METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRACKING, DOCUMENTING, AND PREDICTING FALL-RELATED ACTIVITIES

• US 20080281638A1
• Filed: 05/06/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Your Choice Living, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Your Choice Living, Inc.
• Inventors: Knohl, Keith, Weatherly, Jonathan
• Application Number:
  US12/115,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20080281638A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment

Abstract

The system and methods disclosed enable health-care providers to more accurately predict, monitor, report, and organize health-care events for a plurality of patients. Each patient is provided a fall-detecting device configured to transmit a message indicative of a patient status to a host device maintained by a health-care provider. When the host device receives such a message, the host device creates and stores new patient status data and suitably communicates the information contained in the message to a user. Additionally, the host device generates and automatically populates certain data fields in a report. This automatic generation of reports enables health-care providers to more easily comply with government and local health-care reporting requirements. Based on the accumulated data received from fall-detecting devices and external sources, the system and methods disclosed calculate fall-risk assessments for each patient, enabling the health-care provider to more accurately predict falls to prevent such fall-related activities and/or minimize resulting injuries.

Claims

1. A method of documenting fall-related activities, the method comprising:

(a) storing a patient identifier in association with a fall-detecting device identifier, the fall-detecting device identifier identifying a fall-detecting device and the patient identifier identifying an individual associated with the fall-detecting device;

(b) receiving a message from the fall-detecting device, the message including the fall-detecting device identifier;

(c) storing data indicative of the received message in association with the patient identifier based on the fall-detecting device identifier;

(d) automatically generating a report;

(e) populating the report with the data indicative of the received message; and

(f) populating the report with patient information based on the patient identifier, the patient information identifying at least one characteristic of an individual.

2. The method of claim 1, including populating the report with at least one of location-specific information and facility-specific information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the report includes a fall incident report.

4. The method of claim 1, including:

(a) receiving a plurality of messages from a plurality of fall-detecting devices;

(b) storing data indicative of each of the plurality of received messages;

(c) combining the data indicative of the plurality of received messages with external source data;

(d) determining a difference between the external source data and the data indicative of the plurality of received messages; and

(e) generating a population report about a plurality of individuals based on the difference between the external source data and the data indicative of the plurality of received messages.

5. The method of claim 1, including calculating a fall-risk assessment factor based on at least one of the data indicative of the received message and the patient identifier, the fall-risk assessment factor indicating at least one of an individual'"'"'s risk of falling and a predicted injury severity.

6. The method of claim 5, including calculating the fall-risk assessment factor based on a time the message was received and based on an answer to a fall-risk assessment question.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the patient information includes at least one of a patient name, a patient age, a patient location, a patient record number, and a patient health status.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the patient health status includes at least one of physical condition, illnesses, medication type, dosage, frequency, and emergency contact information.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the patient information includes at least one of a fall history and a fall-risk assessment factor.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the report conforms to a standard report format determined by a government entity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the report conforms to a standard report format determined by a supervising medical care entity.

12. The method of claim 1, including generating at least one of a fall history report, a fall-risk assessment report, a patient census, a program summary, a fall history summary, and a fall detail report regardless of any received message.

13. The method of claim 1, including generating an alarm selected from the group including an audible alarm, a visual alarm, and a vibrating alarm in response to the message.

14. The method of claim 1, including determining that the individual attempted to stand and subsequently sat back down based on the data indicative of the received message.

15. The method of claim 1, including determining that the individual fell from at least one position selected from a group including a supine position and a prone position without attempting to stand based on the data indicative of the received message.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein if the message indicates that an individual fell, performing at least one of the actions selected from the group including:

(a) generating a professional staff report,

(b) generating a professional staff alert,

(c) populating the report with location-specific information,

(d) populating the report with facility-specific information, and

(e) retrieving population data, the population data being indicative of a characteristic of a plurality of individuals.

17. An apparatus for documenting fall-related activities, the apparatus comprising:

a host device configured to communicate with the plurality of fall-detecting devices, each of the plurality of fall-detecting devices having a unique fall-detecting device identifier;

wherein the host device is further configured to;

(a) store a patient identifier in association with each of the fall-detecting device identifiers, the patient identifier identifying an individual associated with each fall-detecting device

(b) receive a message from one of the plurality of fall-detecting devices, the message including the fall-detecting device identifier;

(c) store data indicative of the received message in association with the patient identifier based on the fall-detecting device identifier;

(d) automatically generate a report;

(e) populate the report with the data indicative of the received message, and

(f) populate the report with patient data based on the patient identifier.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to:

populate the report with at least one of location-specific information and facility-specific information.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein if the report includes a fall incident report.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is additionally configured to:

(a) receive a plurality of messages from a plurality of fall-detecting devices;

(b) store data indicative of each of the plurality of received messages;

(c) combine the data indicative of the plurality of received messages with external source data;

(d) determine a difference between the external source data and the data indicative of the plurality of received messages; and

(e) generate a population report about a plurality of individuals based on the difference between the external source data and the data indicative of the plurality of received messages.

21. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to calculate a fall-risk assessment factor based on at least one of the data indicative of the received message and the patient identifier, the fall-risk assessment factor indicating at least one of an individual'"'"'s risk of falling and a predicted injury severity.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the host device is configured to calculate the fall-risk assessment factor based on a time the message was received and based on an answer to a fall-risk assessment question.

23. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the patient information includes at least one of a patient name, a patient age, a patient location, a patient record number, and a patient health status.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the patient health status includes at least one of physical condition, illnesses, medication type, dosage, frequency, and emergency contact information.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the patient information includes at least one of a fall history and a fall-risk assessment factor.

26. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the report conforms to a standard report format determined by a government entity.

27. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the report conforms to a standard report format determined by a supervising medical care entity.

28. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to generate at least one of a fall history report, a fall-risk assessment report, a patient census, a program summary, a fall history summary, and a fall detail report regardless of any received message.

29. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to generate an alarm selected from the group including an audible alarm, a visual alarm, and a vibrating alarm in response to the message.

30. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to determine that the individual attempted to stand and subsequently sat back down based on the data indicative of the received message.

31. The method of claim 17, wherein the host device is configured to determine that the individual fell from at least one position selected from a group including a supine position and a prone position without attempting to stand based on the data indicative of the received message.

32. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein if the message indicates that an individual fell, the host device is configured to perform at least one of the actions selected from the group including:

(a) generate a professional staff report;

(b) generate a professional staff alert;

(c) populate the report with location-specific information;

(d) populate the report with facility-specific information; and

(e) retrieve population data, the population data being indicative of a characteristic of a plurality of individuals.

33. A computer readable media storing software instructions to document fall-related activities, the software instructions causing a computing device to:

(a) store a patient identifier in association with each of a plurality of fall-detecting device identifiers, each fall-detecting device having a unique fall-detecting device identifier, wherein the patient identifier identifies an individual associated with each fall-detecting device;

(b) receive a message from one of the plurality of fall-detecting devices, the message including the fall-detecting device identifier;

(c) store data indicative of the received message in association with the patient identifier based on the fall-detecting device identifier;

(d) automatically generate a report;

(e) populate the report with the data indicative of the received message, and

(f) populate the report with patient data based on the patient identifier.