Directed medical care system and method

• US 8,306,830 B1
• Filed: 05/10/2007
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CACHAT, JOHN M, Donald J Renuart
• Original Assignee: CACHAT, JOHN M, Donald J Renuart
• Inventors: Renuart, Donald J., Cachat, John M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lubin, Valerie
• Application Number:
  US11/801,568
• Time in Patent Office: 2,007 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/2
• 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

A system and method of preparing medical care instructions for an individual in an emergency situation. The system and method includes obtaining patient information, providing a mechanism to educate the individual on medical and legal terms and procedures, to create medical care instructions, applying the patient information to applicable legal and medical standards and providing a mechanism for updating and maintaining the medical care instructions. The system and method further includes storing the medical care instructions in electronic format, such as on a central computerized database, and allowing immediate and secure access to the stored medical care instructions by medical personnel. The stored medical care instructions may also be outputted when necessary.

Claims

1. An interactive computer-implemented method for generating storing and retrieving a customized document for authorizing medical care instructions pertaining to the level of care to be provided at a future time to an individual by medical professionals, the level of care being selected, created and customized by the individual based upon the specific medical requirements and desires of the individual stored in the memory of a computer system when executed by a processor of the computer system, said method comprising the steps of:

providing from the memory of the computer system health and medical information and health and medical education in non-professional terminology to the individual, said health and medical education and information comprising respective medical care for a particular set of medical circumstances, legal terms and medical procedures;

selecting from the memory of the computer system requirements for addressing pre-selected medical emergencies and medical situations, said health and medical information and education informing and educating the individual in non-medical and/or non-legal terminology for facilitating the ability of the individual to understand the health and medical information and education and for facilitating the ability of the individual to select the proper level of medical care that is desired by the individual depending on a particular one of selected medical emergencies or medical situations, and the health and medical education and information educating the individual regarding various potential outcomes of a particular medical care decision;

inputting and electronically capturing and processing personal information into the computer system, the personal information comprising specific particular medical care desired of the individual depending on the particular medical emergency or situation circumstances stored in the memory of the computer, and inputting personal information into the computer system based on the health and medical education and information;

providing customized individualized data in response to a request therefor for obtaining particular relevant required personal information of the individual based on medical and personal information processed by and stored in the memory of the computer system;

recording decisions of the individual by the processor of the computer system, the decisions comprising particular electronic instructions for the specific particular medical care for rendering medical care decisions on a selected level of medical care in accordance with said particular electronic instructions based on the personal information of the individual stored in the memory of the computer system;

placing, by the processor of the computer system, the particular medical care decisions of the individual into compliance with relevant state and Federal laws electronically stored in the memory of the computer system, and processing relevant state or Federal laws relative to the medical care decisions of the individual and electronically harmonizing the medical care decisions of the individual with the relevant state or federal laws stored in the memory of the computer system to ensure the medical care decisions comply with the relevant state or Federal laws;

electronically integrating by the processor of the computer system all related data and information inputted into the computer system for creating medical care instructions for the individual for the particular medical emergency or situation in electronic format;

creating medical care instructions by the processor of the computer system in response to the inputted data and information of the individual from the step of processing the inputted data and information of the personal information of the individual to create medical instructions and transmitting the inputted data and information into the computer system;

providing the processed generated medical care instructions to the individual to enable the individual to immediately review the created medical care instructions and to revise the created medical care instructions according to the changing age, condition, morals and beliefs of the individual;

storing, retrieving and processing the generated medical care instructions by the processor of the computer system for readily available accessibility of the medical care instructions by medical personnel in real-time; and

updating, maintaining and processing the medical care instructions by the processor of the computer system periodically to generate a reminder signal for reminding the individual to update and maintain the level of medical care decisions according to a pre-set schedule, and for automatically updating the level of medical care decisions according to any changes in the relevant state and Federal laws.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of electronically outputting said medical care instructions and with updated state and Federal laws from the memory of the computer system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said the step of inputting and electronically capturing the personal information is selected from the group consisting of obtaining information about said individual and inputting the information about said individual into a computer, providing questions by the computer system to be answered by the individual, providing questions by the computer system and providing the questions on a website to be answered by the individual, and providing questions by the computer system in paper-form to be answered by the individual and being electronically scannable into a computer.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said questions provided on a computer program are provided to the individual in a form selected from the group consisting of a CD-ROM and an Internet website.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of providing medical and health information and education to the individual by the computer system comprises providing video for discussion of emergency medical care and scenarios, discussion of possible outcomes, risks and benefits of particular medical care decisions and procedures and medical conditions, demonstrating medical care techniques and procedures, explaining legal terminology, and explaining medical procedures and medical terminology.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the step of providing medical and health information and education to the individual by the computer system is selected from the group consisting of providing information by a CD-ROM and providing information by an Internet website.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of recording decisions of the individual by the computer system comprises preparing medical care decisions for the individual based on information obtained by the individual.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein said step of recording decisions by the individual by the computer system further comprises providing expert medical rules and expert legal rules to which medical care decisions are applied.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein said step of creating medical care instructions by the computer system comprises creating the medical care instructions in at least one form selected from the group consisting of paper form and electronic form.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the individual provides an electronic signature when the medical care instructions are provided in electronic form.

11. The method according to claim 2, wherein said step of outputting the medical care instructions by the computer system comprises outputting in at least one form selected from the group consisting of paper form and electronic form.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the individual provides an electronic signature when the medical care instructions are provided in electronic form.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of storing, retrieving and processing the medical care instructions by the computer system comprises using a storage medium selected from the group consisting of optical storage, magnetic storage, a CD-ROM, a central database accessible by a website, a central repository, paper form, a computer chip, radio frequency identification (RFID), a pen-drive and a barcode tag.

14. The method according to claim 13, wherein the step of storing, retrieving and processing the medical care instructions by the computer system comprises immediate accessibility of the medical care instructions by the individual or by authorized medical personnel at any time via a secure computer network and in real-time.

15. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of scanning medical care instructions into the computer system by a scanning device when the medical care instructions are in paper form for electronic storage and processing in the computer system.

16. The method according to claim 1, wherein the personal information of the individual by the computer system is at least one selected from the group consisting of legal information, powers of attorney, insurance information, patient health information, medical care information, patient family and contact information, patient social security number and patient fingerprint information.

17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of reminding the individual for updating and maintaining the medical care instructions by the computer system periodically reminds the individual that updates and maintenance of the medical care instructions are necessary by at least one mechanism selected from the group consisting of electronic mail, regular mail and telephonic contact.