System and method to manage delivery of healthcare to a patient

• US 8,799,008 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2008
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Johnson, Christopher, Akbay, Kunter, Day, Andrew, Doretto, GianFranco, Tu, Peter, Dulgeroglu, Onur, Peterson, Marcia, Toledano, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunter, Sean K
• Application Number:
  US12/239,270
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089093A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,139 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3
• 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 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/00 ICT specially adapted for therapies or health-improving plans, e.g. for handling prescriptions, for steering therapy or for monitoring patient compliance
• 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 40/60 for the operation of medical equipment or devices
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass

Abstract

A system and method to manage delivery of healthcare via a plurality of resources to a patient is provided. The system and method track and output a signal representative of a location of at least one of a series of resources relative to a control volume associated with the patient, acquire at least one signal representative of detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume; and output a first signal representative of one of a series of milestones as defined in a predetermined protocol in response to detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the resources relative to the control volume.

Claims

1. A method of managing delivery of healthcare via a plurality of resources to a patient, the method comprising:

tracking and outputting, using a processor, a signal representative of a location of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to a control volume defining a space associated with the patient and registered relative to a fixed reference prior to delivery of care to the patient, the resources associated with a selected healthcare delivery protocol defining a plurality of milestones, each milestone associated with a plurality of tasks involving one or more resources, the selected healthcare delivery protocol associated with the patient;

acquiring, using the processor, at least one signal representative of detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume during execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol;

comparing, using the processor, the at least one signal representative of detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume to the plurality of tasks associated with the selected healthcare delivery protocol associated with the patient to determine completion of a milestone of the selected healthcare delivery protocol; and

outputting, using the processor, a first signal representative of one of the plurality of milestones as defined in the selected protocol in response to detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume while applying the selected protocol with respect to the patient and determining completion of the milestone; and

tracking, using the processor, execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol based on the completion of milestones associated with the selected healthcare delivery protocol and providing feedback regarding the execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking includes outputting at least one signal representative of an ingress or an egress of at least one resource relative to a sterile zone within the control volume.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein tracking is performed by more than one of the following:

an optical tracking system, an electromagnetic tracking system, an RFID tracking system, an IR tracking system, a GPS tracking system, and a voice recognition system, and wherein tracking includes outputting at least one signal representative of ingress or egress of one of the plurality of resources relative to a sterile zone located within the control volume.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising outputting a probability of ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone, the probability dependent on how many of or which of the different tracking systems detects ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein outputting the probability is dependent on a mathematical expression having a first factor associated with detecting ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone with a first tracking system and a second factor associated with detecting ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone with a second tracking system different than the first tracking system.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

outputting a comparison of ingress of at least one of the plurality resources to a sterile zone defined within the control volume relative to egress of at least one of the plurality of resources from the sterile zone, the ingress and egress as detected by one of the tracking systems.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting a second signal representative of another of the plurality of milestones as defined in the selected healthcare delivery protocol in response to outputting the first signal;

in combination with one of the following;

detecting ingress or egress of another of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume, and detecting a key text in a translation of an audio recording where the key text is associated with executing the another of the plurality of milestones and predetermined in a protocol template for storage in a database.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

outputting a comparison of a predicted time for the milestone to occur relative to a measured time of occurrence of outputting the first signal representative of the milestone.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the milestone is representative of one of the following:

preparation of the patient to receive a medical procedure, sedation of the patient to receive the medical procedure, and close of the surgical site on the patient.

10. A system to manage delivery of healthcare via a plurality of resources to a patient, the system comprising:

at least one tracking system operable to generate a signal representative of a location of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to a control volume defining a space associated with the patient and registered relative to a fixed reference prior to delivery of care to the patient; and

a controller in communication with the tracking system, the controller including a processor in communication with a memory, the processor operable to execute a plurality of program instructions stored in the memory, the plurality of program instructions representative of;

acquiring at least one signal representative of detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume during execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol;

comparing the at least one signal representative of detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume to the plurality of tasks associated with the selected healthcare delivery protocol associated with the patient to determine completion of a milestone of the selected healthcare delivery protocol;

outputting a first signal representative of one of the plurality of milestones as defined in the selected protocol in response to detecting ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume while applying the selected protocol with respect to the patient and determining completion of the milestone; and

tracking execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol based on the completion of milestones associated with the selected healthcare delivery protocol and providing feedback regarding the execution of the selected healthcare delivery protocol.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the tracking system comprises more than one of the following:

an optic tracking system, an electromagnetic tracking system, an RFID tracking system, an IR tracking system, a GPS tracking system, and a voice recognition system, and wherein the tracking system generates at least one signal representative of ingress or egress of one of the plurality of resources relative to a sterile zone located within the control volume.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising program instructions representative of calculating a probability of ingress or egress of at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone, the probability dependent on how many of or which of the different tracking systems detects ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein outputting the probability is dependent on a mathematical expression having a first factor associated with detecting ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone with a first tracking system and a second factor associated with detecting ingress or egress of the at least one of the plurality of resources relative to the sterile zone with a second tracking system different than the first tracking system.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising program instructions representative of:

outputting a comparison of ingress of at least one of the plurality resources to a sterile zone defined within the control volume relative to egress of at least one of the plurality of resources from the sterile zone, the ingress and egress as detected by the tracking system.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising program instructions representative of outputting a second signal representative of another of the plurality of milestones as defined in the selected healthcare delivery protocol in response to outputting the first signal, and in combination with at least one of the following:

detecting ingress or egress of another of the plurality of resources relative to the control volume, and detecting a key text in a translation of an audio recording where the key text is associated with executing the another of the plurality of milestones and predetermined in a protocol template for storage in a database.

16. The system of claim 10, further comprising program instructions representative of outputting a comparison of a predicted time for the milestone to occur relative to a measured time of occurrence of outputting the first signal representative of the milestone.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising an program instructions representative of:

calculating a variation between a difference in a predicted schedule of time of use of the resource and an actual time of use of the resource relative to a threshold; and

outputting an interdependency of the scheduled time of use of the resource for the patient relative to another scheduled time of use of the resource for another patient in response to calculating the variation exceeds the threshold.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the milestone is representative of one of the following:

preparation of the patient to receive a medical procedure, establishment of a sterile field, sedation of the patient to receive the medical procedure, and close of a surgical site on the patient.