System for and method of collecting and populating a database with physician/patient data for processing to improve practice quality and healthcare delivery

• US 6,151,581 A
• Filed: 12/16/1997
• Issued: 11/21/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pulsegroup Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pulsegroup Incorporated
• Inventors: Simon, William H., Kraftson, Marguerite O., Schrogie, John J., Mudditt, Michael, Kraftson, Raymond H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Trammell, James P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ROSEN, NICHOLAS D
• Application Number:
  US08/991,506
• Time in Patent Office: 1,071 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/2, 705/3, 705/10, 600/300, 707/100, 707/101, 707/102, 707/103, 707/505, 707/506, 707/507
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/20 for electronic clinical trials or questionnaires
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• 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: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A system and method relates to the field of building and administrating a patient management and health care management database containing data relevant to the clinical care of patients, to the management of the practices to which the patients belong, and to outcomes of that health care and practice management. The disclosed system encompasses (i) designing and administering paper and pen and hand held computer survey instruments; (ii) administering and collecting completed surveys (iii) building and managing a database of information collected from the surveys; (iv) analyzing data collected from the surveys; (v) and providing clinical practices with summary information. Summary information may be used to improve patient care, health outcomes, and the management of physician practices.

Claims

1. A system for acquisition, management and processing of patient clinical information and patient satisfaction information received from a plurality of physician practices to provide practice performance information for a physician practice, the system comprising:

means for receiving data from a survey form, the data including a physician component to receive the patient clinical information and a patient component to receive the patient satisfaction information, to provide practice-patient data;

database processing means for translating the practice-patient data to a predetermined format and for storing the practice-patient data having the predetermined format in a database;

data analysis means for

a) selectively receiving practice-patient data from the database,

b) analyzing the received practice-patient data, and

c) summarizing the patient satisfaction information with respect to the clinical information to provide performance results of the physician practice; and

data correlating means for correlating selected portions of the performance results associated with at least one of the plurality of physician practices with portions of the stored practice-patient data to provide a practice measure; and

reporting means for generating a report from the performance results and the practice measures,

wherein data correlating means correlates selected portions of the performance results to provide the practice measure as a relative measure of practice quality based on a comparison of the patient satisfaction information of the plurality of physician practices.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, further including an enrollment processing means for collecting respective enrollment data of each one of the plurality of physician practices, the enrollment data corresponding to at least one of physician practice identification, physician identification, physician diagnostic information, specialty information, patient demographic information, and practice cost information.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the survey form includes a plurality of survey questions, and the system further includes a processor to provide each one of the plurality of survey questions, the processor including means for 1) receiving a draft base question, 2) evaluating the draft base question according to a sample response of patient population, and 3) modifying the draft base question to provide one of the plurality of survey questions.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the means for receiving data employs a survey form which is machine-readable form and includes a scanner to read the data from the survey form.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the means for receiving data employs a survey form which is presented as a plurality of screens on a hand-held computer, each screen including a single survey question, the hand-held computer receiving each response value to the respective question as one portion of the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information, and the reading means includes a host computer having a communications interface to the hand-held computer, the host computer receiving the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information from the hand-held computer through the communications interface.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

outcomes measuring means including processing means for

a) periodically selectively receiving performance results,

b) storing the selected performance results,

c) identifying a trend present in the stored performance results, and

d) tracking a trend present in the stored performance results.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein:

the performance results include at least one domain measure, each domain measure defining a practice characteristic.

8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein each domain measure further includes at least one of a practice specific component and a practice population component, the practice specific component representing a perceived patient satisfaction of one physician practice of the plurality of physician practices, and the practice population component representing a respective comparison of the one physician practice to the plurality of physician practices for the domain measure.

9. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein each domain measure is selected from the group consisting of a quality of medical treatment, a quality of office procedures, a quality of insurance and a quality of practice satisfaction.

10. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein each domain measure includes a plurality of practice satisfaction variables, and the reporting means further includes:

remote-processing means for locally receiving predetermined practice parameters, each practice parameter corresponding to at least a selected one of the plurality of practice satisfaction variables, and the data analysis means analyzes the received practice patient data based on the received practice parameters, thereby to provide each domain measure of the performance results.

11. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein:

the system is a personal disease management assistant system, and wherein the means for receiving data comprises;

a hand-held computer, the hand-held computer;

storing at least one survey form, each survey form including at least one section to receive the patient clinical and satisfaction information, wherein the survey form is presented as a plurality of screens on the hand-held computer, each screen including at least one survey question, the hand-held computer;

1) receiving each response value to each respective question as one portion of the patient clinical and satisfaction information; and

2) storing at least one disease profile, the disease profile including at least one of a treatment regimen and a prescription regimen;

wherein the handheld computer includes means for

     1) associating each survey form with the disease profile and

     2) indicating a treatment event based on the disease profile, wherein the handheld computer provides at least one survey form associated with the treatment event; and

wherein the database processing means further comprises

a host computer having a communications interface to the hand-held computer, the host computer receiving the patient clinical and satisfaction information from the hand-held computer through the communications interface to provide practice-patient data.

12. A system for acquisition, management and processing of patient clinical information and patient satisfaction information received from a plurality of physician practices to provide practice performance information, the system comprising:

a hand-held computer, the hand-held computer storing at least one survey form, the survey form including at least one of a physician section to receive the patient clinical information and a patient section to receive the patient satisfaction information, wherein the survey form is presented as a plurality of screens on the hand-held computer, each screen including a single survey question, the hand-held computer receiving each response value to the respective question as one portion of the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information;

a host computer having a communications interface to the hand-held computer, the host computer receiving the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information from the hand-held computer through the communications interface to provide practice-patient data;

database processing means for translating the practice-patient data to a predetermined format and for storing the practice-patient data having the predetermined format in a database;

data analysis means for

a) selectively receiving practice-patient data from the database,

b) analyzing the received practice patient data, and

c) summarizing patient satisfaction information with respect to the clinical information to provide performance results of the physician practice;

data correlating means for correlating selected portions of the performance results associated with at least one of the plurality of physician practices with portions of the stored practice-patient data to provide a practice measure; and

reporting means for periodically generating a report based on the performance results,

wherein data correlating means correlates selected portions of the performance results to provide the practice measure as a relative measure of practice quality based on a comparison of the patient satisfaction information of the plurality of physician practices.

13. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the host computer further includes means for receiving and storing at least one physician diagnostic information record and an associated patient identification (ID), the handheld computer associates the patient ID with each survey form, and the host computer associates the received the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information of each respective form with the physician diagnostic information record of which the patient ID matches the patient ID of the respective form to form a physician/patient data pair having the respective patient ID.

14. The system as recited in claim 13, wherein the host computer further includes a correlation processor, the correlation processor receiving each physician/patient data pair, and the correlation processor including means for comparing patient clinical information, the patient satisfaction information, and the physician diagnostic information of the physician/patient pair to identify at least one data exception, and includes means for resolving each data exception.

15. The system as recited in claim 12, wherein the database further includes a plurality of survey forms, the host computer includes a database interface, and means for downloading and storing selected ones of the plurality of survey forms, and the at least one survey form of the handheld computer is received through the communications interface from the host computer.

16. The system as recited in claim 15, wherein each one of the plurality of survey forms is associated with a respective diagnostic program.

17. A method of acquisition, management and processing of patient clinical information and patient satisfaction information received from a plurality of physician practices to provide practice performance information, the method comprising the steps of:

a) providing, with a survey form, survey questions including a physician section including questions related to the patient clinical information and a patient section including questions related to the patient satisfaction information;

b) receiving data representing answers to the questions;

c) providing the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information as practice-patient data;

d) translating the practice-patient data to a predetermined format;

e) storing the practice-patient data having the predetermined format in a database;

f) selectively receiving practice-patient data from the database;

g) analyzing the received practice patient data;

h) summarizing patient satisfaction information with respect to the clinical information to provide performance results of the physician practice;

i) correlating selected portions of the performance results associated with at least one of the plurality of physician practices with portions of the stored practice-patient data to provide a practice measure; and

j) periodically generating a report of the practice measure based upon the provided performance results,

the report providing the practice measure as a relative measure of practice quality based on a comparison of the patient satisfaction information of the plurality of physician practices.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further including the steps of collecting respective enrollment data of each one of the plurality of physician practices, the enrollment data corresponding to at least one of physician practice identification, physician identification, physician diagnostic information, specialty information, patient demographic information, and practice cost information.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the survey form includes a plurality of survey questions, and the method further includes the steps of a1) receiving a draft base question, a2) evaluating the draft base question according to a sample response of a patient population, and a3) modifying the draft base question to provide one of the plurality of survey questions.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein the providing step c) provides the questions with a machine readable form, and the receiving data step includes the step of reading the data from the machine readable survey form with a scanner.

21. The method as recited in claim 17, the method further comprising the steps of a1) presenting the survey form as a plurality of screens on a hand-held computer, each screen including a single survey question, a2) receiving each response value to the respective question as one portion of the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information, and b1) receiving, by a host computer, the patient clinical information and the patient satisfaction information from the hand-held computer through a communications interface of the host computer.