Automated system for managing the selection of clinical items and documentation for a clinical event

• US 8,095,378 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2002
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Zimmerman, Michael A., Morawitz, Melissa A., Licata, Lawrence J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sereboff, Neal
• Application Number:
  US10/294,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20040098286A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,344 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 4
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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 method in a computer system for preparing for a clinical event is provided. In a preferred embodiment, the method includes the steps of identifying a preference card associated with the clinical event, the preference card including a list of predefined clinical item values, accessing at least one patient-specific demographic value; determining whether at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value, and updating the preference card if at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, comprising the steps of:

identifying, through a first computing process, a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card including a list of predefined clinical item values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event, wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications;

accessing, a second computing process, at least one patient-specific demographic value associated with the individual patient;

determining, through a third computing process, whether at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value; and

without user intervention, updating, through a fourth computing process, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value if the at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth computing processes are performed on one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of patient-specific demographic values are accessed from an electronic medical record.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the preference card includes at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values, wherein the at least one documentation segment describes a preparation area on the individual patient.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of substituting a substitute documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of compatible clinical item values are substituted for a plurality of incompatible clinical item values.

9. The method Of claim 1, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the clinical event is a surgical procedure.

12. A method in a computer system for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, comprising the steps of:

receiving, through a first computing process, scheduling information;

identifying, through a second computing process, a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card associated with the scheduling information, the preference card also including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event, wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications;

accessing, through a third computing process, a plurality of patient-specific values for the individual patient;

determining, through a fourth computing process, whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific value; and

without user intervention, updating, through a fifth computing process, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific value, wherein the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth computing processes are performed on one or more computing devices.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the patient-specific values include demographic values.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the scheduling information identifies the type of clinical event and clinician for the patient.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a clinical item value, and further comprising the step of substituting a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein a plurality of patient-specific values are accessed from an electronic medical record.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a documentation value, wherein the documentation value describes a position of the individual patient during the clinical event.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the step of substituting a compatible documentation value for the at least one incompatible documentation value.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the patient-specific value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

21. The method of claim 12, wherein the patient-specific value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

22. The method of claim 12, wherein the clinical event is a surgical procedure.

23. A method in a computer system for preparing for a surgical procedure associated with a patient, comprising the steps of:

receiving, through a first computing process, scheduling information;

identifying, through a second computing process, a first preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of surgical procedure, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of surgical procedure on the individual patient associated with the scheduling information, the preference card including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the surgical procedure and at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values, wherein the document segment describes a preparation area on the patient, and wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications;

accessing, through a third computing process, a plurality of patient-specific demographic values for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value; and

without user intervention, updating, through a fourth computing process, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value, wherein the first, second, third, and fourth computing processes are performed on one or more computing devices.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the first preference card is replaced by a second preference card.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising the step of determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising the step of substituting a substitute documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.

28. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computing device performs a method for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, comprising:

identifying a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card including a list of predefined clinical item values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event, wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications, and wherein the clinical event consists of one or more of a surgical procedure, examination, evaluation, and a test;

accessing at least one patient-specific demographic value for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value; and

updating without user intervention, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value if the at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value.

29. The media of claim 28, wherein the method further comprises removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

30. The media of claim 28, wherein a plurality of patient-specific demographic values are accessed from an electronic medical record.

31. The media of claim 28, wherein the preference card includes at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values.

32. The system media of claim 31, wherein the method further comprises determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value.

33. The media of claim 32, wherein the method further comprises substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value, wherein the documentation value describes a position of the individual patient during the clinical event.

34. The media of claim 32, wherein the method further comprises substituting a substitute documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.

35. The media of claim 28, wherein a plurality of compatible clinical item values are substituted for a plurality of incompatible clinical item values.

36. The media of claim 28, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

37. The media of claim 28, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

38. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computing device performs a method for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, comprising:

receiving scheduling information;

identifying component a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card associated with the scheduling information, the preference card also including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event, wherein the one or more clinical items includes a plurality of non-medications;

accessing a plurality of patient-specific values for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific value; and

updating, without user intervention, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific value.

39. The media of claim 38, wherein the patient-specific values include demographic values.

40. The media of claim 38, wherein the scheduling information identifies the type of clinical event and clinician for the patient.

41. The media of claim 38, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a clinical item value, and wherein the method further comprises substituting a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value.

42. The media of claim 38, wherein the method further comprises removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

43. The media of claim 38, wherein a plurality of patient-specific values are accessed by the accessing component from an electronic medical record.

44. The media of claim 38, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a documentation value, wherein the documentation value describes a position of the individual patient during the clinical event.

45. The media of claim 44, wherein the method further comprises substituting a compatible documentation value for the at least one incompatible documentation value.

46. The media of claim 38, wherein the patient-specific value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

47. The media of claim 38, wherein the patient-specific value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

48. The media of claim 38, wherein the clinical event is a surgical procedure.

49. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon that when executed by a computing device performs a method for preparing for a surgical procedure associated with a patient, comprising:

receiving scheduling information;

identifying a first preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of surgical procedure, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of surgical procedure on the individual patient, the preference card associated with the scheduling information, the preference card also including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the surgical procedure, wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications;

accessing a plurality of patient-specific demographic values for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic-value; and

updating, without user intervention, the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value.

50. The media of claim 49, wherein the updating component replaces the first preference card with a second preference card.

51. The media of claim 49, wherein the preference card includes at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values.

52. The media of claim 51, wherein the method further comprises determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value, wherein the documentation value describes a position of the individual patient during the clinical event.

53. The media of claim 52, wherein the method further comprises substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value.

54. The media of claim 52, wherein the method further comprises substituting documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.

55. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media containing instructions, that when executed by a computing device, performs a method for controlling a computer system for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, by:

identifying a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card including a list of predefined clinical item values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event,

wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications,

wherein the clinical event consists of one or more of a surgical procedure, examination, evaluation, and a test, and

wherein the preference card includes at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values;

accessing at least one patient-specific demographic value for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value, wherein the documentation value describes a position of the individual patient during the clinical event;

without user intervention, updating the preference card by substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value if the at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value;

determining whether at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value; and

without user intervention, updating the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value if the at least one of the predefined clinical item values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value.

56. The media of claim 55, further comprising the step of removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

57. The media of claim 55, wherein a plurality of patient-specific demographic values are accessed from an electronic medical record.

58. The media of claim 55, further comprising the step of substituting a substitute documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.

59. The media of claim 55, wherein a plurality of compatible clinical item values are substituted for a plurality of incompatible clinical item values.

60. The media of claim 55, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

61. The media of claim 55, wherein the patient-specific demographic value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

62. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media containing instructions, that when executed by a computing device, performs a method for controlling a computer system for preparing for a clinical event associated with a patient, by:

receiving scheduling information;

identifying a preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of clinical event, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of clinical event on the individual patient, the preference card associated with the scheduling information, the preference card also including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the clinical event, wherein the one or more clinical items include a plurality of non-medications;

accessing a plurality of patient-specific values for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific value; and

without user intervention, updating the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific value.

63. The media of claim 62, wherein the patient-specific values include demographic values.

64. The media of claim 62, wherein the scheduling information identifies the type of clinical event and clinician for the patient.

65. The media of claim 62, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a clinical item value, and further comprising the step of substituting a compatible clinical item value for the at least one incompatible clinical item value.

66. The media of claim 62, further comprising the step of removing the at least one incompatible clinical item value from the preference card.

67. The media of claim 62, wherein a plurality of patient-specific values are accessed from an electronic medical record.

68. The media of claim 62, wherein at least one of the predefined values is a documentation value.

69. The media of claim 68, further comprising the step of substituting a compatible documentation value for the at least one incompatible documentation value.

70. The media of claim 62, wherein the patient-specific value represents whether the patient has an allergy.

71. The media of claim 62, wherein the patient-specific value represents the age, gender or weight of the patient.

72. One or more non-transitory computer-storage media containing instructions, that when executed by a computing device, performs a method controlling a computer system for preparing a surgical procedure associated with a patient, by:

receiving scheduling information;

identifying a first preference card that is associated with an individual patient, a particular clinician, and a particular type of surgical procedure, wherein the particular clinician is scheduled to perform the particular type of surgical procedure on the individual patient associated with the scheduling information, the preference card including a list of predefined values associated with one or more clinical items to be gathered for use for the surgical event, wherein the one or more clinical items includes a plurality of non-medications;

accessing a plurality of patient-specific demographic values for the individual patient;

determining whether at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one demographic patient-specific value; and

without user intervention, updating the preference card by substituting, without user intervention, a compatible predefined value for the at least one incompatible predefined value if the at least one of the predefined values is incompatible with the at least one patient-specific demographic value.

73. The media of claim 72, wherein the first preference card is replaced by a second preference card.

74. The media of claim 72, wherein the preference card includes at least one documentation segment, the documentation segment having a plurality of documentation values.

75. The media of claim 74, further comprising the step of determining whether at least one of the documentation values is incompatible with at least one patient-specific demographic value.

76. The media of claim 75, further comprising the step of substituting a compatible documentation value for the incompatible documentation value.

77. The media of claim 75, further comprising the step of substituting a substitute documentation segment for the documentation segment having an incompatible documentation value.