Managing patient bed assignments and bed occupancy in a health care facility
First Claim
1. A method for facilitating patient placement in a location of a healthcare facility, comprising:
- (a) maintaining a database of a computer system, the computer system being configured such that the computer system communicates with a network, said maintaining comprising the steps of,(i) storing, in the database of the computer system,(A) patient attributes for a plurality of patients, and(B) bed attributes for a plurality of locations of the healthcare facility;
(ii) continually monitoring a patient admissions/discharge system of the healthcare facility, and(iii) based on said monitoring, continually updating the data stored in the database of the computer system, the data stored in the database of the computer system being updated based on information from the patient admissions/discharge system contained in transactional messages, the information being automatically fed into the database; and
(b) while maintaining the database in said step (a) by continually monitoring the patient admissions/discharge system and updating the data stored in the database,(i) receiving, by the computer system via the network from a client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services, using a client-server communication protocol, an identification of one of the plurality of patients whose patient attributes are stored in the database, the identification of one of the plurality of patients corresponding to a patient selected by a healthcare professional from a list of patients presented via a user interface provided by an end-user application for healthcare professionals loaded on the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services;
(ii) based on the patient identification received in step (b)(i), matching, by the computer system, requirements of the identified patient to available resources of the healthcare facility by comparing patient criteria of the identified patient with bed attributes stored in the database, the patient criteria comprising patient attributes for the identified patient that are stored in the database;
(iii) based on the matching of step (b)(ii), sending, to the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services using the client-server communication protocol, an identification of available locations of the healthcare facility for patient placement; and
(iv) receiving, from the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services, an identification of one of the available locations sent to the client device in step (b)(iii) for assignment of the patient identified in step (b)(i), the identification of one of the available locations corresponding to a location selected by a healthcare professional from a list of the available locations sent to the client device presented via a user interface provided by an end-user application for healthcare professionals loaded on the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services.
12 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated health care delivery network with enabling software and network technology to maximize bed resources, manage varying census levels, and avoid patient diversions through real-time monitoring, automation and communication, is disclosed. Preferably, the present invention is embodied in a bed management system that interfaces with and complements existing Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) systems. The bed management system is an easy-to-use business intelligence application that is designed to allow administrators, clinicians and managers to easily access, analyze and display real-time patient and bed availability information from ancillary information systems, databases and spreadsheets. It enables users to see trends and relationships in hospital (bed) management data directly from their desktop personal computers.
82 Citations
22 Claims
-
1. A method for facilitating patient placement in a location of a healthcare facility, comprising:
-
(a) maintaining a database of a computer system, the computer system being configured such that the computer system communicates with a network, said maintaining comprising the steps of, (i) storing, in the database of the computer system, (A) patient attributes for a plurality of patients, and (B) bed attributes for a plurality of locations of the healthcare facility; (ii) continually monitoring a patient admissions/discharge system of the healthcare facility, and (iii) based on said monitoring, continually updating the data stored in the database of the computer system, the data stored in the database of the computer system being updated based on information from the patient admissions/discharge system contained in transactional messages, the information being automatically fed into the database; and (b) while maintaining the database in said step (a) by continually monitoring the patient admissions/discharge system and updating the data stored in the database, (i) receiving, by the computer system via the network from a client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services, using a client-server communication protocol, an identification of one of the plurality of patients whose patient attributes are stored in the database, the identification of one of the plurality of patients corresponding to a patient selected by a healthcare professional from a list of patients presented via a user interface provided by an end-user application for healthcare professionals loaded on the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services; (ii) based on the patient identification received in step (b)(i), matching, by the computer system, requirements of the identified patient to available resources of the healthcare facility by comparing patient criteria of the identified patient with bed attributes stored in the database, the patient criteria comprising patient attributes for the identified patient that are stored in the database; (iii) based on the matching of step (b)(ii), sending, to the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services using the client-server communication protocol, an identification of available locations of the healthcare facility for patient placement; and (iv) receiving, from the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services, an identification of one of the available locations sent to the client device in step (b)(iii) for assignment of the patient identified in step (b)(i), the identification of one of the available locations corresponding to a location selected by a healthcare professional from a list of the available locations sent to the client device presented via a user interface provided by an end-user application for healthcare professionals loaded on the client device configured to facilitate the provision of healthcare services. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
Specification