Patient Monitoring

• US 20090216556A1
• Filed: 02/24/2008
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vesselin Zlatev
• Original Assignee: Vesselin Zlatev
• Inventors: Hu, Xiao, Zlatev, Vesselin, Buxey, Farzad, Martin, Neil
• Granted Patent: US 8,510,126 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• 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 40/63 for local operation
• 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

Some embodiments of the invention provide a method for monitoring patients in a unit of a hospital, an entire hospital, or several hospitals. In some of these embodiments, the methods receives data pertaining to multiple patients. The method aggregates the data and calculated scores based on the received data. The method also calculates trends associated with the aggregated data and/or the generated scores. The method further displays the aggregated and calculated data in a unified display that facilitates efficient allocation of resources in the hospital unit, the hospital, or the group of hospitals.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a) aggregating a plurality of clinical data for a plurality of patients; and

b) providing a unified display for displaying said clinical data,

wherein said unified display is sorted based on a condition to monitor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unified display comprises, before displaying the unified display, (i) receiving an unsorted listing of the clinical data, and (ii) sorting the unsorted listing based on a user request that specifies the condition to monitor through a particular sorting of the clinical data.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the unified display comprises, before displaying the unified display, (i) receiving an unsorted listing of the clinical data and (ii) sorting the unsorted listing according to a configuration setting that specifies the condition to monitor through a predetermined sorting of the clinical data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the configuration setting comprises a stored user request that previously specified the condition to monitor through a particular sorting of the clinical data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the unified display comprises displaying listings, trends, and severity scores associated with the aggregated clinical data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the aggregating of the data comprises calculating severity scores to quantify a patient'"'"'s condition from said data to include within the unified display of the data.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the aggregating of the data comprises calculating trends associated with the data to include within the unified display of the data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the severity score is one of Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Examination (APACHE), APACHE II, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS), SAPS II, and Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS).

9. The method of claim 5 comprising prioritizing care for a first patient over care for a second patient when the first patient'"'"'s associated severity score and trend indicates that the first patient needs more urgent care than the second patient.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising disseminating said unified display to a device of at least one different data recipient.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregated data comprises at least two vital statistics of blood pressure, heart rate, urine output, respiratory rate, temperature, oxygen saturation, glucose level, and AVPU (Alert, reacting to Voice, reacting to Pain, Unresponsive) score.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing a user interface tool for sorting said data according to data values of a particular parameter of the aggregated data.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the patients are in a single unit of a single hospital.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two different patients are in two different units of a single hospital.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein at least two different patients are in two different hospitals.

16. A method comprising:

a) providing a list of medical care receiving patients; and

b) for each patient, providing a set of clinical data and a set of scores,

wherein the list is sortable by at least one clinical data and one score.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising defining a set of patients to discharge from a unit of a hospital based on a particular sorting the data and scores.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the unit is at least one of an intensive care unit (ICU), an intermediary step-down unit, and a general ward of the hospital.

19. The method of claim 16 further comprising defining a set of patients that require immediate assistance from a rapid response team based on a particular sorting the data and scores.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the defining the set of patients that require immediate assistance from the rapid response team comprises comparing values for the clinical data and the set of scores to a set of predefined threshold clinical data values and score values.

21. A method comprising:

a) aggregating a plurality of clinical data parameters for a plurality of patients; and

b) generating an alert for a particular patient when values for at least one of the aggregated data parameters for the particular patient exceed specified thresholds.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the alert is at least one of:

an audible alarm, a pop-up message on a screen, a visual alarm, a pager message, an e-mail message, and a Short Message Service (SMS) message.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein said aggregated data parameters comprise at least two of a vital sign, a severity score, a first trend relating the vital sign to at least one earlier vital sign, and a second trend relating the severity score to at least one earlier severity score, wherein the specified thresholds specify acceptable value ranges for the vital sign, severity score, first trend, and second trend.

24. A graphical user interface (GUI) for presenting clinical data, said GUI comprising:

a) a display area for displaying a plurality of medical care receiving patients; and

b) a list within the display area for providing at least one clinical data and at least one score associated with each patient, wherein the list is sortable by at least one of the clinical data and the score.

25. The GUI of claim 24, wherein the at least one score comprises a severity score calculated from set of clinical data.

26. The GUI of claim 24 further comprising a user interface tool for specifying a sorting of the patients and the list within the display area.