This system is directed to an automated system with communications to disparate data source(s) in real time to provide for document management, compliance, safety, training, and space management for physical facilities.
Today, the management and maintenance of a “facility” is becoming more strategically important to organizations. Additionally, failure to properly maintain facilities has increased risks that can results in the loss of physical and financial asserts as well as results in regulatory penalties, property damage, personal injury and even unnecessary loss of life. It has been reported that one of the top concerning for organization is the unnecessary loss of property or personal injury that can be traced to failure with periodically communicate policies and procedures governing environmental protection and occupational safety and reporting job related injuries; failure to ensure all employees have received all required training; failure to monitor and ensure compliance with workplace safety policies and procedures; and failure to have the most current documentation about a facility.
Once aspect of failure in facilities management is the problems with improper documentation outdated documentation or lack of access to documentation. Documents that are associated with a facility can include technical information such as floor plans, systems and sub-systems (e.g., HVAC, plumping, electrical), construction, installation data, operational information and information associated with repairs, and upgrades or major maintenance work. Traditionally, these are kept either in physical form or digitally (but on a local sever) and many times in propriety format so that access to these documents needed for operations, repair, inspection, and the like can be problematic. One example is the storage of technical documents shown in
There is also a need in the industry for immediate access to certain documents for emergency situations where delay in access can result in unnecessarily loss of property damage, personal injury and even death. Fire departments desire access to construction documents (e.g. floor plans, utility shutoff, drawings, etc.) when fighting fires or preforming other rescues operations at buildings. Unfortunately, these documents may not be available in sufficient time to assist all first responder and can increase risk to the first responder and the potential victims. For example, in an active shooter situation, the first responders would benefit from current floor plans. Currently, however, these plans are not readily available to all first responders and are localized to each department (e.g., police, fire, ems, etc.). This problem is further complicated in that documents can be printed and stored in physical format, placed in digital format on servers, be in proprietary formats requiring specialized software to view or some combination. It would be advantageous to have a single system that can provide for document access without having to travel to remote locations and accounting for the varying formats of such documents. It would also be advantageous to have a single system that can provide document access which quickly provides emergency documents that can be used by first responders at the site of the emergency.
Another complication with facility management is the volume and the categorization of documents. Not all documents or information is needed by all individuals. For example, architects may need structural documents, fire prevention professionals may need access to fire/heat resistances diagrams (e.g., fire ratings for walls and sprinklers systems), and maintenance technicians to equipment locations and specifications. Further, all these documents are facility specific and should be organized accordingly. These documents should also be maintained so that they are periodically reviewed, and the most current versions are used. When using these documents, some are related to regulatory, safety and internal compliance. For example, fire extinguishers should be routinely inspected based upon a local regulatory schedule. To ensure that all fire extinguishers have been inspected, documents associated with the location of the fire extinguisher should be reviewed so the locations of each fire extinguisher are known, and none are skipped. When inspected, a written verification of the inspection can be stored such as with the form shown in
Another deficiency with traditional document and facility management systems is the inability to utilize the documents for space management and allocation without a labor-intensive process. For example, in the health care industry, Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements are a significant part of most health care organizations' revenues. These reimbursement amounts are based upon a complex formula that uses actual costs incurred by an organization when providing care to a Medicare/Medicaid patient and can include department costs centers by square footage allocation. Administrative units can also be used for such calculations and are the designation given a physical location based upon this function. The federal government can also require that the square footage assigned to each department within a medical facility be accurately determined. Overhead costs of a health care facility can be reimbursed, but only that portion that is allocated to the department by square footage. Overhead costs can include building and fixtures, movable equipment, maintenance and repairs, plait operations, laundry and linens and housekeeping. Therefore, the ability to accurately measure, allocate and assign square footage information of a facility to a department or other category is advantageous.
Many facilities calculate square footage with physical documents (e.g. blueprints, construction drawings) and use a ruler to measure the area and calculate square footage. This method is very inaccurate can yield error upwards of 25%. Some facilities have moved to digital drawings (e.g., Computer Aided Design “CAD”) and can reduce the error rate by using the digital version of blueprints as these can be more accurate than the paper drawings and can results in more precise measurement. However, the drawings are not updated and are generally separated from a facilities management system. Further, the typical software platform for creating and manipulating CAD drawings is ill-suited to create square footage calculations that include reports for Medicare/Medicaid purposes, ensuring up-to-date drawings, accounting for partial use of a physical space during the reimbursement period, changing use of a physical space during the reimbursement period and associated the physical space with departments.
Training, especially training that is facility dependent needs to be provided, updated and tracked for safety and compliance reasons. This is especially true for on-site contractors, and temporary employees that need training specific to the facility. It would be advantageous to have a way to provide and track training that was facility specific, project specific or both.
Therefore, is it an object of the present system to provide a system with disparate data that can be access remotely from the depository so that the information can be used while physical at a facility.
It is another object of the present system to provide for a consolidated system of receiving, storing, updating, and displaying facility centric data without the need to physically travel to the data storage facility
The above objectives are accomplished by providing a computerized system for managing disparate data comprising: a server in electronic communications with a remote access point and data depositories taken from the group consisting of: physical documents, digital documents, third party databases, regulatory databases, building code databases, or any combination; and, a set of server computer readable instructions for retrieving disparate information from data depositories, normalizing the data in the data depositories, adding functional overlays to the normalized data, and displaying the normalized data in response to a user request. The server can be in communications with a remote access point and a plurality of disparate data depositories containing information associated with a physical location.
The system can include a set of space calculating computer readable instructions for providing a functional overlay for portioning segments over a floor plan, associated segment specific data portions or segments of the floor plan and calculating the square footage according to the physical properties of the portions or segments and associated data. The set of space calculating computer readable instructions can include instructions for calculating space having dynamic properties such as use, size, accounting unit, department, and the like.
The system can include a set of emergency computer readable instructions for displaying normalized data and selected functional overlay data in response to a request to display information used during emergencies, rescue, and the like. The system can include a set of compliance computer readable instructions for retrieving regulatory and compliance information, determine if a predetermined action has been performed according to action information representing the action preformed, determining if the item is in or not in compliance, displaying the results and receiving documents of other information associated with preforming of the action associate with compliance, inspections, reporting and any combination thereof. Compliance items can be included any number of items such as inspections, testing, training, upgrades, updates, and the like and can be tracked and included in compliance tracking information.
The system can include a computerized system for managing, virtualizing and augmenting disparate data comprising: a server in communications with a remote access point and a plurality of disparate data depositories containing information associated with a physical location; a set of computer readable instructions that when processed by the server are configured to: retrieve disparate information from at least one disparate data depository, normalize the received disparate information, and add a functional overlay to the normalized data, associate the normalized data with identification data in a many to many relationship providing filtered access to the normalized data and associated functional overlays, and create display information having the normalized data, identification data and associated functional overlays, display a floor plan area representing a physical floor plan of at least a portion of the physical location, superimposing a functional overlap representing a physical dimension of elements of the floor plan keyed to marking attributes of the floor plan, receive a selection of a portion of the floor plan for area calculation, calculate the area of the portion of the floor plan selected and create display information repressing the area of the portion of the floor plan selected, create a training program associated with the physical location, receive training content specific to the physical location, associate an individual with a training program and physical location to create a composite training track, track a progress of the individual through the composite training track, and associate the progress with the physical location, and create display information having a training status, retrieve regulatory compliance data, determine if a predetermined action has been performed associated with the regulatory compliance data, receive action information associated with preforming of the action, determine if the action resulted in compliance, create display information representing compliance, designate at least a portion of the normalize data and associated functional overlay emergency data, create display information having normalize data and associated functional overlay emergency data, and transmit display information to the remote access point of the normalized data in response to a user request.
The system can include depositories that are taken from the group consisting of: physical documents, digital documents, third party databases, regulatory databases, building code databases, construction plans, or any combination thereof and the set of computer readable instructions are configured to normalize the data from the data depositories into a standardized format. The set of computer readable instructions can be configured to associate dynamic properties of the physical location with the area calculated according to the portion of the floor plan selected. Dynamic properties can be selected from the group consisting of physical location, use, accounting unit, space type, occupancy, floor covering, HVAC zone, electrical zone, lighting plan, fire alarm zone or any combination thereof. The set of computer readable instructions can be configured to calculate a square footage of an administrative unit. The set of computer readable instructions can be configured to normalize the received data resulting in a normalized data set having no repeating groups of data and in a one-to-many relationship with functional overlays. The set of computer readable instructions can be configured associate the normalized data set with inspection tracking information.
The set of computer readable instructions can be configured to associate the normalized data set with compliance tracking information. The disparate information can include inspection information having an attribute taken from the group consisting of inspection item, frequency, due date, status indicator and combination thereof, and the set of computer readable instructions are configured to associate the disparate information with the inspection information to provide inspection information status. The set of computer readable instructions can be configured to determine out of compliance information according to the inspection information, aggregate out of compliance items into an open issues group and create display information including the open issues group. The marking attributes can be room boundaries present on architectural plans.
The following description of the system will be better understood by reference to the following drawings that are incorporated and made part of the written specification:
Computer readable instructions, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer to perform a series of steps to accomplish a specific task and results in useful, concrete, and tangible results. These computer readable instructions can be tied to a particular machine or apparatus with the specific purpose of executing the computer readable code for accomplishing tangible results and represents and accomplishes the manipulation of physical data.
The detailed description that follows may be presented in terms of program procedures executed on a computer or network of computers. These procedural descriptions are representations used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. These procedures herein described are generally a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desired result when executed by a computer and its processor representing or resulting in the tangible manipulation of physical objects. These steps also require physical manipulations of physical quantities such as electrical or magnetic physical elements and are capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated readable medium that is designed to perform a specific task or tasks. Actual computer or executable code or computer readable code may not be contained within one file or one storage medium but may span several computers or storage mediums. The term “host” and “server” may be hardware, software, or combination of hardware and software that provides the functionality described herein.
The present system is described below with reference to flowchart illustrations of methods, apparatus (“systems”) and computer program products according to the system. It will be understood that each block of a flowchart illustration can be implemented by a set of computer readable instructions or code.
Elements of the flowchart support combinations of means for performing the special functions, combinations of steps for performing the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the specified functions. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions, steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware or computer instructions.
The present system is now described more fully herein with reference to the drawings in which the preferred embodiment of the system is shown. This system may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the system to those skilled in the art.
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There can also be third party digitally information 18 that is from third parties. For example, a power generator can be located at a facility. This power generator has to be maintenance and potentially repaired from time to time. To assist with these tasks, the manufacturer or vendor can provide technical information about the generator. The information, however, is incomplete in that the information does not have facility specific information such as the location or the electrical system that the generator is connected to. There can also be facility/building specific documents 20 such as structural blueprints, wiring diagrams, plumping diagrams, landscaping and the like. These documents can be in physical or digital format. In some cases, these documents can be in native formats such as CAD. Some cases the information will be in a proprietary format. There are also regulatory and building code information 22. This information is generally a set of rules that specify the standards that are to be met with facilities (e.g. construction, maintenance, wiring, plumping, fire suppression, occupancy, and the like) and can be industry standards, governmental standards, or internal standards of the facility. This regulatory and building code information can chance with some frequency and needs to be updated from the variety of source in which it exists. There is also information that is generated in the operation and the maintenance of the facility during activities such as inspections, reporting, maintenance and the like. This information can take may forms including that shown in
A server can be in communications with a remote access point such as a personal computer, smart phone, tablet, or other remote computing device. The communications between the server and the remote access point can be wired or wireless. The communications can be through a global communications network, private network, cellular network, local network, or any combination thereof. The server can provide hosting computer readable instructions that can be access through the remote access point with common interface software such as internet browsers.
A server can be in communications with data sources such as internal document databases, third party vendors (architects, equipment manufacturers, regulatory agencies), and other computer system, both internal and external. Computer readable instructions can access the disparate data sources and normalize them at 26. Normalization can include conversions of the physical information to digital information, changing format of the information to a common format that can be accessed by the server and its computer readable instructions homogenously, and creating a translation between the native format and common format used by the server and its computer readable instructions. Once the disparate data is normalized, functional overlays can be applied to the normalized data. There can be one functional overlay 28 or multiple functional overlays 30. Functional overlays can include document specific data applied to the normalized data or select items in the data set, categories or grouping data in the normalized data, data associated with portion of the normalized data or individual documents in the normalized data or portion of individual documents in the normalized data. Functional overlays will be discussed in further detail below.
The computer readable instructions can access the normalized data and the functional overlays based upon the data access 32 required or requested. For example, data can be requested that is associated with a particular facility. To provide the ability to access all the data that is associated with a particular facility. Traditionally, an indexed database would have been used to access records that have a field that can be sorted or filters to provide the information for the facility. This requires a database with the appropriate field in the record to allow such access. In the present system, the disparate data sources do not readily lend themselves to such an organization structure as can be from sources such as vendors, internal databases or regulatory organizations. Therefore, the functionally overlay is applied to the data so that the data can be accessed strategically without necessarily needing each data source to have the traditional search fields in the records. With normalized data and functional overlays, calculation 34 can be performed on the data. These calculations can include determining square footage of any number of areas, such as the square footage used by a department or other designation, tracking dates and task completion to provide status of compliance issue such as training and inspections, and report document and functional overlays associated with a number of categories (e.g., discipline, document, equipment, facility, machine, facility, project and the like). The calculations can also include any number of reporting features such as training access, viewing time, training module completion, completion time and other metrics associated with the computer readable functionality that can also be facility specific. The information can also be presented to the user at 36 in various format that include organized by a number of formats on a display.
Information can be output in various formats according to need case and can include spreadsheets, CAD files, dashboards, and the like.
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The system can use information from the user's cell phone, tablet of other portable computer device of location device to determine the location of the user. The location information can be GPS information. With the location information, the system can display the user's location on a floor plan improving security and efficiency. In some instances, such as emergencies where locations are important if not critical, such as when first responders are seeking to identify the location of individuals and may not be familiar with the facility. Location indicator 77 shows on the floor plan the location of a user.
The document data can be a representation of one of the functional overlays associated with the document that can associated information such as classification, title, keywords, creation date, date ranges (creation, access, modifications, printing and like), discipline, sub-discipline, building, and other disparate data or files included with the drawing. Additional information that can be associated with the document with a functional overlay includes project type, originator, project name, drawings numbers or other identifiers, document types (e.g. budget, timelines, drawings, meeting notes, photos, schedules, specification and the like, all of which can be provided through a functional overlay), comments, tags, native file extensions include files, publication date, review status review group and the like. From this view, the user can also modify information (e.g., functional overlays) associated with the document such as inclusion in emergency (911) drawings, if open issues are present or if designated recorded or as built. Because the system uses functional overlays as well as native format for the disparate date, documents can be provided in multiple formats such as PDF or DWG without losing or replicating the functionality of the system. The information associated with disparate data (e.g., drawings) can be searched across the functional overlays.
One example of a functional overlays can also include augmentation information associated with the physical location represented by the normalized data such as the physical dimensions of the physical location. In this case, the functional overlay can have the dimension of the rooms of a floor and hallways, for example, and the computer readable instructions can key the functional overlay to the normalized data by matching boarders, walls and the like (e.g., marking attributes). Marking attributes can also be added to the normalized data such as symbols associated with the normalized data to represent corners, sides, or other area of the normalized data to be used to associate the functional overlay. The functional overlay can then be viewed and analyzed as composite data such as when it is desired to discover the square footage of at least a portion of the physical location.
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When a document is selected, such as a floor plan shown in
When information about a portion is not available or missing, a space management warning 62 can be displayed.
Using the functional overlay to include space information, calculations can be made to determine the use of the facility by square foot and by use type for purposes such as space management and allocation. One functional overlay can include temporal information so that the information associated with a portion can be calculated for a period of time, even when the purpose, use and event segments change in the accounting period, reimbursement period of other time frame. For example, when a room or segment is used for a recovery area in a hospital for a portion of a year and then converted to pre-op for a portion of the year, the use of functional overlays allows for accurate calculations even when area use changes over time within the accounting period.
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It is understood that the above descriptions and illustrations are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Other embodiments as well as many applications besides the examples provided will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the above description. The scope of the system should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. The disclosures of all articles and references, including patent applications and publications, are incorporated by reference for all purposes. The omission in the following claims of any aspect of subject matter that is disclosed herein is not a disclaimer of such subject matter, nor should it be regarded that the inventor did not consider such subject matter to be part of the disclosed inventive subject matter.
This application is a Continuation In Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/377,881 filed Apr. 8, 2019 titled System And Method For Compliance, Safety And Space Management which is a U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/653,924 filed Apr. 8, 2018.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62653924 | Apr 2018 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 16377811 | Apr 2019 | US |
Child | 17590300 | US |