Modular health-care information management system utilizing reusable software objects

• US 5,995,937 A
• Filed: 11/07/1997
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GE Medical Systems Information Technologies Incorporated (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: Deroyal Industries Incorporated
• Inventors: DeBusk, Brian C., Cofer, Michael C., Shanks, Mark W., Lukens, Wil Francis
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Morgan, George D.
• Application Number:
  US08/965,788
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 705/1, 705/8, 705/9, 705/7, 364/468.05
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• 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

Disclosed is a health-care information management system that utilizes modular and reusable software objects to allow for user configuration. The disclosed information management system allows for the creation by the user software objects representative of specific events and resources which will occur or be utilized during the provision of health-care to patients. These user configured software modules then allow the user to track the provision of health-care, the utilization of resources during the provision of health-care, the allocation of resources to perform medical procedures and identify opportunities for enhancing efficiencies in the provision of health-care services. In on embodiment of the invention described, the system allows for the user to create, manage and maintain software modules representing specific clinical pathways to be performed in a health-care institution. The user creates these modules using user configurable software objects that function to represent containers, resources and data. The software objects are modular and re-usable and allow the user to select components for creation of the modules. The created modules may then be used to provide information management relating to the provision of the medical procedures represented by the clinical pathway modules.

Claims

1. An information management system for managing information relating to supplying, scheduling, logging, and analyzing use of health care services resources, the system comprising:

a general purpose computer system, including;

storage means for storing data corresponding to the information,

processing means for processing instructions relating to managing the information,

display means for presenting the information in a human perceptible format, and

input means for receiving user input relating to managing the information,

information management software installed on the general purpose computer system, including;

node software objects, each of the node software objects providing a health-care information management function, including;

a clinical pathway node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining user-defined, user-configurable clinical pathway module software objects adapted to function with the clinical pathway node software object and representing template sets of the information relating to health care services procedures, the module software objects including, resource software objects, corresponding to resources to be used in providing health care services, and

container software objects for containing software objects having at least one common characteristic,

a case management node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable case management module software object adapted to function with the case management node software object from the clinical pathway module software object, the case management module software object representing a selected clinical pathway module software object as modified to reflect a prospective patient-specific case, and containing patient-specific information, and adapted to receive additional patient specific information, and

a standardization review node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable model module software object adapted to function with the standardization review node software object from the case management module software object, the model module software object representing a case management module software object as modified by at least the patient-specific information to reflect a historical patient-specific case,

the standardization review node software object further being suitable for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable utilization study module software object from at least one model module software object, and

the standardization review node software object further being suitable for analyzing the utilization study module software object to detect trends in the health care services information.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the container software objects comprise a plurality of container software object types, each type providing a specific container software object functionality.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the container software objects comprise:

a user-configurable care event container software object representing a specific health care services care event, the care event container software object functional to contain container software objects and resource software objects related to the specific health care services care event represented by the care event container software object, and

a user-configurable bundle container software object functional to contain resource software objects corresponding to specific related health care resources which would be provided in a group or bundle.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising data software objects selectively associated with a software object selected from the group consisting of the clinical pathway module software object, the case management module software object, and the container software object, the data software objects suitable for collecting and maintaining information related to the software object with which the data software object is selectively associated.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising a library node software object for selectively creating, collecting, and organizing reusable, user-defined, user-configurable container software objects and resource software objects for use in the clinical pathway node software object and the case management node software object.

6. An information management system for managing information relating to supplying, scheduling, logging, and analyzing use of health care services resources, the system comprising:

a general purpose computer system, including;

storage means for storing data corresponding to the information,

processing means for processing instructions relating to managing the information,

display means for presenting the information in a human perceptible format, and

input means for receiving user input relating to managing the information,

information management software installed on the general purpose computer system, including;

node software objects, each of the node software objects providing a health-care information management function, including;

a clinical pathway node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining user-defined, user-configurable clinical pathway module software objects adapted to function with the clinical pathway node software object and representing template sets of the information relating to health care services procedures, the module software objects including, resource software objects, corresponding to resources to be used in providing health care services,

container software objects for containing software objects having at least one common characteristic, wherein the container software objects comprise a plurality of container software object types, each type providing a specific container software object functionality, including,

a user-configurable care event container software object representing a specific health care services care event, the care event container software object functional to contain container software objects and resource software objects related to the specific health care services care event represented by the care event container software object, and

a user-configurable bundle container software object functional to contain resource software objects corresponding to specific related health care resources which would be provided in a group or bundle, and

data software objects selectively associated with a software object selected from the group consisting of the clinical pathway module software object, the case management module software object, and the container software object, the data software objects suitable for collecting and maintaining information related to the software object with which the data software object is selectively associated,

a case management node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable case management module software object adapted to function with the case management node software object from the clinical pathway module software object, the case management module software object representing a selected clinical pathway module software object as modified to reflect a prospective patient-specific case, and containing patient-specific information, and adapted to receive additional patient specific information,

a standardization review node software object for,

selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable model module software object adapted to function with the standardization review node software object from the case management module software object, the model module software object representing a case management module software object as modified by at least the patient-specific information to reflect a historical patient-specific case,

selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable utilization study module software object from at least one model module software object, and

analyzing the utilization study module software object to detect trends in the health care services information, and

a library node software object for selectively creating, collecting, and organizing reusable, user-defined, user-configurable container software objects and resource software objects for use in the clinical pathway node software object and the case management node software object.