METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING STAFF/PATIENT CONTACTS AND RATIOS
First Claim
1. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for maintaining cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for a patient, the method comprising:
- detecting a period of contact time over which a patient and a staff member were within a specified physical proximity of one another at the healthcare facility;
accessing, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient;
identifying a current value for a quality or performance parameter indicative of the cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient from within the accessed profile; and
adding the period of contact time to the current value of the quality or performance parameter to update the indicated cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Methods, systems and computer program products are used in monitoring patients, staff, and assets at a facility, initiating a response to prevent or mitigate harm, and assess and ensure overall quality and performance, and refine individual patient profiles. A plurality of sensors throughout the facility provides multiple data streams relating to the locations of patients relative to caregivers. A computer system analyzes the data stream and determines the location and/or movements of the patients relative to the caregivers. Patient profiles are periodically refined by means of an information feedback loop in order to more accurately predict (actionable) events, provide adequate care and ensure a desired level of patient wellness. From the analyzed data, staff-to-patient contact times and staff-to-patient ratios are determined. When abnormalities in staff-to-patient contact times and/or staff-to-patient ratios are detected, facility staff can be notified.
115 Citations
51 Claims
-
1. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for maintaining cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for a patient, the method comprising:
-
detecting a period of contact time over which a patient and a staff member were within a specified physical proximity of one another at the healthcare facility; accessing, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; identifying a current value for a quality or performance parameter indicative of the cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient from within the accessed profile; and adding the period of contact time to the current value of the quality or performance parameter to update the indicated cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for maintaining cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for a patient, the method comprising:
-
receiving first sensor communication indicating that a staff member and a patient were detected commonly occupying a portion of space within the facility; recording a first time indicative of when common occupancy in the portion of space was detected; receiving second sensor communication indicating that the staff member and patient were detected occupying separate portions of space within the facility subsequent to receiving the first sensor communication; recording a second time indicative of when separate occupancy was detected; determining the time period of common occupancy based on the recorded first time and the recorded second time; accessing, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; identifying a quality or performance parameter related to staff-to-patient contact time for the patient based on data contained in the profile; and updating the value of the quality or performance parameter related to staff-to-patient contact time to reflect the time period of common occupancy between the staff member and the patient. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for tracking a staff-to-patient contact time at the facility comprising:
-
establishing a specified recurring time interval for checking the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient contact time for a patient such that upon each occurrence of the specified time interval the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient contact time for the patient is checked; in response to an occurrence of the specified time interval; accessing, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; accessing a cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient from data in the profile; comparing the accessed cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value to a pre-determined sufficient staff-to-patient cumulative contact time value for the patient; based on the comparison determining if an alert is to be triggered. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
-
33. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for tracking a staff-to-patient ratio at the facility comprising:
-
establishing a recurring time interval for checking the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient ratio for at least a portion of the facility such that upon each occurrence of the specified time interval the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient ratio for the at least a portion of the facility is checked; in response to an occurrence the time interval; receiving sensor input indicating the number of staff members present in at least a portion of the at least a portion of the facility; receiving sensor input indicating the number of patients present in the at least a portion of the facility; calculating the staff-to-patient ratio based on the number of staff members and the number of patients present in the at least a portion of the facility; comparing the calculated staff-to-patient ratio to a pre-determined sufficient staff-to-patient ratio for the at least a portion of the facility; based on the comparison determining if an alert is to be triggered. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
-
-
46. At a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, a method for managing cumulative staff-to-patient contact times patients, the method comprising:
-
for each of a plurality of patients at the healthcare facility; monitoring periods of common occupancy between the patient and members of a plurality of different subgroups of healthcare facility staff, maintaining a cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient for each of the plurality of different subgroups of healthcare facility staff, comparing the maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for each of the plurality of different subgroups to corresponding sufficient cumulative staff-to-patient contact time values for the patient for each of the plurality of subgroups in response to the occurrence of a once daily time interval; issuing an alert or an alarm for any subgroup having an in sufficient maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient based on the comparison; and resetting the maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient for each of the plurality of different subgroups to zero after issuing any alerts or alarms.
-
-
47. A computer program product for use at a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, the computer program product for implementing a method for maintaining cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for a patient, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method, including the following:
-
detect a period of contact time over which a patient and a staff member were within a specified physical proximity of one another at the healthcare facility; access, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; identify a current value for a quality or performance parameter indicative of the cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient from within the accessed profile; and add the period of contact time to the current value of the quality or performance parameter to update the indicated cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for the patient.
-
-
48. A computer program product for use at a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, the computer program product for implementing a method for maintaining cumulative staff-to-patient contact time for a patient, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method, including the following:
-
receive first sensor communication indicating that a staff member and a patient were detected commonly occupying a portion of space within the facility; record a first time indicative of when common occupancy in the portion of space was detected; receive second sensor communication indicating that the staff member and patient were detected occupying separate portions of space within the facility subsequent to receiving the first sensor communication; record a second time indicative of when separate occupancy was detected; determine the time period of common occupancy based on the recorded first time and the recorded second time; access, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; identify a quality or performance parameter related to staff-to-patient contact time for the patient based on data contained in the profile; and update the value of the quality or performance parameter related to staff-to-patient contact time to reflect the time period of common occupancy between the staff member and the patient.
-
-
49. A computer program product for use at a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, the computer program product for implementing a method for tracking a staff-to-patient contact time at the, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method, including the following:
-
establish a specified recurring time interval for checking the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient contact time for a patient such that upon each occurrence of the specified time interval the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient contact time for the patient is checked; in response to an occurrence of the specified time interval; access, from among a plurality of patient profiles that differ as between at least some patients at the facility, a profile corresponding to the patient; access a cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient from data in the profile; compare the accessed cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value to a predetermined sufficient staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient; based on the comparison determining if an alert is to be triggered.
-
-
50. A computer program product for use at a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, the computer program product for implementing a method for tracking a staff-to-patient ratio at the facility, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method, including the following:
-
establish a recurring time interval for checking the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient ratio for at least a portion of the facility such that upon each occurrence of the specified time interval the sufficiency of the staff-to-patient ratio for the at least a portion of the facility is checked; in response to an occurrence the time interval; receive sensor input indicating the number of staff members present in at least a portion of the at least a portion of the facility; receive sensor input indicating the number of patients present in the at least a portion of the facility; calculate the staff-to-patient ratio based on the number of staff members and the number of patients present in the at least a portion of the facility; compare the calculated staff-to-patient ratio to a pre-determined sufficient staff-to-patient ratio for the at least a portion of the facility; based on the comparison determining if an alert is to be triggered.
-
-
51. A computer program product for use at a computer system in a healthcare facility system that includes a plurality of patients and staff who interact so as to provide care and wellness for the patients, the computer program product for implementing a method for managing cumulative staff-to-patient contact times patients, the computer program product comprising one or more physical storage media having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed at a processor, cause the computer system to perform the method for each of a plurality of patients at the healthcare facility, including the following:
-
monitor periods of common occupancy between the patient and members of a plurality of different subgroups of healthcare facility staff; maintain a cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient for each of the plurality of different subgroups of healthcare facility staff; compare the maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for each of the plurality of different subgroups to corresponding sufficient cumulative staff-to-patient contact time values for the patient for each of the plurality of subgroups in response to the occurrence of a once daily time interval; issue an alert or an alarm for any subgroup having an in sufficient maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient based on the comparison; and reset the maintained cumulative staff-to-patient contact time value for the patient for each of the plurality of different subgroups to zero after issuing any alerts or alarms.
-
Specification