System and method for maintaining hospitalist and patient information

• US 8,666,773 B1
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hospitalists Now, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hospitalists Now, Inc.
• Inventors: Loya, Francisco III, Gonzales, Merced Jr., Gonzales, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Sereboff, Neal
• Application Number:
  US13/317,082
• Time in Patent Office: 879 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

The present invention provides solutions to many of the problems face by hospitalist medicine providers by supporting the ability to manage patient workflow, improve physician communication, integrate with hospital information systems, identify and document accurate diagnosis codes and capture professional fee charges. The system and method of the present invention enforces discipline in the clinical decision making process by ensuring proper and specific diagnoses and documentation thereof. This system supports the diagnosis, reports patient progress, enhances continuity of care through enhanced communication and notification throughout the treatment episode with all clinical and operational providers, automates core measure compliance documentation and ensure proper notification of any program specific risk management initiatives.

Claims

1. A system for supporting patient status at a first health care facility with one or more hospitalists, comprising:

a computer management system having a computer processor, input/output devices, one or more subprograms for operation of the computer processor, a data buffer, and one or more input/output ports for receipt and transmission of patient data, hospitalist information, and administration messages and information, a database maintaining an archive of information relating to patient data and hospitalist information including a diagnosis frequency factor for one or more hospitalists, said diagnosis frequency factor being calculated by the computer management system based on the frequency of a particular diagnosis being given by the one or more hospitalists,

an entry subprogram operated on the computer processor that executes a program to enter information onto the computer management system related to patients, the entry subprogram supporting the entry of patient data on the patient data port, said patient data being in a normalized format when the patient is received into said first health care facility as a new patient and one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the new patient at the first health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system,

a quick entry interface screen used by said one or more hospitalists assigned to one of said patients at the health care facility to enter patient information, said interface screen initially pre-populating a diagnosis window on said quick entry user interface screen with one of the most frequent diagnosis entered by a particular hospitalist at the first health care facility based on the retained diagnosis frequency factor information retained on the database for said particular hospitalist, said most frequent diagnosis being entered in said diagnosis window by said particular hospitalist if appropriate or alternatively said quick entry user interface screen pre-populating an alternative diagnosis in the diagnosis window based on the first letters entered by the particular hospitalist in said diagnosis window, said alternative diagnosis being entered in said diagnosis window by said particular hospitalist if appropriate,

said computer management system calculating said diagnosis frequency factor for one or more hospitalists and allowing hospitalists to access said stored information from said database about one of the patients at the first health care facility from the computer management system to support the treatment of the new patient, and

a discharge subprogram operated on the computer processor that executes a program to discharge patients from the first health care facility, said discharge subprogram requiring the entry of electronic information regarding treatments received by patients being discharged, said entry of treatments is electronically input into patient data port by one or more hospitalists prior to discharge of the patient from said first health care facility.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the normalized patient status information includes the standardized set of data fields specifying visit number (encounter number), medical record number, patient name, diagnosis codes, gender (male/female), age (DOB), admission date, assigned doctor, and location/department of facility patient admitted to.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the computer management system analyzes the most frequent diagnosis for the health care facility and if the diagnosis exceeds a predetermined level, said computer management system produces an alert to one or more contacts at the first health care facility regarding a possible contagious infection problem.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein patient care responsibility may be transferred from a first said one or more hospitalists to a second said one or more hospitalist within said first health care facility and said second one or more hospitalist will be given User'"'"'s rights to patient information upon the transfer of patient care responsibility to that hospitalist health care professional.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein once User'"'"'s rights are established for a particular hospitalist, that particular hospitalist may input information regarding a responsible patient such as the patient clinical history, diagnosis, treatment(s) received, medications (type and dosage), test results, x-rays or scan results, physical examination records, physician notes, lab results, and prescription history.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein once User'"'"'s rights are established for a particular hospitalist, that hospitalist may input information regarding a responsible patient such as the patient prescription history including drugs prescribed, dosages prescribed, and frequency of dosage.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the patient'"'"'s prescription history and present prescription types, amounts, and dosages can be shown graphically in a visual graphical format.

8. The system of claim 4 wherein said accessing stored information from said database regarding any patient'"'"'s record stored in the database, said patient being assigned to said hospitalists, by searching the database using any portion of the name of the patient.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein a discharged patient remains in the hospitalist health care professional'"'"'s active census for a predetermined time period following discharge and a highlighted alert status indicator will activate if the computer management system identifies said discharged patient being readmitted to a first customer care facility within said predetermined time period after having been discharged from one or more other customer health care facilities.

10. A system for supporting patient status at a first health care facility with one or more hospitalists, comprising:

a computer management system having a computer processor, input/output devices, one or more subprograms for operation of the computer processor, a data buffer, and one or more input/output ports for receipt and transmission of patient data, hospitalist information, and administration messages and information, a database maintaining an archive of information relating to patient data and hospitalist information including a diagnosis frequency factor for one or more hospitalists, said diagnosis frequency factor being calculated by the computer management system based on the frequency of a particular diagnosis being given by the one or more hospitalist,

an entry subprogram operated on the computer processor that executes a program to enter information onto the computer management system related to patients, the entry subprogram supporting the entry of patient data on the patient data port, said patient data for a new patient being in a normalized format when the patient is received into said first health care facility and one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the new patient at the first health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system,

a quick entry interface screen used by said one or more hospitalist assigned to one of said patients to enter patient information, said quick entry interface screen initially pre-populating a diagnosis window on said quick entry user interface screen with one of the most frequent diagnosis entered by a particular hospitalist at the first health care facility based on the retained diagnosis frequency factor information retained in said database, said most frequent diagnosis being entered in said diagnosis window by said particular hospitalist if appropriate or alternatively said quick entry user interface screen pre-populating an alternative diagnosis in the diagnosis window based on the first letters entered by the particular hospitalist in said diagnosis window, alternative diagnosis being entered in said diagnosis window by said particular hospitalist if appropriate,

said computer management system analyzing diagnosis frequency for one or more hospitalists to determine said diagnosis frequency factor and allowing one or more hospitalists to access electronic information about one or more of the patients at the first health care facility from the computer management system to support the treatment of the new patient,

a transfer subprogram operated on the computer processor that executes a program to transfer patients from the first health care facility to a second health care facility, said patient data being stored in a database associated with the second health care facility computer management system, one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the transferred patient at the second health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system,

said one or more hospitalists at the second health care facility obtaining access to said electronic information about the transferred patient to the second health care facility from the computer management system used to support the second health care facility, and,

a second transfer subprogram operated on the computer processor that executes a program to transfer responsibility for a patient'"'"'s care and treatment to a particular hospitalist in the group of one or more hospitalists within said first health care facility, one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the transferred patient at the first health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system,

said computer management system allowing access to one or more hospitalist health care professionals at the first health care facility electronic information about the patient transferred within the first health care facility, said computer management system provides access to patient information to support the treatment of the transferred patient.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the normalized patient status information includes the standardized set of data fields specifying visit number (encounter number), medical record number, patient name, diagnosis codes, gender (male/female), age (DOB), admission date, assigned doctor, and location/department of facility patient admitted to.

12. The system of claim 10 wherein patient data includes patient demographic data, patient clinical history, diagnosis, treatment(s) received, medications (type and dosage), test results, x-rays or scan results, physical examination records, physician notes, lab results, and prescription history, said patient data being accessible by one or more hospitalists at said second health care facility upon transfer of patient responsibility to one or more hospitalist healthcare professionals at said second health care facility.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein patient data regarding prescription history would include drugs prescribed, dosages prescribed, and frequency of dosage, said patient data being accessible by one or more hospitalists at said second health care facility upon transfer of patient responsibility to one or more hospitalists at said second health care facility.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein patient prescription history includes prescription types, amounts, and dosages can graphically in the visual graphical format, said patient data being accessible by one or more hospitalists at said second health care facility upon transfer of patient responsibility to one or more hospitalists at said second health care facility.

15. The system of claim 10 wherein patient data includes patient data, patient history, physical notes, and progress notes, said patient data being accessible by one or more hospitalist healthcare professionals at said second health care facility upon transfer of patient responsibility to one or more hospitalist healthcare professionals at said second health care facility.

16. The system of claim 10 wherein a discharged patient remains in the hospitalist health care professional'"'"'s active census for a predetermined time period following discharge and a highlighted alert status indicator will activate if the computer management system identifies said discharged patient being readmitted to a first customer care facility within said predetermined time period after having been discharged from one or more other customer health care facilities.

17. A method for supporting patient status at a first health care facility with one or more hospitalists, comprising the steps of:

providing a computer management system having a computer processor, input/output devices, subprograms for operation of the computer processor, a data buffer, and one or more input/output ports;

providing a database for retaining an archive of information relating to patient data and physician information,

inputting information on the one or more input/output ports for receipt of patient data, physician information, and administration messages and information, said patient data being received in a normalized format when patient is newly admitted to the first health care facility,

storing information received on the one or more input/output ports including patient data, physician information, and administration messages and information on said database for storage,

analyzing at said computer management system the frequency that a particular hospitalist gives one or more diagnosis to patients assigned to said particular hospitalist,

calculating a diagnosis frequency factor for one or more hospitalists based on the frequency one or more diagnosis are given by one or more hospitalist,

retaining the diagnosis frequency factor for one or more particular hospitalists in said database,

executing an entry subprogram on the computer processor to enter information relating to one or more of said patients, said entry subprogram uses a quick entry user interface screen that initially pre-populates a diagnosis window on said quick entry user interface with the most frequent diagnosis entered by that particular hospitalist at the first health care facility,

entering the pre-populated most frequent diagnosis in said quick entry user interface if appropriate or alternatively said quick entry user interface screen pre-populates an alternative diagnosis in the diagnosis window based on the first letters entered by the particular hospitalist,

notifying an assigned hospitalist of their responsibility for the new patient at the first customer health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system,

executing a discharge subprogram if appropriate on the computer processor to discharge patients from a first health care facility, said discharge subprogram requiring the entry of electronic information regarding treatments received by patients being discharged, said entry of treatments is electronically input into patient data port by one or more hospitalists prior to discharge of the patient from said first health care facility,

executing a transfer subprogram on the computer processor if appropriate to transfer patients from a first health care facility to a second health care facility, said patient data being stored in the computer management system, one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the transferred patient at the second health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system, said one or more hospitalist at the second health care facility accessing electronic information about the new patient from the computer management system to support the treatment of the new patient, and,

executing a transfer subprogram on the computer processor if appropriate to transfer responsibility for a patient'"'"'s care and treatment to a particular hospitalist at the first health care facility, one or more hospitalists being notified of their responsibility for the transferred patient at the first health care facility by an electronic information message issued by the computer management system, said one or more hospitalists at the first health care facility accessing electronic information about the assigned patient from the computer management system to support the treatment of the assigned patient.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the normalized patient status information includes the standardized set of data fields specifying visit number (encounter number), medical record number, patient name, diagnosis codes, gender (male/female), age (DOB), admission date, assigned doctor, and location/department of facility patient admitted to.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the computer management system analyzes the most frequent diagnosis for the health care facility and if the diagnosis exceeds a predetermined level, said computer management system provides an alert to one or more administration personnel at the first health care facility regarding a possible contagious infection problem.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein one or more hospitalists will be given User'"'"'s rights to patient information upon the transfer of patient care responsibility to that hospitalist.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein once User'"'"'s rights are established for one of said hospitalists, that hospitalist may input information regarding a responsible patient such as the patient clinical history, diagnosis, treatment(s) received, medications (type and dosage), test results, x-rays or scan results, physical examination records, physician notes, lab results, and prescription history.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein once User'"'"'s rights are established for one of said hospitalists that hospitalist may input information regarding a responsible patient such as the patient prescription history including drugs prescribed, dosages prescribed, and frequency of dosage.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the patient'"'"'s prescription history and present prescription types, amounts, and dosages can be shown graphically in a visual graphical format.

24. The method of claim 20 wherein once User'"'"'s rights are established for a particular hospitalists, that hospitalist may input information regarding patient data, electronic treatment history, physical records, and progress notes.

25. The system of claim 17 wherein patient information relating to a discharged patient remains in the computer management system for a predetermined period of time after discharge and a highlighted alert status indicator will activate if the computer management system identifies said newly discharged patient as being re-admitted to a first customer care facility within said predetermined period of time.