Method and apparatus for objectively monitoring and assessing the performance of health-care providers
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for objectively assessing the complexity of health-care services delivered by each health-care provider within a group of health-care providers to patients serviced by said group of health-care providers, comprising the steps of:
- (A) providing in-patient data records representative of in-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers;
(B) providing out-patient data records representative of out-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers;
(C) building a plurality of sickness episode data records by combining information from said in-patient and out-patient data records, each sickness episode data record within said plurality of sickness episode data records corresponding to an individual sickness episode for which health-care services were performed for one of said patients by at least one health-care provider from said group of health-care providers;
(D) performing an objective severity assessment on a group of sickness episode data records and assigning, in response to said objective severity assessment, an episode severity score to each sickness episode data record within said group of sickness episode data records; and
(E) objectively determining case load complexity levels for health-care providers within said group of health-care providers from said severity scores.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for objectively assessing the complexity of health-care services delivered by each health-care provider within a group of health-care providers to patients serviced by the group of health-care providers. In-patient data records representative of inpatient health-care services performed for patients by health-care providers with the group of health-care providers are stored in a database. Out-patient data records representative of out-patient health-care services performed for patients by health-care providers with the group of health-care providers are also stored in a database. A plurality of sickness episode data records are built by combining information from the in-patient and out-patient data records. Each sickness episode data record corresponds to an individual sickness episode for which health-care services were performed for one of the patients by at least one health-care provider from the group of health-care providers. An objective severity assessment is performed on each of a group of sickness episode data records and, in response said objective severity assessment, an episode severity score is assigned to each sickness episode data record within the group of sickness episode data records. Case load complexity levels are determined for health-care providers within the group of health-care providers from the severity scores. Each case load complexity level determined is representative of a patient case load serviced by a particular health-care provider within the group of health-care providers.
156 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for objectively assessing the complexity of health-care services delivered by each health-care provider within a group of health-care providers to patients serviced by said group of health-care providers, comprising the steps of:
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(A) providing in-patient data records representative of in-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers; (B) providing out-patient data records representative of out-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers; (C) building a plurality of sickness episode data records by combining information from said in-patient and out-patient data records, each sickness episode data record within said plurality of sickness episode data records corresponding to an individual sickness episode for which health-care services were performed for one of said patients by at least one health-care provider from said group of health-care providers; (D) performing an objective severity assessment on a group of sickness episode data records and assigning, in response to said objective severity assessment, an episode severity score to each sickness episode data record within said group of sickness episode data records; and (E) objectively determining case load complexity levels for health-care providers within said group of health-care providers from said severity scores. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for objectively assessing the complexity of health-care services delivered by each health-care provider within a group of health-care providers to patients serviced by said group of health-care providers, comprising:
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(A) a first database for storing in-patient data records representative of in-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers; (B) a second database for storing out-patient data records representative of out-patient health-care services performed for said patients by health-care providers with said group of health-care providers; (C) an episode builder, coupled to said first and second databases, for building a plurality of sickness episode data records by combining information from said in-patient and out-patient data records, each sickness episode data record within said plurality of sickness episode data records corresponding to an individual sickness episode for which health-care services were performed for one of said patients by at least one health-care provider from said group of health-care providers; (D) a severity assessment means, coupled to said episode builder, for performing an objective severity assessment on a group of sickness episode data records and assigning, in response to said objective severity assessment, an episode severity score to each sickness episode data record within said group of sickness episode data records; and (E) case load assessment means, coupled to said severity assessment means, for objectively determining case load complexity levels for health-care providers within said group of health-care providers from said severity scores. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification