Patent Application
20200251226
The present invention relates generally to the field of information systems, more specifically, information systems relating to scheduling and document storage, distribution, and control.
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Telemedicine has been part of the healthcare landscape for the past 50-60 years and has been integrated in all kinds of applications for patient care. It is now becoming a standard part of normal operations in both behavioral and physical healthcare systems. Telemedicine offers a variety of important benefits to the healthcare system such as improved service access, cost efficacy, and improved service quality.
In addition to serving clients in distant areas, telemedicine has been associated with improved access to care for special populations including disabled, elderly, correctional, and other mobility-challenged persons. Further, it has improved access to specialized care by expanding the reach of specialists to persons beyond their own geographical locations.
John Hopkins University developed a “Hospital at Home” model using telemedicine for Medicaid and Medicare Advantage members and found a 19% savings over similar patients using traditional in-patient services. Savings were attributed to shorter stays for in-patient services and fewer labs and diagnostics. Similar findings were reported for a chronically ill Medicare sample. As treatment for the chronically ill accounts for almost 80% of U.S. healthcare spending, this is a particularly important opportunity for telemedicine.
A variety of other studies cite cost savings ranging from 8% to 25% as compared to matched in-patient comparisons, and many attribute the savings to earlier identification of acute issues and shorter hospital stays when in-patient care was required. Limiting in-patient stays may also reduce the incidence of further complications for vulnerable populations for whom the hospital environment actually increases health risk via exposure to communicable disease. Other investigations link telemedicine to emergency department diversions, which is associated with cost savings and mitigation of transportation risks for vulnerable populations such as the elderly.
While some studies show that telemedicine is as effective as traditional face-to-face clinical service, other studies have found higher rates of clinical success with telemedicine service delivery. Examples include reduced hospital admissions and re-admissions, reductions in symptoms for chronically ill patients (specifically symptoms of heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and psychiatric distress), improved emergency room mortality rates, and improved Global Assessment of Functioning psychological ratings.
Studies analyzing the use of telemedicine for assessments and screenings have also found equal or improved quality results as compared to matched, in-person assessments. Some hypothesize that assessments may be more accurate when the patient is able to remain in a familiar environment. Examples include observational assessments of emotionally-behaviorally disturbed youth in their typical home/school environment and improved disclosure by adult patients who may provide more honest disclosure while in a more comfortable environment.
Patient perspective is also critical to any assessment of service quality. Studies including measures of patient satisfaction cited satisfaction ratings from 85% to 96%, which were equal to, or in some cases greater than satisfaction ratings for matched in-patient comparisons. Also, telehealth options present a level of convenience for patients in the sense that minor health concerns can be addressed faster and typically while still at home. In some instances, virtual care programs can provide patients with instant access to a doctor or physician—no wait involved. Other programs will be able to connect patients with physicians during off or non-regular office hours, giving patients immediate access without having to go to the emergency room.
The state of Texas has many confounding characteristics that make telemedicine a great option to its already taxed healthcare system. With a land mass area of 268,820 square miles and a growing population of 25.1 million, Texas is the second largest US state both by area and population. Its population growth rose more than 20% in the past decade. This rapid growth is attributed to a diversity of sources such as natural increases from the total of all births minus all deaths, and to a high rate of net in-migration from other states and countries. Along with the increase in population, an ever-growing aging population has significantly affected the demand on the healthcare workforce as demands for quality care increased.
In its Statewide Health Plan, the Texas Statewide Health Council concluded: Texas faces particular challenges with respect to physician and other healthcare workforces not primarily because of an overall shortage, but because of sharp disparities in the allocation of healthcare resources to different parts of the state. In the metropolitan areas outside the border, there is one physician in direct patient care for each 573 county residents. In the 32 county border region and in non-metropolitan Texas, the ratios are 2 to 3 times as high.
Although the overall supply of physicians has increased in Texas since 2000 from in-migration, the vast majority of these healthcare professionals resides and practices within 4 primary areas of Texas: Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Moreover, Texas has consistently lagged behind the US average in the ratio of physician supply per 100,000 of population, and the gap between the two appears to be increasing.
Theoretically, resources such as healthcare would be distributed across the state in accordance with population density and needs. Realistically, however, geographical and economic barriers create significant disparities across the state, with rural and underserved communities enduring significantly greater barriers to accessing the care continuum. The supply ratios for a number of health professionals, including primary care physicians and mental health professionals, are lowest in rural, border and other health professional shortage areas.
In most communities, especially in rural areas, care is not organized to promote prevention and early intervention, coordinate services, or monitor access to and quality of care. Moreover, public and private funding to subsidize care remains inadequate, despite growing community needs associated with increases in the uninsured and aging populations. Consequently, many people are left to seek care in emergency rooms, often as a last resort, in an unmanaged and episodic manner. The costs of such care are borne by care-giving institutions, local governments, and, ultimately, taxpayers, many of whom are already burdened with the costs of meeting health-related costs of their own.
In response to the shortage of medical specialty providers across the state of Texas, the University of Texas System (UT) initiated a bold project to leverage the size of its academic medical centers to create the UT Virtual Health Network (VHN). The VEIN is designed to create a telehealth infrastructure connecting all eight of the UT Health Science Centers and Medical Schools as well as to other academic medical centers as a mechanism to span crucial specialty services across the state.
The VHN provides coordinated outbound and inbound (from connected hubs) support for telemedical services from all eight of the University of Texas Health Science Centers and Medical Schools into care settings such as other hospitals and clinics, nursing facilities, schools, employee work sites, and patient residences. In future program expansion, the VEIN will also be able to partner and provide medical services from hospitals and organizations outside of the University of Texas System, which may include other Texas based health science institutions such as Baylor Healthcare System, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, University of North Texas, Children's Health System, and Texas A&M University.
As part of the VHN construct, each UT Health Science Center and Medical School will be designated as a Hub, leveraging its areas of clinical expertise to serve patients that normally would not have access to the individual healthcare facilities, and capitalizing on world-class expertise distributed across the state. An important feature of the VEIN construct is a centralized approach to administration while empowering regional and local healthcare facilities to expand their clinical service offerings by utilizing telehealth technologies to access a multiplicity of clinical care services across institutions.
The scheduler and document-sharing platform features built in algorithms that allow users to schedule telemedicine and in-office appointments as well as exchange patient information. Based on information entered, the system can pinpoint corresponding physicians, appropriate facilities and available times for scheduling patient consultations. The scheduler also tracks user input, appointment start/stop times and other meta data to allow gathering of statistics for analysis of system efficiency and pinpointing possible issues. Patient files may be exchanged by utilizing the document-sharing embodiments of the platform.
One embodiment of the current invention provides a computerized method of scheduling and tracking a telemedicine encounter between a referring healthcare provider and a referred to healthcare provider, comprising: providing an input/output interface, a memory one or more processors communicably coupled to the input/output interface and the memory; providing a database of resource pool profiles stored in the at least one memory unit comprising two or more healthcare provider profiles, two or more telemedicine location profiles, and one or more patient profiles, wherein each healthcare provider profile is linked to one or more of the telemedicine location profiles and one or more medical specialties; receiving a telemedicine scheduling request for a patient from a referring healthcare provider device, the scheduling request comprising a patient data and one or more appointment parameters; searching the database of resource pool profiles for any medical provider profiles that match the one or more appointment parameters; providing one or more appointment times that match the one or more appointment parameters to the referring healthcare provider device, wherein each appointment time is linked to one or more of the healthcare provider profiles; receiving a selected appointment time from the one or more appointment times from the referring healthcare provider device; automatically sending a booking alert to the referring healthcare provider device and a referred to healthcare provider device associated with the selected appointment time, scheduling the telemedicine encounter for the healthcare provider profile and the telemedicine location profile at the selected appointment time, and creating an appointment timeline for the patient comprising a set of appointment tasks; automatically creating and providing one or more videoconference links for the telemedicine encounter to the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device; and automatically tracking and sending alerts upon completion of each of the set of telemedicine encounter tasks.
In one aspect, the one or more appointment parameters comprise a patient location, a requested telemedicine location selected from the telemedicine location profiles, a requested medical specialty selected from the one or more medical specialties, a requested medical profile selected from the two or more medical profiles, a requested appointment length, a requested medical provider gender, an appointment urgency, a request for one or more medical peripherals, or a combination thereof. In another aspect, the method further comprises assigning a role designation to a user, wherein the role designation comprises an institutional administrator, a department administrator, a technical administrator, a presenter, a healthcare provider, or a referring healthcare provider. In another aspect, the method further comprises providing access to the computer system based on a hierarchical structure of the role assignment, an access and a function of the user. In another aspect, the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device comprise one or more of a computer, a laptop, a handheld device, or a mobile device; and the referring healthcare provider and the referred to healthcare provider each comprise one or more of a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistance, nurse, nurse's aid, other healthcare professional, a healthcare coordinator or a healthcare staff. In another aspect, the referring healthcare provider device comprises more than one device; or the referred to healthcare provider device comprises more than one device. In another aspect, the set of telemedicine encounter tasks comprise specifying a payment method, sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information, receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information, confirming the payment method, initiating the telemedicine encounter, completing the telemedicine encounter, sending the patient results, or receiving the patient results. In another aspect, the method further comprises one or more of the following: receiving a payment method from the referring healthcare provider device; receiving a confirmation of the payment method from the referred to healthcare provider; sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information to the referring healthcare provider device; receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information from the referring healthcare provider device; initiating the telemedicine encounter using the one or more videoconference links; receiving a completion of the telemedicine encounter from the referred to healthcare provider device; receiving the patient results from the referred to healthcare provider device; or providing the patient results to the referring healthcare provider device. In another aspect, the method further comprises automatically ranking the one or more appointment times based on one or more criteria comprising a capacity at the two or more telemedicine location profiles, the two or more healthcare provider profiles, or a utilization across a set of the resource pool profiles. In another aspect, the method further comprises sharing one or more documents or files between the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device via the computer system. In another aspect, the method further comprises using the one or more documents or files for clinical support, administrative support, education, tutoring, training, credentialing of one or more of the resource pool profiles, or store and forward telemedicine consultations. In another aspect, the method further comprises storing, distributing and processing the one or more documents for files in the telemedicine encounter or an evaluation of the telemedicine encounter. In another aspect, the method further comprises receiving one or more documents or files from the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; making the received one or more documents or files available for downloading to the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; and removing the received one or more documents or files from the computer system after a preset amount of time or until the received one or more documents or files are downloaded. In another aspect, the resource pool profiles comprise healthcare facility profiles, healthcare department profiles, healthcare unit profiles, or healthcare organization profiles. In another aspect, the telemedicine location profiles comprise patient stations with video conference capabilities, and patient station peripherals for specific patient healthcare evaluations. In another aspect, the method further comprises providing an assignment of the resource pool profiles in a list or calendar format. In another aspect, the computerized system is integrated into or communicably linked to an electronic medical record (EMR) system.
Another embodiment of the current invention provides a system for scheduling and tracking a telemedicine encounter between a referring healthcare provider and a referred to healthcare provider, comprising: an input/output interface; a memory; one or more processors communicably coupled to the input/output interface and the memory; a database of resource pool profiles stored in the memory comprising two or more healthcare provider profiles, two or more telemedicine location profiles, and one or more patient profiles, wherein each healthcare provider profile is linked to one or more of the telemedicine location profiles and one or more medical specialties; and the one or more processors: receive a telemedicine scheduling request for a patient from a referring healthcare provider device via the input/output interface, the scheduling request comprising a patient data and one or more appointment parameters, search the database of resource pool profiles for any medical provider profiles that match the one or more appointment parameters, provide one or more appointment times that match the one or more appointment parameters to the referring healthcare provider device via the input/output interface, wherein each appointment time is linked to one or more of the healthcare provider profiles, receive a selected appointment time from the one or more appointment times from the referring healthcare provider device via the input/output interface, automatically send a booking alert to the referring healthcare provider device and a referred to healthcare provider device associated with the selected appointment time via the input/output interface, schedule the telemedicine encounter for the healthcare provider profile and the telemedicine location profile at the selected appointment time, and create an appointment timeline for the patient comprising a set of appointment tasks, automatically create and provide one or more videoconference links for the telemedicine encounter to the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device via the input/output interface, and automatically track and send alerts upon completion of each of the set of telemedicine encounter tasks.
In one aspect, the one or more appointment parameters comprise a patient location, a requested telemedicine location selected from the telemedicine location profiles, a requested medical specialty selected from the one or more medical specialties, a requested medical profile selected from the two or more medical profiles, a requested appointment length, a requested medical provider gender, an appointment urgency, a request for one or more medical peripherals, or a combination thereof. In another aspect, the one or more processors assign a role designation to a user, wherein the role designation comprises an institutional administrator, a department administrator, a technical administrator, a presenter, a healthcare provider, or a referring healthcare provider. In another aspect, the one or more processors provide access to the computer system based on a hierarchical structure of the role assignment, an access and a function of the user. In another aspect, the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device comprise one or more of a computer, a laptop, a handheld device, or a mobile device; and the referring healthcare provider and the referred to healthcare provider each comprise one or more of a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistance, nurse, nurse's aid, other healthcare professional, a healthcare coordinator or a healthcare staff. In another aspect, the referring healthcare provider device comprises more than one device; or the referred to healthcare provider device comprises more than one device. In another aspect, the set of telemedicine encounter tasks comprise specifying a payment method, sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information, receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information, confirming the payment method, initiating the telemedicine encounter, completing the telemedicine encounter, sending the patient results, or receiving the patient results. In another aspect, the one or more processors perform one or more of the following: receive a payment method from the referring healthcare provider device; receive a confirmation of the payment method from the referred to healthcare provider; send a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information to the referring healthcare provider device; receive the pre-appointment patient medical information from the referring healthcare provider device; initiate the telemedicine encounter using the one or more videoconference links; receive a completion of the telemedicine encounter from the referred to healthcare provider device; receive the patient results from the referred to healthcare provider device; or provide the patient results to the referring healthcare provider device. In another aspect, the one or more processors automatically rank the one or more appointment times based on one or more criteria comprising a capacity at the two or more telemedicine location profiles, the two or more healthcare provider profiles, or a utilization across a set of the resource pool profiles. In another aspect, the one or more processors share one or more documents or files between the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device via the computer system. In another aspect, the one or more processors use the one or more documents or files for clinical support, administrative support, education, tutoring, training, credentialing of one or more of the resource pool profiles, or store and forward telemedicine consultations. In another aspect, the one or more processors store, distribute and process the one or more documents for files in the telemedicine encounter or an evaluation of the telemedicine encounter. In another aspect, the one or more processors: receive one or more documents or files from the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; make the received one or more documents or files available for downloading to the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; and remove the received one or more documents or files from the computer system after a preset amount of time or until the received one or more documents or files are downloaded. In another aspect, the resource pool profiles comprise healthcare facility profiles, healthcare department profiles, healthcare unit profiles, or healthcare organization profiles. In another aspect, the telemedicine location profiles comprise patient stations with video conference capabilities, and patient station peripherals for specific patient healthcare evaluations. In another aspect, the one or more processors provide an assignment of the resource pool profiles in a list or calendar format. In another aspect, the system is integrated into or communicably linked to an electronic medical record (EMR) system.
The present invention is described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The above and further advantages of the invention may be better understood by referring to the following descriptions in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The current invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate embodiments of the invention. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the illustrated embodiments set forth herein. For example, the present invention is not limited to use in a healthcare environment. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
The one or more processors 108 receive a telemedicine scheduling request for a patient from a referring healthcare provider device 114 via the input/output interface 102, the scheduling request includes a patient data and one or more appointment parameters. The scheduling request can include additional data. The one or more processors 108 search the database of resource pool profiles 106 for any medical provider profiles that match the one or more appointment parameters, and provide one or more appointment times that match the one or more appointment parameters to the referring healthcare provider device 114 via the input/output interface 102. The resource pool profiles may include healthcare facility profiles, healthcare department profiles, healthcare unit profiles, healthcare organization profiles, or other profile types. The telemedicine location profiles can include patient stations with video conference capabilities, patient station peripherals for specific patient healthcare evaluations, or other data.
Each appointment time is linked to one or more of the healthcare provider profiles. The appointment times can be linked to other data in the resource pool database 106 or other databases 110. The one or more processors 108 receive a selected appointment time from the one or more appointment times from the referring healthcare provider device 114 via the input/output interface 102, and automatically: (1) send a booking alert to the referring healthcare provider device 114 and a referred to healthcare provider device 116 associated with the selected appointment time via the input/output interface 102; (2) schedule the telemedicine encounter for the healthcare provider profile and the telemedicine location profile at the selected appointment time; and (3) and create an appointment timeline for the patient that includes a set of appointment tasks. In addition, the one or more processors 108 automatically create and provide one or more videoconference links for the telemedicine encounter to the referring healthcare provider device 114 and the referred to healthcare provider device 116 via the input/output interface 102, and automatically track and send alerts upon completion of each of the set of telemedicine encounter tasks.
As used herein, the referring healthcare provider device 114 and the referred to healthcare provider device 116 can be one or more of a computer, a laptop, a handheld device, a mobile device or any other type of device suitable for performing the functionality described herein alone or in conjunction with another device or component, either now or in the future. Note that the referring healthcare provider device 114 and/or the referred to healthcare provider device 116 can be more than one device. The referring healthcare provider and the referred to healthcare provider each can be one or more of a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistance, nurse, nurse's aid, other healthcare professional, a healthcare coordinator, a healthcare staff or other person.
The one or more appointment parameters can include a patient location, a requested telemedicine location selected from the telemedicine location profiles, a requested medical specialty selected from the one or more medical specialties, a requested medical profile selected from the two or more medical profiles, a requested appointment length, a requested medical provider gender, an appointment urgency, a request for one or more medical peripherals, or a combination thereof. The one or more processors 108 can automatically rank the one or more appointment times based on one or more criteria, which can include a capacity at the two or more telemedicine location profiles, the two or more healthcare provider profiles, a utilization across a set of the resource pool profiles, or any other suitable metric. The one or more processors 108 can provide an assignment of the resource pool profiles in a list or calendar format via the input/output interface 102. Moreover, the system 100 can be integrated into or communicably linked to an electronic medical record (EMR) system.
The one or more processors 108 can assign a role designation to a user, wherein the role designation comprises an institutional administrator, a department administrator, a technical administrator, a presenter, a healthcare provider, or a referring healthcare provider. Moreover, the one or more processors 108 can provide access to the computer system based on a hierarchical structure of the role assignment, an access and a function of the user.
The set of telemedicine encounter tasks can including a payment method, sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information, receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information, confirming the payment method, initiating the telemedicine encounter, completing the telemedicine encounter, sending the patient results, receiving the patient results, or other tasks. Accordingly, the one or more processors 108 can perform one or more of the following: receive a payment method from the referring healthcare provider device 114; receive a confirmation of the payment method from the referred to healthcare provider 116; send a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information to the referring healthcare provider device 114; receive the pre-appointment patient medical information from the referring healthcare provider device 114; initiate the telemedicine encounter using the one or more videoconference links; receive a completion of the telemedicine encounter from the referred to healthcare provider device 116; receive the patient results from the referred to healthcare provider device 116; provide the patient results to the referring healthcare provider device 114; or other actions associated with telemedicine encounter or telemedicine encounter tasks.
In addition, the one or more processors 108 can share one or more documents or files between the referring healthcare provider device 114 and the referred to healthcare provider device 116 via the computer system 100. The one or more documents or files can be used for clinical support, administrative support, education, tutoring, training, credentialing of one or more of the resource pool profiles, store and forward telemedicine consultations, or other desired purpose. Moreover, the one or more processors 108 can store, distribute and process the one or more documents for files in the telemedicine encounter or an evaluation of the telemedicine encounter. For example, the one or more processors 108 can receive one or more documents or files from the referring healthcare provider device 114 or the referred to healthcare provider device 116, make the received one or more documents or files available for downloading to the referring healthcare provider device 114 or the referred to healthcare provider device 116, and remove the received one or more documents or files from the computer system after a preset amount of time or until the received one or more documents or files are downloaded.
In one aspect, the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device comprise one or more of a computer, a laptop, a handheld device, or a mobile device, and the referring healthcare provider and the referred to healthcare provider each comprise one or more of a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistance, nurse, nurse's aid, other healthcare professional, a healthcare coordinator or a healthcare staff. In another aspect, the referring healthcare provider device comprises more than one device, or the referred to healthcare provider device comprises more than one device. In another aspect, the resource pool profiles comprise healthcare facility profiles, healthcare department profiles, healthcare unit profiles, or healthcare organization profiles. In anther aspect, the telemedicine location profiles comprise patient stations with video conference capabilities, and patient station peripherals for specific patient healthcare evaluations. In another aspect, method further comprises providing an assignment of the resource pool profiles in a list or calendar format. In another aspect, the computerized system is integrated into or communicably linked to an EMR system.
In another aspect, the method further comprises assigning a role designation to a user, wherein the role designation comprises an institutional administrator, a department administrator, a technical administrator, a presenter, a healthcare provider, or a referring healthcare provider. In another aspect, the method further comprises providing access to the computer system based on a hierarchical structure of the role assignment, an access and a function of the user.
In another aspect, the one or more appointment parameters comprise a patient location, a requested telemedicine location selected from the telemedicine location profiles, a requested medical specialty selected from the one or more medical specialties, a requested medical profile selected from the two or more medical profiles, a requested appointment length, a requested medical provider gender, an appointment urgency, a request for one or more medical peripherals, or a combination thereof. In another aspect, the method further comprises automatically ranking the one or more appointment times based on one or more criteria comprising a capacity at the two or more telemedicine location profiles, the two or more healthcare provider profiles, or a utilization across a set of the resource pool profiles.
In another aspect, the set of telemedicine encounter tasks comprise specifying a payment method, sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information, receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information, confirming the payment method, initiating the telemedicine encounter, completing the telemedicine encounter, sending the patient results, or receiving the patient results. In another aspect, the method further comprises one or more of the following: receiving a payment method from the referring healthcare provider device; receiving a confirmation of the payment method from the referred to healthcare provider; sending a request for a pre-appointment patient medical information to the referring healthcare provider device; receiving the pre-appointment patient medical information from the referring healthcare provider device; initiating the telemedicine encounter using the one or more videoconference links; receiving a completion of the telemedicine encounter from the referred to healthcare provider device; receiving the patient results from the referred to healthcare provider device; or providing the patient results to the referring healthcare provider device.
In another aspect, the method further comprises sharing one or more documents or files between the referring healthcare provider device and the referred to healthcare provider device via the computer system. In another aspect, the method further comprises using the one or more documents or files for clinical support, administrative support, education, tutoring, training, credentialing of one or more of the resource pool profiles, or store and forward telemedicine consultations. In another aspect, the method further comprises storing, distributing and processing the one or more documents for files in the telemedicine encounter or an evaluation of the telemedicine encounter. In another aspect, the method further comprises: receiving one or more documents or files from the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; making the received one or more documents or files available for downloading to the referring healthcare provider device or the referred to healthcare provider device; and removing the received one or more documents or files from the computer system after a preset amount of time or until the received one or more documents or files are downloaded.
A non-limiting example of the current invention will now be described in reference to
The scheduler and document-sharing platform finds available appointment times. The referring provider's coordinator 304 selects the best appointment time. Email alerts are sent out to the referred to provider 310 and all coordinators 304 and 306. Once the appointment is booked a timeline is created to assist in determining what step happens next until the appointment is complete. Next the referring from provider's coordinator 304 enters in the payment information. Alerts are sent indicating this is complete to the referred to provider's coordinator 306. Then the referring from provider's coordinator 304 uploads patient medical information (PMI) for the consulting provider 310. PMI includes personal health information, generally referring to demographic information, medical histories, test and laboratory results, mental health conditions, insurance information, and other data that a healthcare professional collects to identify an individual and determine appropriate care.
Files only stay on the server for a preset amount of time or until they are downloaded. Next the referred to provider's coordinator 306 downloads the PMI and uploads it into the EMR for the consulting provider 310 to review. The referred to provider's coordinator 306 also verifies payment information. The referred to provider 310 or their coordinator 306 selects initiate telemedicine appointment to see what numbers to dial. Clicking on the links, the videoconference is established between the provider 310 and patient 302 via patient station 312.
The patient 302 is seen via a patient station 312 with the presenter 314 operating the cart and medical peripherals. Afterwards the appointment is marked complete in the scheduler either by the referred to provider 310 or their coordinator 306. The referred to provider 310 creates a report and their coordinator 306 uploads the report into the document-sharing platform. Files only stay on the server for a preset amount of time or until the documents are downloaded. Finally, the referring from provider's coordinator 304 downloads the report and enters it into the patient's EMR file for the referring from provider 308 to review and provide to the patient 302. In another embodiment, the scheduler and document-sharing platform is linked to and can bi-directionally communicate with a plurality of EMR systems, such as EPIC and Allscripts.
A non-limiting example of the above-described computerized process 300 will now be described in more detail with reference to
After logging in, the first page displayed is the user's dashboard. Its content varies based on the role of the user. A first time user has no role, so they will only be able to see users, institutions, facilities, and equipment information.
The user is then able to request role designation and assignment from the system administrator. For example, the user will log into the scheduler and document-sharing platform dedicated URL and then select request access to application. The browser will then display the request to application page. The user then will select the role they need from the drop down list and then select send. Roles available include but are not limited to: institutional administrator, department administrator, technical administrator, presenter, provider, referring provider. Then a message will be sent to the scheduler administrator to complete the role assignment request. In another embodiment, the role assignments will be auto-populated based on preset criteria.
A descriptor showing the user's email, role, and log out link is displayed. In another embodiment, the system automatically logs out the user after a preset amount of time.
A user is able to schedule patient appointments using the scheduler and document-sharing platform. In a further embodiment, appointments can be scheduled intra- and/or inter-enterprise wide to access needed specialty care and equipment that may not be available within the patient's immediate geographical proximity.
For patient side coordinators, the dashboard 500 is their start for scheduling a patient appointment. The patient side coordinator will input all needed information under the new appointment section 504 of the dashboard page. The information can include patient last name 524, patient first name 526, patient date of birth 528, patient gender 530, pool selection 532, medical specialty selection 534, provider name 536 (disabled until the pool 532 is selected), and appointment length 538 (e.g., 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes, etc.). In another embodiment, the required information fields within the new appointment section 504 will be auto-populated via direct data pull from an EMR system or other disparate database. After all information is entered, the user will click the find appointment button 540. When selecting a provider, if the provider has multiple specialties, the scheduler and document-sharing platform will ask the user to select the specific specialty for the appointment. The system will first check the patient information to determine if there are any matches in the system. If the patient is a new patient, the next page viewed will be the find appointment page as shown in
Upon selecting the patient, the user will see the find appointment page 700 highlighting available appointment time slots as illustrated in
Once the appointment is booked, the web page will redirect to the active appointments page 1000 shown in
If the patient is new to the scheduler and document-sharing platform, the new patient information is required to be completed. The user fills in additional information including the required information fields highlighted with a red asterisk. The referring provider's staff will select the specify payment method 1018 and a pop-up 1200 will display with payment options 1202 as shown in
Pre-appointment PMI information can be sent to and from participating institutions, facilities, and/or providers.
If patient data is uploaded, then the referred to provider's staff will need to download the data and/or documents for entry and/or upload in their EMR. In one embodiment, this data and/or document upload is an automatic process. As illustrated in
At this point, the referred to provider's staff needs to confirm payment information. This confirmation is to verify that the services to be rendered will be compensated either by the patient, the provider, or the payer.
At appointment time, the referred to provider will initiate the telemedicine appointment by selecting the corresponding button 1026 in
If the referred to provider has a report or other patient information in electronic format, it may be uploaded to the system to send to the referred from provider for insertion in the corresponding EMR. In one embodiment, this data and/or document transfer is automatic. If patient data (results form the consult) are uploaded, then the patient's coordinator may need to download the data and/or documents in to the local EMR. Users may send additional files at any time in the appointment process by using the file upload section located at the bottom of the timeline.
Users may cancel an appointment at any time prior to an appointment taking place using the page 2000 shown in
The embodiments of the current invention outlined above cover the processes by which the clinical and non-clinical staff across the enterprise engage and coordinate activities to schedule appointments, conduct clinical engagements, and report, record, and share the result of the clinical engagements. In order for this process to be possible, an infrastructure consisting of several interconnected, institutions, departments, facilities, equipment and people are required. It is the role of the institutional administrators and departmental administrators to create this infrastructure within the scheduler and document-sharing platform. In some embodiments, administrators will create departments, facilities, patient stations, and peripheral equipment. These administrators are also responsible for role assignments within the scheduler and document-sharing platform.
For the purposes of assigning roles within the system, institutional administrators will see access requests on their home page. The institutional administrators will click on the desired users pencil icon to respond to the request. The selected user's information page will then be displayed. They will click user role from the drop down menu and select the desired functionality of the user. At this point, the administrator may edit or add user information including but not limited too name, phone number, and address. Users must be assigned an institution by clicking on add an institution and highlighting the desired institution affiliation. Depending on role, users may also need to be assigned a connection to a department and facility. Typically, a department is within an institution and has at least one, if not multiple facilities connected to it. A facility is the physical location where a provider, telemedicine cart presenter is physically located. It is possible to have multiple facilities within one building but typically they have different room numbers, phone numbers, etc.
If the provider's available time schedule is known, select the tab to add time when the provider is available for telemedicine appointments.
Existing user roles can be edited by selecting user directory 2300 as illustrated in
The system provides for the assignment of one or more role designations to users. The role designations may include, but are not limited to:
Coordinator—a coordinator schedules and coordinates patients at one institution and providers at another institution together to create an appointment. Coordinator roles are available on both the patient's institution side and the provider's institution side. Coordinators can do the following: create an appointment, input patient information, input or verify payment information, upload patient medical information, download patient medical information, and/or receives generic emails concerning updates to appointments.
Departmental Administrator—can create/edit users, departments, facilities and pools associated with their department.
Institutional Administrator—can create/edit users, departments, facilities and pools associated with their institution.
Presenter—This user is the person who “presents” the patient to the referred to provider during the telemedicine session.
Referred To Provider—a provider with the special skills desired for a consult. A provider can do all the items a coordinator can do as well as they receive appointment updates with calendar events to allow them to be easily added to their calendars for notification when an appointment is about to occur. Referred To Providers may have patients referred to them for a telemedicine consultation and they may also refer patients to others to be seen.
Referring Only Provider—a provider with the patient who needs to see a specialist (referred to provider) for a consult. The referring healthcare provider can complete all tasks of a coordinator. In this role designation, they can only refer a patient to other providers for a consultation and cannot have patients referred to them.
Staff—Can view only. No active role in the scheduler. Users are assigned this role when leaving their role.
Super Administrator—This type of user can do anything. This role can only be assigned by other super administrators.
Technical Administrator—Can create/edit telemedicine equipment including patient stations, telemedicine rooms and peripherals.
Administrators have the ability to design department and facility structures within their specific institution profile. In an embodiment and illustrated in
Administrators can also add, edit, and delete facilities within their institution profile. As outlined in
Equipment used within the scheduler and document-sharing platform can be booked for appointment specific clinical engagements after the equipment has been registered within the platform.
In addition to booking the new patient station with appropriate peripherals, the user will need to book a room within the facility for use during the telemedicine encounter (referred to as a “telemedicine room”) using page 2900 shown in
In addition to patient station equipment and rooms, the user can register specific peripherals to be added to a booked patient station using page 3000 shown in
In addition to the patient work station that is required at the patient side of the clinical consult, the providing clinician at the remote site must also have access to communication equipment to conduct the clinical engagement via telemedicine. The provider station, as it is known for the purposes of the current invention, must also be registered and tracked. The provider station is a system the consulting provider uses to connect with video and audio to a patient station for a consult (e.g., a laptop with a speaker/mic pick up and a set of headphones, etc.).
Once all institutions, facilities, equipment, and rooms have been registered and made available through the scheduler and document-sharing platform, the process and infrastructure are in place for the enterprise to schedule clinical encounters around a plurality of specific clinical specialties including but not limited to oncology, infectious disease, rheumatology, and nephrology. In one embodiment, the scheduling permissions of users on the scheduler and docu n sharing platform are controlled by a mechanism called a telemedicine pool. A telemedicine pool is comprised of providers, coordinators, and patient stations. In other words, telemedicine pools are groups made up of users (providers, coordinators, etc.) and facilities that are all related through the membership in the pool to allow them to book appointments with other members and facilities in that pool. When a coordinator has been added to a pool, they have permissions to schedule an appointment with any provider that is within that pool. The ability to create pools, and add or remove items from those pools, is restricted to administrative users.
The appointment search algorithm will return an available appointment for unique time slot that meets the following criteria: 1) the provider has availability in their schedule, 2) the provider's medical specialty matches the specialty specified in the search, and 3) The patient station has availability in its schedule where the provider and patient station are within the pool specified in the search.
In addition to clinical engagement documents, the scheduler and document-sharing platform has store and forward capabilities. This embodiment allows for patients and clinicians to access information and tutorial materials directly related to non-acute clinical conditions. For example, a primary care physician could access dietary information to review with a patient without having to engage a dietitian in real-time. In another embodiment, credentialing documents are stored, edited, and transmitted to facilitate and fast track clinician credentialing requirements intra- and inter-enterprise wide.
To facilitate the understanding of this invention, a number of terms are defined below. Terms defined herein have meanings as commonly understood by a person of ordinary skill in the areas relevant to the present invention. Note that these terms may be used interchangeably without limiting the scope of the present invention. Terms such as “a”, “an” and “the” are not intended to refer to only a singular entity, but include the general class of which a specific example may be used for illustration. The terminology herein is used to describe specific embodiments of the invention, but their usage does not delimit the invention, except as outlined in the claims.
It will be understood that particular embodiments described herein are shown by way of illustration and not as limitations of the invention. The principal features of this invention can be employed in various embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures described herein. Such equivalents are considered to be within the scope of this invention and are covered by the claims.
All publications and patent applications mentioned in the specification are indicative of the level of skill of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains. All publications and patent applications are herein incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application was specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference.
The use of the word “a” or “an” when used in conjunction with the term “comprising” in the claims and/or the specification may mean “one,” but it is also consistent with the meaning of “one or more,” “at least one,” and “one or more than one.” The use of the term “or” in the claims is used to mean “and/or” unless explicitly indicated to refer to alternatives only or the alternatives are mutually exclusive, although the disclosure supports a definition that refers to only alternatives and “and/or.” Throughout this application, the term “about” is used to indicate that a value includes the inherent variation of error for the device, the method being employed to determine the value, or the variation that exists among the study subjects.
As used in this specification and claim(s), the words “comprising” (and any form of comprising, such as “comprise” and “comprises”), “having” (and any form of having, such as “have” and “has”), “including” (and any form of including, such as “includes” and “include”) or “containing” (and any form of containing, such as “contains” and “contain”) are inclusive or open-ended and do not exclude additional, unrecited elements or method steps.
The term “or combinations thereof” as used herein refers to all permutations and combinations of the listed items preceding the term. For example, “A, B, C, or combinations thereof” is intended to include at least one of: A, B, C, AB, AC, BC, or ABC, and if order is important in a particular context, also BA, CA, CB, CBA, BCA, ACB, BAC, or CAB.
Continuing with this example, expressly included are combinations that contain repeats of one or more item or term, such as BB, AAA, AB, BBC, AAABCCCC, CBBAAA, CABABB, and so forth. The skilled artisan will understand that typically there is no limit on the number of items or terms in any combination, unless otherwise apparent from the context.
It will be understood by those of skill in the art that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques (e.g., data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof). Likewise, the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both, depending on the application and functionality. Moreover, the various logical blocks, modules, and circuits described herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor (e.g., microprocessor, conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, state machine or combination of computing devices), a digital signal processor (“DSP”), an application specific integrated circuit (“ASIC”), a field programmable gate array (“FPGA”) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. Similarly, steps of a method or process described herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.
All of the systems, devices, computer programs, compositions and/or methods disclosed and claimed herein can be made and executed without undue experimentation in light of the present disclosure. While the systems, devices, computer programs, compositions and methods of this invention have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, it will be apparent to those of skill in the art that variations may be applied to the systems, devices, computer programs, compositions and/or methods and in the steps or in the sequence of steps of the method described herein without departing from the concept, spirit and scope of the invention. All such similar substitutes and modifications apparent to those skilled in the art are deemed to be within the spirit, scope and concept of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
This patent application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/801,000 filed on Feb. 4, 2019 and entitled “Method and System for Scheduling and Document-Sharing within an Enterprise Virtual Health Network”, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62801000 | Feb 2019 | US |
