METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PATIENT INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MANAGEMENT

Abstract

A donor processing and information management system disclosed herein allows donor processing centers to facilitate their operations and decrease the use of paperwork and forms by using electronic workstations to enter donor and donation information. Embodiments of the system also facilitate operations of the donor processing centers by automating the management of donors, thus reducing the number of staff necessary to run the center. Donors and donor center staff use workstations to enter biographical data, answer questions, and edit information entered into a database in order to reduce human error and increase efficiency. Thus, embodiments of the system may completely eliminate the use of burdensome forms and automate the entire blood donation process for donor processing centers, whether operating with in-line, real time hardware interfaces at a fixed location, or at mobile locations, where data is collected onsite and transmitted to one or more offsite databases.

Description

Claims

1. A data processing system for processing and managing information of a patient, the system comprising: a computer having a processor;an input module adapted to receive information related to the patient;a communications device; anda computer readable medium communicatively connected to the processor and adapted to store an editor module capable of being executed on the processor to allow a user to add, edit and update questions to be used by a plurality of software modules stored on the readable medium for processing and managing information related to the patient, the plurality of software modules including a review module adapted to automatically review the information related to the patient.

2. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the patient is a blood provider and each of the plurality of software modules are adapted to process and manage information related to the blood provider.

3. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the editor module is further adapted to change at least one of content, appearance and decision logic associated with the questions.

4. The data processing system of claim 2, wherein the plurality of software modules includes at least one of: (i) a registration module adapted to register the blood provider; (ii) an interview module adapted to automatically generate questions to interview the blood provider; (iii) a vitals module adapted to allow a staff member to collect various vital information of the blood provider; (iv) a blood donation module adapted to facilitate drawing blood of the blood provider; and (v) a management module adapted to manage the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, and the blood donation module.

5. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the editor module is further adapted to create multiple types of questions including at least one of: (i) direct questions; (ii) indirect questions; (iii) seasonal questions; and (iv) reflexive questions.

6. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the editor module is further adapted to at least one of add, edit and update a question based on at least one of: (i) language of the patient; (ii) sex of the patient; (iii) date of expiration of the question; (iv) value of a deferral attribute; and (v) value of a highlight attribute.

7. The data processing system of claim 1, wherein the editor module is further adapted to attach one or more options to the questions, the options including at least one of: (i) rejectable flag; (ii) skippable flag; (iii) alternate form available flag; and (iv) interruptible flag.

8. The data processing system of claim 4, wherein the registration module is further adapted to at least one of: (1) allow the blood provider to self-register; and (2) allow the blood provider to be registered by a staff member.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the registration module is further adapted to allow the user to input information using a touch-screen input monitor.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein the registration module is further adapted to allow the user to provide identification information using at least one of: (1) a radio frequency information identification reader; (1) a magnetic strip reader; and (3) a biometrics identification reader.

11. The system of claim 4, wherein each of the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, the donation module, and the management module, are adapted to be implemented on different workstations wherein each of workstations is communicatively connected to the computer using at least one of: (1) a land-line network; and (2) a wireless network.

12. The system of claim 4, further comprising a database communicatively connected to the computer and adapted to store blood provider information from each of the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, the donation module, and the management module.

13. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a web services module adapted to allow the user to interact with each of the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, the donation module, and the management module using a web browser.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the web service module is further adapted to allow the blood provider to at least one of: (1) schedule an appointment for blood donation; and (2) assess his eligibility to donate specific blood components including at least one of red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.

15. The system of claim 4, wherein the registration module is further adapted to prescreen the blood provider to at least one of: (1) reject the blood provider's attempt for blood donation; (2) temporarily defer the blood provider's blood donation while saving blood provider information; (3) report the blood provider information to a regulatory body; and (4) determine eligibility for various donation types by tracking the total accumulative loss of at least one of red blood cells, platelets and plasma.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the registration module is further adapted to receive information from a third party source to prescreen the blood provider.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the registration module is further adapted to capture a photograph of the blood provider and the database is further adapted to store the photograph for blood provider identification.

18. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes an automated kiosk module adapted to allow the blood provider to self-authenticate.

19. The system of claim 4, wherein the review module is further adapted to provide the user a set of reflexive questions that allows the user to disqualify the blood provider.

20. The system of claim 4, wherein the review module is further adapted to: receive a handwritten signature from the blood provider using an electronic signature device having a digitizing pad and a stylus; andrecognize the blood provider's signature using an image-processing module.

21. The system of claim 4, wherein the vitals module is further adapted to compare at least one measurement of the blood provider with a range to determine whether the at least one measurement is nominal, impossible or exceptional.

22. The system of claim 4, wherein the donation module is further adapted to use at least one of (1) an electronic scale and (2) a hand-held device to receive information about blood collected from the blood provider.

23. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a lot release module adapted to allow the user to ensure sufficiency of documentation regarding blood donated by the blood provider.

24. The system of claim 4, wherein the management module is further adapted to generate the blood provider room sub-window to display status of the blood provider's blood donation process including at least one of: (1) an overall status; (2) an interview status; and (3) an exam status.

25. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a synchronization manager module adapted to synchronize data stored on at least one of: (1) the database; and (2) one or more mobile database servers, with data processed by at least one of the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, the donation module, and the management module.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the synchronization manager module is further adapted to generate conflict reports based on synchronization of data between various databases and modules.

27. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a workstation manager module adapted to create an additional workstation to implement one or more of the registration module, the interview module, the review module, the vitals module, the donation module, and the management module.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the workstation manager module is further adapted to assign the additional work station at least one of: (1) a unique network identification; (2) a blood donation center; (3) and a short description.

29. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a drive and site manager module adapted to allow the user to create, modify or select at least one of: (1) a blood donation site; and (2) a blood donation drive.

30. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a user administration module adapted to maintain up-to-date information about authorized users of the system.

31. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a data extraction module adapted to automatically or manually update any blood provider records in a database server.

32. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a blood provider manager module adapted to identify and locate previous blood donations of a repeat blood provider, and to identify when the repeat blood provider becomes ineligible to donate blood.

33. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a resource management module adapted to forecast number of blood providers and equipment necessary for a blood drive.

34. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of software modules further includes a sample management module adapted to read bar-coded labels on a tube using a bar-code reader and to determine the content of the tube.

35. A network for processing patient information, the network comprising: a processor communicatively connected to a plurality of nodes, the plurality of nodes including:a signature capture node adapted to capture and digitize signature of the patient;a photo identification node adapted to capture electronic photograph of the patient;an equipment interface node adapted to capture patient's physiological data;a lot release module adapted to allow the user to ensure sufficiency of documentation regarding blood donated by the blood provider; andeach of the plurality of nodes adapted to communicate information to and from a database server communicatively connected to the processor.

36. The network of claim 35, further comprising a wireless node adapted to communicate patient information from a handheld device, the patient information including a photograph, date of birth, and other information pertinent to the phlebotomy including at least one of allergy information and information about eligible procedures.

37. The network of claim 35, wherein the equipment interface node is adapted to receive patient's physiological data from at least one of: (i) a weighing machine; (ii) a blood pressure monitor; (iii) a thermometer; and (iv) a pulse monitor.

38. The network of claim 35, wherein the database server is further adapted to store a synchronization module adapted to synchronize data stored on the database server and data from at least one of the signature capture node, the photo identification node, the equipment interface node, and the wireless node.

39. The network of claim 38, wherein the synchronization module further includes a synchronization manager adapted to generate a conflict report based on synchronization of data.

40. The network of claim 35, wherein the database server is further adapted to store a data extraction module adapted to automatically or manually update any blood provider records in the database server.

41. The network of claim 35, wherein the database server comprises a blood provider management module adapted to identify and locate previous blood donations of a repeat blood provider, when the repeat blood provider becomes ineligible to donate blood.

42. The network of claim 35, wherein: the database server is communicatively connected to an electronic bar-code reader adapted to read bar-code label on a tube; andthe database server comprises a sample management module adapted to receive the bar-code label to determine the content of the tube.

43. A method of processing and managing information of a blood provider, the process comprising: at least one of: (1) adding questions; (2) editing questions; and (3) updating questions;storing the questions on the database; andusing the questions to automatically present questions to interview the blood provider, and to review the information of the blood provider.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising changing at least one of content, appearance and decision logic associated with the questions.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the questions include at least one of: (i) a direct question; (ii) an indirect question; (iii) a seasonal question; and (iv) a reflexive question.

46. The method of claim 43, further comprising at least one of: (1) adding the questions; (2) editing the questions; and (3) updating the questions based on at least one of: (i) language of the blood provider; (ii) sex of the blood provider; (iii) date of expiration of the question; (iv) value of a deferral attribute; and (v) value of a highlight attribute.

47. The method of claim 43, wherein registering the blood provider further comprises using the questions to self-register the blood provider.

48. The method of claim 43, further comprising: presenting at least one of the questions to the blood provider on the touch-screen input monitor; andreceiving the blood provider's responses to the using the touch-screen input monitor.