ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY FOR OPERATING NURSING HOMES AND OTHER HEALTH CARE FACILITIES

• US 20190110762A1
• Filed: 10/12/2018
• Published: 04/18/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: J Brasch Company LLC
• Original Assignee: J Brasch Company LLC
• Inventors: Brasch, John, Smith, Gordon
• Granted Patent: US 10,646,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/08 Elderly
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2505/07 Home care
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0247 Pressure sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0257 Proximity sensors
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0077 Devices for viewing the surface of the body, e.g. camera, magnifying lens
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1115 Monitoring leaving of a patient support, e.g. a bed or a wheelchair
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1117 Fall detection
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1126 using a particular sensing technique
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6889 Rooms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6891 Furniture
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6894 Wheel chairs
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7267 involving training the classification device
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/746 Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms alarms per se G08B
• 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 50/20 for computer-aided diagnosis, e.g. based on medical expert systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A facility for coordinating the safety care of a person is described. The facility receives sensor output indicating that the person has departed a place of repose. In response to this receiving, the facility establishes an alarm identifying the person, accesses a set of on-duty caregivers, and applies one or more precedence rules to establish a precedence among at least a portion of the set of on-duty caregivers. Until a caregiver has accepted the alarm, for each caregiver in the established precedence, the facility: causes a mobile device carried by the caregiver to render a message notifying the caregiver of the alarm and soliciting the caregiver'"'"'s acceptance of the alarm; and allows the caregiver an interval of time of a first predetermined length in which to accept the alarm before proceeding to the next caregiver in the established precedence.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for coordinating the safety care of a person, comprising:

receiving sensor output indicating that the person has departed a place of repose;

in response to the receiving, establishing an alarm identifying the person;

accessing a set of on-duty caregivers;

applying one or more precedence rules to establish a precedence among at least a portion of the set of on-duty caregivers;

until a caregiver has accepted the alarm;

for each caregiver in the established precedence;

causing a mobile device carried by the caregiver to render a message notifying the caregiver of the alarm and soliciting the caregiver'"'"'s acceptance of the alarm; and

allowing the caregiver an interval of time of a first predetermined length in which to accept the alarm before proceeding to the next caregiver in the established precedence.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the place of repose is a bed, chair, sofa, or wheelchair.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, for a distinguished caregiver in the established precedence:

receiving an indication that the distinguished caregiver affirmatively declined to accept the alarm; and

in response to the received indication, proceeding to the next caregiver after the distinguished next caregiver in the established precedence before expiration of an interval of time of the first predetermined length.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the set of on-duty caregivers has an assigned area, and wherein the precedence rules consider assigned areas of on-duty caregivers in establishing the precedence.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the assigned areas of the caregivers are selected from the nodes of a tree hierarchy of areas of a physical facility, such that two of the caregivers in the established precedence of caregivers are assigned to two different nodes of the tree hierarchy corresponding to areas of different sizes that both contain the place of repose.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the one of the two caregivers that is earlier in the established sequence is assigned to a node corresponding to an area that is smaller than the area to which the node to which the other one of the two caregivers is assigned.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the set of on-duty caregivers has a current location, and wherein the precedence rules consider current locations of on-duty caregivers in establishing the precedence.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the set of on-duty caregivers has a last-known location, and wherein the precedence rules consider last-known locations of on-duty caregivers in establishing the precedence.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that an interval of time of a second predetermined length has passed since the alarm was established without a caregiver notified of the alarm accepting the alarm, the second predetermined length being greater than the first predetermined length; and

in response to the determining, triggering an audible alarm near the place of repose.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing an alarm configuration specific to the person that specifies alarm criteria for the person; and

determining that the sensor output matches alarm criteria specified by the accessed alarm configuration,

and wherein the establishing is in response to the determining.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing an alarm configuration specific to the person that specifies an alarm mode for the person,

and wherein the causing is performed in response to the determining.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing an alarm configuration specific to the person that specifies precedence rules for the person,

and wherein the applied precedence rules are the precedence rules specified by the alarm configuration.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting a visual user interface for specifying precedence rules,

and wherein the applied preference rules are specified via the presented user interface.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a distinguished caregiver declined an earlier alarm less than a threshold period of time ago; and

in response to the determining, omitting the distinguished caregiver from the portion of the set of on-duty caregivers among which the precedence is established.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a distinguished caregiver accepted an earlier alarm that has not yet been resolved; and

in response to the determining, omitting the distinguished caregiver from the portion of the set of on-duty caregivers among which the precedence is established.

16-29. -29. (canceled)

30. One or more computer memories collectively having contents configured to cause a mobile device configured to be carried by a caregiver at a residential facility to perform a method, the method comprising:

displaying information identifying a location in which a resident of the residential facility is predicted, on the basis of output from sensors near the location, to be in need of assistance; and

displaying a control that can be activated to indicate that a person associated with the mobile device is undertaking to provide assistance in the identified location.

31. The computer memories of claim 30, the method further comprising:

receiving input activating the displayed control; and

in response to receiving the input, contemporaneously with receiving the input, sending to a server a notification identifying the mobile device that reflects receiving the input.

32. The computer memories of claim 30, the method further comprising displaying a control that can be activated to indicate that the person associated with the mobile device will not undertake to provide assistance in the identified location.

33. The computer memories of claim 32, the method further comprising:

receiving input activating the displayed control that can be activated to indicate that the person associated with the mobile device will not undertake to provide assistance in the identified location; and

in response to receiving the input, contemporaneously with receiving the input, sending to a server a notification identifying the mobile device that reflects receiving the input.

34. The computer memories of claim 30, the method further comprising:

receiving first input activating the control; and

in response to receiving the first input, displaying a second control that can be activated to indicate that the person associated with the mobile device has completed a visit to the identified location.

35. The computer memories of claim 34, the method further comprising:

receiving input activating the second control; and

in response to receiving the input activating the second control, displaying a survey seeking information about the visit to the identified location.

36. The computer memories of claim 35, the method further comprising:

receiving input responding to the survey; and

sending to a server a representation of the input responded to the survey.

37. A method in a computing system for visualizing activity in a residential health care facility, the method comprising:

accessing a set of event records, each event record identifying a date, time, a location in the residential health care facility, and an event type of an event that occurred at the identified location at the identified date and time, the event type in at least one of the event records indicating a departure from resting of a resident of the residential health care facility;

causing to be displayed a visualization in which the span of the period of one distinguished day is represented horizontally, and in which events among the set of events (a) whose identified date places them within the distinguished day and (b) whose identified location is among one or more distinguished locations in the residential health care facility are each depicted at a point in the width of the visualization corresponding to its identified time.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein events among the set of events whose identified date places them within the distinguished day are each depicted at a point in the width of the visualization corresponding to its identified time our depicted in a way that visually indicates there identified event types.

39-63. -63. (canceled)