Providing adaptive medical triage

• US 7,668,733 B2
• Filed: 11/09/2004
• Issued: 02/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Medcor Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Medcor Incorporated
• Inventors: Sahouri, Tim I., Huffine, Thomas S., Seeger, Philip C., Smith, Curtis H., Kleeburg, Peter B., Glimp, Thomas H., Victorson, Troyt M., Kantenwein, Scott A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; C. Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): REYES, REGINALD R
• Application Number:
  US10/985,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20060100901A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,932 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/1, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 70/20 relating to practices or guidelines

Abstract

A method of adaptively operating a medical triage system includes triaging a plurality of persons using a set of triage questions to select particular dispositions from a plurality of triage disposition. Triage-related data is acquired as a result of the triaging of the plurality of persons. The triage-related data is analyzed and the set of triage questions or the dispositions are modified based on the analysis of the triage-related data.

Claims

1. A method of adaptively operating a medical triage system, comprising:

presenting by a client computer to a triage operator a set of triage questions to ask of a plurality of persons to be triaged;

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator a plurality of triage dispositions from which to select based on responses to the set of triage questions;

acquiring by the client computer triage-related data as a result of the triage of the plurality of persons, wherein the triage-related data is stored in a database coupled with the client computer and represents an aggregate of triage-related data from the triage of the plurality of persons;

analyzing the aggregated triage-related data with a server coupled with the database;

setting, with the server, a threshold level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes affiliated with previously-assigned triage dispositions;

modifying with the server at least one question within the set of triage questions based on the analysis of the aggregated triage-related data to reduce a level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes associated with exceeding the threshold level; and

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator the at least one modified question to ask a next person to be triaged.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the triage-related data comprises triage outcome information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises one of modifying and removing one of the set of triage questions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises adding at least an additional triage question to the set of triage questions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the triage questions are arranged in tiers ranked according to urgency level and wherein each of the tiers corresponds to one of the plurality of triage dispositions, the method further comprising:

providing triage to a person remotely, without medical equipment, through a form of remote communication, wherein the triage operator need not be medically trained, and the person need not be with a medically-trained individual.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises shifting one of the triage questions from one of the tiers into another of the tiers.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the triage questions are further arranged into a plurality of triage categories comprising body parts, injury types, symptoms, and a combination thereof, the method further comprising simultaneously selecting two or more distinct, relevant triage categories from the plurality of triage categories based on information provided by the next person to be triaged.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein performing triage on the next person comprises:

(a) identifying from all of the selected relevant triage categories a highest urgency tier that has at least one unasked question;

(b) asking the person to be triaged one of the at least one unasked question of the highest urgency tier;

(c) receiving a response from the person to the at least one unasked question; and

(d) repeating (a) through (c) for all of the selected relevant triage categories until one of the plurality of triage dispositions is selected.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the two or more relevant triage categories are the same but relate to different body parts.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises revising a particular question of the triage questions so that a predetermined answer to the particular question is more highly correlated with an accurate triage outcome.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising re-analyzing the triage-related data after modifying the set of triage questions.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises automatically adding, removing, or rearranging at least one question based on a passage of time between injury of a person to be triaged and a time that the person calls the triage operator.

13. A method of adaptively operating a medical triage system, comprising:

presenting by a client computer to a triage operator a set of triage questions to ask a plurality of persons to be triaged;

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator a plurality of triage dispositions from which to select based on responses to the set of triage questions;

acquiring by the client computer triage-related data as a result of the triage of the plurality of persons, wherein the triage-related data is stored in a database coupled with the client computer and represents an aggregate of triage-related data from the triage of the plurality of persons;

analyzing the aggregated triage-related data with a server coupled with the database;

setting, with the server, a threshold level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes affiliated with previously-assigned triage dispositions;

modifying with the server at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions based on the analysis of the aggregated triage-related data to reduce the level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes associated with exceeding the threshold level; and

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator the at least one modified disposition from which to select when performing triage on a next person.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the plurality of triage dispositions corresponds to a time within which medical attention is to be provided and a level of prescribed medical attention.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions comprises increasing the level of prescribed medical attention in one of the plurality of dispositions.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions comprises decreasing the level of prescribed medical attention in one of the plurality of dispositions.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein modifying at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions comprises one of increasing and decreasing the time within which the medical attention is to be provided.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising re-analyzing the triage-related data after modifying at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the triage questions are arranged in tiers ranked according to urgency and wherein each of the tiers corresponds to one of the plurality of triage dispositions, the method further comprising:

providing triage to the next person remotely, without medical equipment, through a form of remote communication, wherein the triage operator need not be medically trained, and the person need not be with a medically-trained individual.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising shifting one of the triage questions from one of the tiers into another of the tiers.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the triage questions are further arranged into a plurality of triage categories comprising body parts, injury types, symptoms, and a combination thereof, the method further comprising simultaneously selecting two or more distinct relevant triage categories from the plurality of triage categories based on information provided by the next person to be triaged.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein performing triage on the next person comprises:

(a) identifying from all of the selected relevant triage categories a highest urgency tier that has at least one unasked question;

(b) asking the person to be triaged one of the at least one unasked question of the highest urgency tier;

(c) receiving a response from the person to the at least one unasked question; and

(d) repeating (a) through (c) for all of the selected relevant triage categories until one of the plurality of triage dispositions is selected.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the two or more relevant triage categories are the same but relate to different body parts.

24. The method of claim 14, further comprising re-analyzing the triage-related data after modifying at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions.

25. The method of claim 14, wherein the triage-related data comprises triage outcome information.

26. A method of adaptively operating a medical triage system, comprising:

presenting by a client computer to a triage operator a set of triage questions to ask a plurality of persons to be triaged;

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator a plurality of triage dispositions from which to select based on responses to the set of triage questions;

acquiring by the client computer triage-related data as a result of the triage of the plurality of persons, wherein the triage-related data comprises triage outcome information from an aggregate data acquired from triage of the plurality of persons;

storing the aggregated triage-related data in a database of a server that is coupled with the client computer;

accessing the aggregated triage-related data for analysis by the server;

analyzing the aggregated triage-related data with the server;

setting, with the server, a threshold level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes affiliated with previously-assigned triage dispositions;

modifying, with the server for presentation by the client computer, at least one question within the set of triage questions and at least one of the plurality of triage dispositions based on the analysis of the aggregated triage-related data to reduce a level of undesirable aggregate triage outcomes associated with exceeding the threshold level, wherein each of the plurality of triage dispositions corresponds to a time within which medical attention is to be provided and a level of prescribed medical attention; and

presenting by the client computer to the triage operator the at least one modified question and the at least one modified disposition with which to perform triage on a next person.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein modifying the set of triage questions comprises automatically adding, removing, or rearranging at least one question based on a passage of time between injury of a person to be triaged and a time that the person calls the triage operator.