Standardized information management system for long-term residence facilities

• US 6,640,212 B1
• Filed: 09/30/1999
• Issued: 10/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Rodney L. Rosse
• Original Assignee: Rodney L. Rosse
• Inventors: Rosse, Rodney L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BOYCE, ANDRE D
• Application Number:
  US09/409,979
• Time in Patent Office: 1,489 Days
• Field of Search: 705/9, 705/8, 705/2, 600/595
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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

Abstract

A standardized information management system for use in long-term residence facilities continually collects and manages all direct-care information related to both the clients and staff of the facility. The collection and management of this information is standardized to create consistency, stability, and improvement in the care, tracking and teaching of the clients of the facility. To facilitate this standardization, the information management system breaks activities and duties down into a set of defined duties, each of which represent a unit of assignable work that involves a client, a staff member or both. The step-by-step tasks that comprise a given duty are individually definable using a standardized database process. Duties may be clustered together to form activities. Activities are scheduled on a daily basis based on staff availability and qualifications and appropriateness to client needs and preferences. A comprehensive plan for each client is created by the daily schedule of activities. The plan is displayed for staff members by the system and the performance of each activity is recorded in the system using standardized rating scales and special data set-ups as appropriate. The system also allows for recording of periodic information on health and behavior management issues. All of this information is compiled by the system for analysis to generate standardized and customized reports.

Claims

1. A method of providing a standardized information management system for use in a long-term residence facility, the method comprising:

creating in a computer database;

a set of defined duties for each of a plurality of clients residing at the long-term residence facility who have a reduced capacity to perform normal daily living activities, each duty representing a unit of assignable work selected from a set of a daily living activity or a developmental opportunity that involves a client, at least one staff member of the long-term residence facility who provides life care services designed to support and maintain normal daily living activities and developmental opportunities for each of the plurality of clients for extended periods of time, or both;

a set of defined activities suitable for each of the plurality of clients, each activity representing a selective clustering of one or more defined duties; and

a comprehensive daily plan for each of the plurality of clients, each daily plan representing a schedule of activities selected from the relevant set of activities defined for a given client that are assigned as responsibilities for selected staff members based on availability and qualifications of the staff members and appropriateness to the needs and preferences of the given client; and

using a computer system having access to the computer database to;

display the daily plans to the staff members;

enter performance data associated with each activity for each of the plurality of clients using standardized rating scales; and

compile the performance data and generate one or more reports based on an analysis of the performance data.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer system is further used to:

record periodic observations on health and/or behavior management issues of the plurality of clients; and

compile the periodic observations and generate one or more reports based on an analysis of the periodic observations.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of defined duties is created by assembling a series of tasks that comprise a given duty, each task being individually definable using a standardized database process that structures the definition of each task within certain parameters and provides a reusable set of resources once the tasks are created in the database.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the computer database further comprises a set of comprehensive historical and reference information about each of the plurality of clients created in the computer database and wherein the computer system is used to access the computer database to display the set historical and reference information for a selected client to the staff members.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the performance data is optionally entered using the computer system and a specialized data collection set-up process in place of the standardized rating scales.

6. A standardized information management system for use in a long-term residence facility, the system comprising:

a computer system executing at least three software processes, including;

a supervisory process means for planning service needs and creating daily schedules for each of a plurality of clients residing at the long-term residence facility, who have a reduced capacity to perform normal daily living activities, a comprehensive daily plan that is stored in a database in the computer system, with each daily plan representing a schedule of activities selected from a relevant set of activities representing at least daily living activities defined for a given client;

a utility process means for managing personnel records and work shift schedules of a plurality of staff members of the long-term residence facility, who provide life care services designed to support and maintain normal daily living activities for each of the plurality of clients for extended periods of time, and are assigning selected activities of each daily plan as responsibilities for selected staff members based on availability and qualifications of the staff members and appropriateness to the needs and preferences of the given client as stored in a database in the computer system; and

a display process means for displaying current work information to staff members based on the work shift schedules created by the utility process mean and for entering performance data by staff members about client performance of activities scheduled for the daily plan into a database in the computer system using standardized rating scales.

7. The standardized information management system of claim 6 further comprising:

means for compiling the performance data and generating one or more reports based on an analysis of the performance data.

8. The standardized information management system of claim 6 wherein the display process means further includes means for recording by staff members periodic observations on health and/or behavior management issues of each of the plurality of clients, and wherein the information management system further comprises means for compiling the periodic observations and generating one or more reports based on an analysis of the periodic observations.

9. The standardized information management system of claim 6 wherein the computer system comprises a networked computer system including at least two separate computers.

10. The standardized information management system of claim 9 wherein at least one of the computers includes a kiosk display station located in an easily accessible area of the long-term residence facility such that staff members can display current work information and enter performance data on clients using the kiosk display station.

11. The standardized information management system of claim 10 wherein the kiosk display station includes a touch screen display protected from access by the clients to prevent damage or inappropriate access.

12. The standardized information management system of claim 6 wherein the supervisory process means further comprises:

a database accessible by the computer system that stores a set of defined duties for each of a plurality of clients, each duty representing a unit of assignable work that involves a client, a staff member or both; and

means for selective clustering of one or more defined duties into an activity to be scheduled by the supervisory process means.

13. The standardized information management system of claim 12 further comprising:

means for assembling a series of tasks to define a given duty, each task being individually definable using a standardized database process that structures the definition of each task within certain parameters and provides a reusable set of resources once the tasks are created in the database process.

14. The standardized information management system of claim 6 wherein the display process means optionally utilizes a specialized data collection set-up process in place of the standardized rating scales to collect the performance data.

15. A standardized method for creating and displaying tasks to be performed at a long-term residence facility, the standardized method comprising:

identifying a task to be defined for a client residing at the long-term residence facility, who has a reduced capacity to perform normal daily living activities, the task being selected from a set of normal daily living activities or developmental opportunities appropriate for that client;

defining a condition for when the task is to be performed;

defining an action for the task;

defining an object of the action for the task;

storing the condition, the action and the object for the task in a computer database as one of a set of tasks defined for the client;

repeating previous steps to make a plurality of different tasks individualized to different clients; and

using a computer system to access the computer database and selectively display one or more tasks for one or more of a plurality of clients to a staff member of the long term residence facility, who provides life care services designed to support and maintain normal daily living activities and developmental opportunities for each of the plurality of clients for extended periods of time, in a standardized format.

16. The standardized method of claim 15 further comprising:

defining a tool to be used for the action; and

storing the tool as part of the task in the computer database.

17. The standardized method of claim 15 further comprising:

defining a criterion for terms under which the action is to be performed; and

storing the criterion as part of the task in the computer database.

18. The standardized method of claim 15 wherein a set of tasks are assembled as step-by-step processes to define a duty, a duty being a unit of assignable work that involves a client, a staff member or both.

19. The standardized method of claim 18 wherein duties are selectively clustered together to form activities and wherein the activities are then scheduled as staff responsibilities based on staff availability and qualifications and appropriateness to client needs and preferences.

20. The standardized method of claim 19 wherein a comprehensive plan for each client is created by scheduling relevant activities for that client on a daily basis.

21. The standardized method of claim 15 wherein the tasks to be performed are dynamically adaptable for each client over an extended period of care to provide an individualized care protocol for that client.

22. A method of providing a standardized reporting of health and behavioral issues for use in a long-term residence facility, the method comprising:

creating in a computer database;

a set of defined activities suitable for each of a plurality of clients of the long-term residence facility having limited capacity for communication, each activity representing a normal daily living activity or developmental opportunity appropriate for that client;

a comprehensive daily plan for each of the plurality of clients, each daily plan representing a schedule of activities selected from the relevant set of activities defined for a given client; and

a record of medications provided to each of the plurality of clients; and

using a computer system operated by a plurality of staff members of the long-term residence facility, who provide life care services designed to support and maintain normal daily living activities and developmental opportunities for each of the plurality of clients for extended periods of time, and having access to the computer database to;

display the daily plans to the staff members;

enter performance data associated with each activity for each of the plurality of clients using standardized rating scales;

enter periodic observations on health and/or behavior management issues of each of the plurality of clients; and

compile the performance data and generate one or more reports based on a longitudinal analysis of the performance data and periodic observations as a function of changes in the medications for each of the plurality of clients.