, said most recent record would have a clinical status of 1 and serve as a reference for comparing data with that out-patient'"'"'s subsequent non-1 clinical status records, and

means responsive to prior said determining means for the further detection of all subsequent, contiguous office visit records for that out-patient after said first office visit record of a non-1 clinical status that is also anything other than a 1 clinical status, and

means responsive to any of 3 prior said detecting means for the accessing of all said office visit records detected as part of a said protracted, continuous out-patient illness and

means responsive to any of 3 said prior detecting means for determining what, if any, physician intervention or action occured during each office visit whose record has been said detected as part of any of 3 said protracted out-patient illness, said types of physician intervention may include new medication, medication change, lab test ordering, specialty referrals and office injections of medications, and

means responsive to determining means for computing a decimal number based on which, if any, of 4 fields in said office visit records are set to true, said fields correspond to each of said physician actions except that of medication injection and any said number computed out of 16 possible ones correspond to a particular action or combination of said physician actions including zero which indicates no physician action or intervention at all, and

means responsive to the computing means for translating said number computed into one of sixteen possible single letter codes, said single letter is for indicating which, if any, type or combination of types of said physician actions occured during any of said office visits whose records were part of any of 3 said protracted out-patient illnesses, and

means for determining if an injection occured during any said office visits,

means for creating a new, office visit-derived record in an intermediary file, said new record corresponding to each office visit record detected as part of any of said 3 types of protracted out-patient illnesses, and additional

means responsive to the creating means for writing to each new record created a compilation of data derived from an office visit record detected as said part of any of 3 types of protracted out-patient illnesses, said data includes out-patient identification, date of visit, office visit identification, a single letter for indicating which of 3 said types of protracted illnesses that office visit record was detected as part of, a single letter for indicating what, if any, type or types of physician actions occured during said visit, and any medication injection that may have occured and by what route during that visit.

9. The computerized medical database system of claim 5 wherein said means for the separate printing of physical, medication and laboratory test data from the same office visit further includes,

means for selecting an intermediary file of office visit-derived records by out-patient diagnostic category, primary reason for an office visit and a cut-off date, said records derived from office visit records detected as part of any of 3 said types of protracted out-patient illnesses and said primary reason being either an acute, short-term or a chronic, long-term diagnosis, and said means for the printing of office visit based physical data includes,

means for accessing from said selected office visit derived records up to physical data codes reflecting up to 2 signs and two symptoms, said codes consisting of 5 digits with the first indicating the clinico-pathological group or organ system of those signs and symptoms with the last three digits being its most unique aspect of identification, and further

means for accessing from physical signs and symptoms tables the literal text corresponding to said codes by the last three digits of said 5 digit codes present in said office visit-derived records, and

means for accessing a master medical record belonging to that out-patient of said office visit-derived records said selected, said master medical record is linked to any of said office visit-derived records by out-patient I.D. no.

means for printing out background data for each out-patient whose office visit-derived records were said selected, said data is heading data that appears once for each out-patient whose physical data is for printing and includes up to three chronic diagnosis for that out-patient, date of birth, date of last hospitalization and full name, and

means for printing the literal text of up to four physical data elements, said elements consist of said literal text of signs and symptoms from each said office visit-derived record selected, and

means for printing a message if any said office visit-derived record that was selected did not contain any physical signs, symptoms or both, and

means for printing other clinical data from each office visit-derived record to accompany the literal text of said physical signs and symptoms, said other data includes date of visit, six digit number most uniquely identifying said visit, and the text of the primary reason for said visit, and

means for printing, in the case of a chronic diagnosis as the primary reason for said visit, the blood pressure reading from said visit in addition to the physical data, said blood pressure printing is restricted to those out-patients who have either a cardiac, neurological or a vascular basis for that chronic diagnosis that served as the primary reason for said visit, and

means for printing, in the case of a chronic diagnosis as the primary reason for an office visit, additional data with each out-patient'"'"'s last office visit derived record that has been selected for said printing, said additional data is for indicating whether or not that particular protracted illness has been terminated and that out-patient has returned to a normal or baseline clinical status of 1 and whether or not a hospitalization has occured by the time of said cut-off date,

and said means for the reporting of office based laboratory data includes,

means for determining if laboratory tests were ordered during an office visit whose record was detected as part of any of 3 said types of protracted out-patient illnesses, and said means for determining further includes,

means for testing in an office visit-derived record for the presence of one several possible single letter codes, said codes for indicating if lab tests, alone or in combination with other types of physician actions, were ordered during that visit, and

means responsive to said testing means, if said means indicates the ordering of lab tests, for accessing a six digit number from that office visit-derived record, said six digit number most uniquely identifies that office visit and is also found in a lab record linked to that office visit-derived record, and

means for accessing from said linked lab record all test results present along with each lab result'"'"'s encoded parameter, said encoded parameter data reflects and is derived from that lab test'"'"'s track record of past results for that out-patient and includes duration of an abnormality, intensity of the current abnormality and most recent result if present, and

means for accessing a master medical record for each out-patient included in said office visit-derived record selection, and

means for printing background data once for each out-patient whose office visit-derived records were said selected for said lab test result reporting,

means for printing the results of said lab tests along with the literal text of each of the three encoded elements of the parameter data that accompanies each test result,

means for printing the normal results of any lab test along with a remark about the most recent result, if present, for that test,

means for printing other clinical data from that office visit to accompany the lab test data from that visit, said data includes date of visit, six digit number most uniquely identifying that visit, date lab tests done and the primary reason for that visit, acute or chronic diagnosis, in text form,

and said means for the reporting of office based medication data includes,

means for determining if an oral medication dosage change occured during an office visit whose record was detected as part of any of 3 prior said protracted out-patient illnesses, and said means for determining includes,

means for testing in an office visit-derived record for the pressure of one of several possible single letter codes, said codes are for indicating if medication dosage changes, alone or in combination with other said types of physician actions, were done during said office visit, and further

means for accessing, if prior determining means indicates a medication dosage change, that out-patient'"'"'s first medicine activity record on file, and

means responsive to prior said accessing means for locating that out-patient'"'"'s most recent medicine activity record on file, and said records may store up to three medications which may all have undergone a dosage change during said office visit, and

means for testing each of three data fields in said most recent medicine activity record for an indication that a dosage change had been made for any of three medicines that may be stored, and

means for finding for each medicine that was found to have undergone a said dosage change in said most recent medicine activity record the most recent prior amount of that medicine that out-patient was on whether or not it was also an amount changed to or a first amount as a new medication, said prior amounts for any of up to three medicines that underwent said change may be found in up to three different prior medicine activity records for that out-patient, and

means responsive to the previously said prior amount finding means for accessing both current amount or amount changed to and the most previous amount or the amount changed from for each of up to three medications that may have been found to have undergone said dosage change during said office visit and are now present in said latest medicine activity record, and further

means for accessing from said latest medicine activity record a 5 digit code, said code associated with each medication that underwent said dosage change, and further includes,

means for searching a medicine inventory table by said 5 digit code to obtain the generic name text of each medication found to have undergone said change in said latest medicine activity record,

means for accessing a master medical record for each out-patient whose office visit-derived records were said selected, and

means for printing background data once for each out-patient as heading for said medication data reporting, and

means for printing up to three medication dosage changes, both amounts changed to amounts changed from and expressed in either grams or tablets per day, and further,

means for printing other data from each office visit with said medication change data, said other data includes six digit number identifying said office visit, date of office visit and primary reason for that office visit, and

means for determining if any data errors are present, said error might be in the absence of a medicine activity record associated with that office visit even though a said single letter code is present for indicating medication activity during that office visit, and

means for printing a message indicating said error is present, and

means for printing if no medication activity occured during any office visit.

10. The computerized medical database system of claim 5 wherein said means for the printing of clinical data that may show the overusage of office visit based lab tests further includes,

means for selecting a set of out-patient office visit records according to four clinical criterion, said criterion consists of a normal or baseline clinical status of 1 indicating an absence of any disease activity or change in an out-patient'"'"'s usual condition, a chronic diagnosis as the primary reason for that office visit, the office visit is of the scheduled type and yet, despite these 3 mentioned criteria that indicate an otherwise unremarkable clinical situation, the ordering of lab tests was still done as the fourth criteria, and

means for accessing from an office visit record selected by prior said criterion data that links that record to a laboratory record storing the results of said lab tests ordered, said linking data is a six digit number that most uniquely identifies that office visit record selected and is also found in that lab record linked, and

means responsive to said accessing means for obtaining all of said test results ordered during those office visits whose records were said selected, said lab tests ordered from said selected office visit records are herein referred to as a first set of lab tests, and further

means for determining if there are any prior results on file for that out-patient for each of the first set of lab test results, said prior test results that correspond to each of the said first set of test results may each be found in different prior lab records for that out-patient and said prior test results for each of said first set of test results are herein referred to as the second set of lab test results, and

means responsive to prior said determining means for searching back on that out-patient'"'"'s previous lab records until any most recent prior result of that test for that out-patient is found for each of said first set of lab test results from each of said office visit records selected, and further

means for obtaining, if present, a most prior test result for each of said first set of test results ordered during said visit whose records were said selected, and said prior lab test results for each of said first set of results ordered from an office visit whose record was said selected are herein referred to as second set of lab test results but each of which may have been obtained from a different prior lab record since any of said prior or second set of lab test results may have been ordered during a different prior office visit for any out-patient, and

means for preventing said accessing of any of the said second set of test results if any of those prior test results were ordered during an emergency room visit by that out-patient, said emergency room visit is, by its very nature and unlike an office visit of the said selected type, is automatically considered significant enough to obviate the need to justify any lab test ordered during even an office visit of said selected type as long as that prior test was ordered during an emergency room visit, and said means for preventing access further includes,

means for testing if the first character in a field of a lab test record that is storing any of said most prior or second set of lab test results begins with an E instead of an O, said character E indicating that said tests were ordered during an emergency room visit and not an office one,

means for accessing a master medical record for each out-patient whose office visit records were selected by said criterion, and

means responsive to said accessing means for printing once for each out-patient whose office visit records were selected salient data as heading, said salient data includes last name of the out-patient doctor, a code indicating the name of the processing routine, last name and I.D. no. of the out-patient date of birth of out-patient, the primary chronic diagnosis of that out-patient and date of last hospitalization, and

means for printing with each office visit record selected for an out-patient some identifying data, said data includes the six digit office visit I.D. no, primary reason for that office visit, date of office visit and date lab tests drawn that were ordered from said office visit, and

means for accessing for each of said second set of prior lab tests that prior office visit during which each of said second set of tests were ordered, said prior tests may be from different prior office visits of that out-patient

means for printing together in coupled form both the first set of lab tests from selected set of office visit records and the second set of the same lab test results for an out-patient, and further

means for printing other data from each prior office visit during which each of the second set of prior lab tests for that out-patient were ordered, said data includes primary reason during each office visit and the clinical status of the out-patient during that office visit in order to enable determining the clinical need for ordering said tests from said selected office visit records by comparing the data printed together in coupled form.

11. For use in a computerized out-patient primary care medical database system

means for the automatic classification of out-patients into one of three chronic diagnosis-based clinical diagnosis categories through the use of a predefined consensus-based reference table of chronic diagnosis arranged according to the relative prognosis or clinical urgency of each, said reference table divided into three diagnostic categories with each ranked hierarchically in relation to the other two and for classifying said out-patients depending upon the diagnostic category location of up to three chronic diagnosis any out-patient may have in relation to said reference table, and said means for the automatic classification further includes,

means for creating an out-patient master medical or first office visit record, said record creation occuring during a data entry routine for either of said record type which then immediately confers upon an out-patient of that record the attribute of classification into one of said diagnostic categories, and

means for recognizing said classification of each out-patient by said database system during the execution of data processing instructions, said instructions identify each out-patient record, master medical or office visit, as belonging to one of three said diagnostic categories depending upon the combined value of up to three chronic diagnosis found in said record types determined by thier relative position in said reference table of chronic diagnosis, and said recognizing means includes,

means for checking by said data processing instructions an encoded letter present in each chronic diagnosis that is present in any out-patient record of prior said types, said encoded letter present in a fixed position in each chronic diagnosis and for indicating to which of three said diagnostic categorys of said chronic diagnosis reference table that chronic diagnosis belongs to.