Use of location awareness to request assistance for a medical event occurring in a healthcare environment

• US 8,180,650 B2
• Filed: 02/25/2005
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Fitchett, Jeff, Graves, Alan F.
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor, Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAJ, RAJIV J
• Application Number:
  US11/065,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20060181424A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,636 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3, 600/300
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 15/00 Tags attached to, or associated with, an object, in order to enable detection of the object record carriers for use with machines having a detectable tag or marker G06K19/00
• 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 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 80/00 ICT specially adapted for facilitating communication between medical practitioners or patients, e.g. for collaborative diagnosis, therapy or health monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A method of requesting assistance for a medical event occurring in a hospital. The method comprises receiving data regarding a location of the medical event; receiving data regarding a type of the medical event; receiving data regarding at least one wirelessly detectable tag, each one of the at least one wirelessly detectable tag being associated with a respective one of at least one clinician; determining a location of each clinician within the hospital based at least in part on the data regarding the at least one wirelessly detectable tag; identifying at least one particular clinician as being eligible to provide assistance, based at least in part on the location of the medical event, the type of the medical event, and the respective location of each clinician; and performing an action to cause requesting of assistance for the medical event from each particular clinician.

Claims

1. A method of requesting assistance for a medical event occurring in a healthcare establishment, said method being executed by at least one computer, the method comprising:

in a controller, receiving data regarding a location of the medical event within the healthcare establishment;

in the controller, receiving data regarding a type of the medical event;

in a location calculation engine, receiving data regarding at least one wirelessly detectable tag, each one of the at least one wirelessly detectable tag being associated with a respective one of at least one clinician;

in the location calculation engine, determining a respective location of each one of the at least one clinician within the healthcare establishment based at least in part on the data regarding the at least one wirelessly detectable tag;

in the controller;

determining a requisite skill set associated with the medical event based at least in part on the type of the medical event;

obtaining a respective profile of each one of the at least one clinician, wherein the respective profile of each one of the at least one clinician indicates whether each one of the at least one clinician has the requisite skill set;

identifying at least one potential assistance-providing clinician of the at least one clinician as being qualified to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on the requisite skill set associated with the medical event and the respective profile of each one of the at least one clinician;

identifying at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on proximity of the location of the medical event to the respective location of each one of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician;

determining an availability of the at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician identified as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event based on a present location and a next likely location of the at least one particular clinician; and

performing an action to cause requesting of assistance for the medical event from each one of the at least one particular clinician.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the data regarding the at least one wirelessly detectable tag comprises, for each given wirelessly detectable tag:

data indicative of an identifier of the given wirelessly detectable tag; and

data indicative of a respective distance between the given wirelessly detectable tag and each one of at least three detectors spatially distributed in the healthcare establishment, each one of the at least three detectors being operative to detect a signal provided by the given wirelessly detectable tag.

3. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the data indicative of a respective distance between the wirelessly detectable tag and each one of at least three detectors spatially distributed in the healthcare establishment comprises data indicative of a respective travel time of the signal detected by each one of the at least three detectors.

4. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the data indicative of a respective distance between the wirelessly detectable tag and each one of at least three detectors spatially distributed in the healthcare establishment comprises data indicative of a respective intensity of the signal detected by each one of the at least three detectors.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein determining the availability of the at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician identified as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event comprises determining the availability of the at least one particular clinician based on a relationship between the present location and a location history of the at least one particular clinician.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing the action to cause requesting of assistance for the medical event comprises, when the availability of the at least one particular clinician indicates that the at least one particular clinician is unavailable, displaying a message indicating that the at least one particular clinician is unavailable and providing a plurality of options, wherein the plurality of options comprise attempting to reach a surrogate clinician for the at least one particular clinician, attempting to reach an alternative clinician for the at least one particular clinician, and leaving a message for the at least one particular clinician.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the next likely location of the at least one particular clinician is based on a schedule of the at least one particular clinician.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the next likely location of the at least one particular clinician is based on a previous location of the at least one particular clinician prior to the present location of the at least one particular clinician.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the at least one particular clinician identified as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event comprises the at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician being (1) qualified for the type of the medical event and (2) located closest to the location of the medical event.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein performing an action to cause requesting of assistance for the medical event from each one of the at least one particular clinician comprises generating a respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular clinician.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular clinician is indicative of the location of the medical event.

12. A method as defined in claim 11, wherein the respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular clinician is also indicative of the type of the medical event.

13. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular is automatically generated.

14. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular clinician is a paging message.

15. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein the respective message destined for each one of the at least one particular clinician is an electronic mail message.

16. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein a given one of the at least one particular clinician is associated with a communications device, said method further comprising sending the respective message destined for the given one of the at least one particular clinician to the communications device.

17. A method as defined in claim 16, wherein the communications device is a mobile communications device.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein the mobile communications device is one of a pager, a wireless local area network phone, a personal digital assistance, and a cellular telephone.

19. A method as defined in claim 16, further comprising, prior to sending the respective message destined for the given one of the at least one particular clinician to the communications device, learning of the communications device associated with the given one of the at least one particular clinician based at least in part on the location of the given one of the at least one particular clinician.

20. A method as defined in claim 10, further comprising, for each given particular clinician of the at least one particular clinician:

sending the respective message destined for the given particular clinician to the given particular clinician;

being attentive to reception within a predetermined period of time of a positive acknowledgement of the respective message by the given particular clinician; and

responsive to expiry of the predetermined period of time without reception of a positive acknowledgement of the respective message by the given particular clinician, performing an action to indicate that the given particular clinician has not positively acknowledged the respective message.

21. A method as defined in claim 10, further comprising, for each given particular clinician of the at least one particular clinician:

sending the respective message destined for the given particular clinician to the given particular clinician;

being attentive to reception within a predetermined period of time of a positive acknowledgement of the respective message by the given particular clinician; and

responsive to expiry of the predetermined period of time without reception of a positive acknowledgement of the respective message by the given particular clinician, obtaining an indication of a surrogate clinician associated with the given particular clinician and sending a message to the surrogate clinician.

22. A method as defined in claim 21, wherein the message sent to the surrogate clinician contains a message to be communicated to the given particular clinician by the surrogate clinician.

23. A system for requesting assistance for a medical event occurring in a healthcare establishment, said system comprising:

a location calculation engine configured to determine a location within the healthcare establishment where the medical event has occurred, and determine, based at least in part on data regarding wirelessly detectable tags associated with respective clinicians, the respective locations of the respective clinicians within the healthcare establishment;

a controller configured to determine a requisite skill set associated with the medical event based at least in part on a type of the medical event, and obtain a respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians, wherein the respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians indicates whether each one of the respective clinicians has the requisite skill set;

the controller configured to identify at least one potential assistance-providing clinician of the respective clinicians as being qualified to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on the requisite skill set associated with the medical event and the respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians, and identify at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on proximity of the location of the medical event to the respective locations of each one of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician;

the controller configured to determine an availability of the at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician identified as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event based on a present location and a next likely location of the at least one particular clinician; and

the controller configured to cause assistance for the medical event to be requested from each one of the at least one particular clinician.

24. A computer-readable storage medium comprising a program element for execution by a computing device to request assistance for a medical event occurring in a healthcare establishment, the program element including:

computer-readable program code for determining a location within the healthcare establishment where the medical event has occurred;

computer-readable program code for determining, based at least in part on data regarding wirelessly detectable tags associated with respective clinicians, the respective locations of the respective clinicians within the healthcare establishment;

computer-readable program code for determining a requisite skill set associated with the medical event based at least in part on a type of the medical event;

computer-readable program code for obtaining a respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians, wherein the respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians indicates whether each one of the respective clinicians has the requisite skill set;

computer-readable program code for identifying at least one potential assistance-providing clinician of the respective clinicians as being qualified to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on the requisite skill set associated with the medical event and the respective profile of each one of the respective clinicians;

computer-readable program code for identifying at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event, based at least in part on proximity of the location of the medical event to the respective locations of each one of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician;

computer-readable program code for determining an availability of the at least one particular clinician of the at least one potential assistance-providing clinician identified as being eligible to provide assistance for the medical event based on a present location and a next likely location of the at least one particular clinician; and

computer-readable program code for causing assistance for the medical event to be requested from each one of the at least one particular clinician.