System and method for collection of community health and administrative data

• US 8,060,376 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2004
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nomoreclipboard LLC
• Original Assignee: Nomoreclipboard LLC
• Inventors: Horner, Douglas R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gilligan; Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): BURGESS, JOSEPH D
• Application Number:
  US10/957,491
• Publication Number:
  US 20060074719A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,601 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3, 600/300, 707/201, 709/203
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records

Abstract

The present invention involves a health care patient document system and method which enable patients to enter clinical, administrative, and financial information normally completed on a clipboard in a medical office into a computerized system that stores the information. The patient is then enabled to direct the stored information to any health care provider whether the provider is enabled to receive the data electronically or not. For those provider clinicians and organizations not enabled to receive the information electronically, the system completes the paper-based forms already in use within the organization and sends the completed form by facsimile or mail delivery.

Claims

1. A computerized method for collecting medical information from patients, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a plurality of substantially blank clipboard forms for collecting patient information from a plurality of health care providers, wherein the plurality of clipboard forms include a plurality of answer spaces for responding to a plurality of questions, and wherein at least a portion of the clipboard forms have distinct predefined layouts with predefined locations associated with the answer spaces;

mapping positional coordinates of the predefined locations associated with the answer spaces for respective clipboard forms to create template documents defined by the positional coordinates of the respective clipboard forms;

providing a database including a digitized image of the plurality of clipboard forms, respective positional coordinates of answer spaces associated with the plurality of clipboard forms based on the mapping step, and a location where respective clipboard forms should be sent when completed;

reviewing the plurality of questions in the plurality of clipboard forms to determine a series of common questions that are substantially common to the plurality of clipboard forms;

matching questions in the series of common questions with the positional coordinates for answer spaces associated with respective clipboard forms;

providing a web-based system for a patient to setup an account, wherein the web-based system is configured to allow the patient to complete a patient questionnaire that includes the series of common questions;

storing the patient'"'"'s responses to the patient questionnaire on the web-based system;

allowing the selection of a healthcare provider from a plurality of healthcare providers to whom the patient'"'"'s responses should be sent;

populating a clipboard form associated with the selected healthcare provider with the patient'"'"'s responses based on the matching step so that the patient'"'"'s responses appear in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout for the selected healthcare provider'"'"'s clipboard form; and

sending the populated clipboard form to the selected healthcare provider based on the location associated with the clipboard form in the database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mapping step includes a determination of x and y coordinates associated with respective answer spaces.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mapping step includes a determination of a height and width of respective answer spaces.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reviewing step includes the use of a knowledge domain expert to interpret the clipboard forms to determine where commonality in the clipboard forms exist to create the series of common questions.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of associating codes with the questions in the patient questionnaire, wherein the codes include at least one of universal codes or codes particular to the selected healthcare provider.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of determining whether the clipboard form associated with the selected healthcare provider includes one or more specialized questions not included in the series of common questions, prompting the patient to answer any such specialized questions, and storing the patient'"'"'s responses to the specialized questions on the web-based system.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of populating the clipboard form associated with the selected healthcare provider with the patient'"'"'s responses to the specialized questions so that the patient'"'"'s responses appear in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout for the selected healthcare provider'"'"'s clipboard form.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of selecting a patient to refer to a referral receiving organization on the web-based system, populating a clipboard form associated with the referral receiving organization with patient responses stored in the database based on the matching step so that the patient'"'"'s responses appear in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout for the referral receiving organization'"'"'s clipboard form, and sending the populated clipboard form to the referral receiving organization.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of using the web-based system to schedule an appointment time for the patient with the referral receiving organization.