Patent Application
20100223071
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to systems, methods, apparatuses and computer program products for providing an efficient mechanism for enabling medical care personnel to manage, prioritize and organize patient care so that medical information associated with one or more patients may be accessible from a single graphical user interface and so that medical care personnel may receive current information regarding one or more patients medical status.
Delivering medical care is increasingly becoming complex and staying apprised of a patient's medical status is oftentimes difficult. Today, medical personnel (e.g., clinicians) may rely on a variety of methods to stay apprised of their patients' condition. For instance, currently, in order to access medical information associated with a patient, medical personnel typically search for the relevant patient information within a variety of hospital information systems, all of which may have separate log-ons, user interfaces, and functionality. For instance, today, vital medical data associated with one or more patients may be maintained in a pharmacy system, a laboratory system, an ADT system, an Order Entry system, or the like and information pertaining to the patient(s) is typically separately retrieved from each of these hospital information systems in order for medical personnel to utilize the data or other information in providing care for the patient(s). In this regard, a patient care plan may be separate from one or more physician orders as well as other pertinent medical information associated with one or more patients and as such medical personnel (e.g., nurses) typically need to look in different places to get a complete understanding of what medical care is needed for each patient.
For instance, medical personnel may rely on paper documentation, one or more nursing care plans or summaries regarding patient information (e.g., a Kardex™ system), electrical apparatuses (e.g., mobile telephones, pagers, etc.), notes that they keep in their pockets, their memories and a variety of other sources to stay up to date and current regarding a patient's medical status. However, failure to make all pertinent medical information, associated with a patient, available or accessible from a single source may create opportunities for errors to occur and may ultimately result in critical changes in a patient's medical condition going unnoticed and untreated. For instance, if a clinician such as a nurse, for example, forgets to check for a laboratory result associated with a patient, critical values may not be timely addressed, potentially resulting in additional deterioration in the patient's health. Additionally, if a medical clinician such as for example a nurse loses a paper reminder to assess a patient's pain status after administering a narcotic, the consequence of such a loss may result in the patient experiencing unnecessary pain and the facility not meeting Joint Commission requirements.
It should also be pointed out that “The Joint Commission”, which accredits and certifies more than 15,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, is beginning to require health care institutions to utilize an interdisciplinary medical plan of care for a patient(s) that is accessible from a single source, so that all pertinent medical information associated with a plan of care for a patient is accessible from one source.
Thus, a need exists to provide a more efficient mechanism of gathering or retrieving medical information, associated with one or more patients, which originated from one or more distinct sources, such as different medical institutions or medical systems, and make this information available for medical personnel to access from a single source as well as a manner in which to enable this medical information associated with one or more patients to be accessible via a common display.
One or more exemplary embodiments may improve efficiency of delivering medical care in a medical institution by eliminating the need for medical personnel such as for example a nurse(s) to utilize multiple sources of patient information such as a paper Kardex™ system, notes, documentation and the like as well as the need to search multiple medical institutions, for example multiple hospital information systems, for new patient orders, laboratory results, medical charts, interventions, care plans as well as other pertinent medical information. In this regard, the exemplary embodiments may automatically update patient information in a single source that is maintained by disparate medical systems which may eliminate a need for medical personnel to search multiple sources for medical data associated with one or more patients.
The exemplary embodiments may simplify access to patient information by providing a summary view of patient data in a single view. The patient data may include, but is not limited to, an interdisciplinary plan of care and may serve as a mechanism to access other medical systems that may be maintained by medical institutions. The exemplary embodiments enable critical information to be seen quickly and efficiently with automatic updates displaying new results, orders and alerts relating to one or more patients.
Additionally, the exemplary embodiments may increase the efficiency of delivering care by eliminating numerous steps to gather patient information from different medical systems and may create electronic reminders that may alert medical personnel that critical events need to take place regarding the provision of patient care. For example, the exemplary embodiments may generate one or more reminders to perform pain assessments and other tasks to eliminate medical personnel's need to rely on memory or paper-based notes, for example. The exemplary embodiments may also be utilized to facilitate viewing of up-to-date information that can be personalized to meet the individual needs of a medical staff member throughout a work shift.
The exemplary embodiments may display patient information from disparate medical systems in a single view of a display and thus allow medical personnel such as clinicians for example to organize and prioritize patient care. For instance, the exemplary embodiments may be integrated with one or more medical systems and retrieve medical information from these medical systems which may be utilized to display a complete interdisciplinary care plan in one view enabling clinicians to see what medical care needs to be performed for one or more patients.
The exemplary embodiments may show a summary of patient data associated with one or more patients, including but not limited to, current charting information, results (e.g., lab results), orders (e.g., prescriptions from a pharmacy) and any other suitable medical information. Additionally, one or more data views of a display may be configurable by discipline and by type of clinician. For example, the exemplary embodiments may be configured differently for an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse as opposed to a respiratory therapist. Also, data may be sorted and filtered by medical personnel as needed. For instance, clinicians may quickly filter data to only show overdue medications, new laboratory results or any other suitable information. Users of the exemplary embodiments may also set preferences for viewing data to meet their specific workflow needs at any time during a work shift. The exemplary embodiments may enable multiple patients across multiple medical units of a medical institution to be viewed on a display as well as a single patient within a medical unit of a medical institution.
Exemplary embodiments may facilitate retrieval of new laboratory results, orders, critical intravenous infusions, medications, documentation, alerts, care plans and any other suitable data and may display information logically providing clinicians a broad view of one or more patient's status. Additionally, the exemplary embodiments may provide a graphical user interface such as for example a display showing one or more icons and alerts that may allow medical personnel to quickly prioritize patient care and determine patients having critical patient care needs.
Moreover, the exemplary embodiments may provide a mechanism that provides single click access to more detailed information associated with medical data pertaining to a patient(s) such as for example access to one or more administrations, orders, alerts and other suitable medical information. In this regard, the exemplary embodiments can chart, verify new orders, update tasks and alerts and may complete or finalize required documentation and orders as well as create one or more reminders reminding clinicians that critical events associated with the medical care of a patient(s) need to be performed.
The exemplary embodiments may simplify accesses to patient information by providing a summary view of patient data on a single display view which may include information associated with an interdisciplinary plan of care and may access other systems. Critical information associated with one or more patients may be shown on the display quickly and efficiently and may automatically display information associated with new medical results, orders and alerts and any other suitable information corresponding to one or more patients.
The exemplary embodiments of the invention improves workflow efficiency by eliminating the need for nurses to use a paper Kardex™ system, notes, and the need to look in numerous systems for new patient orders, laboratory results, charting, interventions, and the care plan. Failing to display all pertinent patient information in a single view may create opportunities for errors and timely recognition of critical changes in a patient's condition.
In one exemplary embodiment a corresponding method and computer program product for facilitating organization of medical data, associated with one or more patients, in a single view of one or more displays are provided. The method and computer program product may include receiving medical information from one or more different computer systems and storing the received medical information in a memory. The received medical information may be associated with one or more patients. Additionally, the method and computer program product may include examining received medical information stored in the memory and identifying whether data in the received medical information indicates that the medical information corresponds to one or more patients. The data includes one or more unique identifiers (IDs) associated with the patients. The method and computer program product also may include providing one or more portions of the received medical information to a single view of one or more displays and configuring the portions of the received medical information to generate a summary view of the received medical information. The medical information is associated with at least one of the patients. The method and computer program product may also include updating a first portion of the received medical information upon receiving additional medical data associated with the first portion in response to a determination indicating that the additional medical data corresponds to a patient. The additional medical data is also being stored in the memory. The method and computer program product also may include providing the first portion of the received medical data, as updated, to a single view of the one or more displays and providing an alert(s), received from at least one of the different computer systems, to the summary view. The alert(s) includes data indicating a medical status of a patient.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, an apparatus is provided for facilitating organization of medical data, associated with one or more patients, in a single view of one or more displays. The apparatus may include a processor configured to receive medical information from one or more different computer systems. The received medical information may be associated with one or more patients. The processor is also configured to store the received medical information in a memory and examine the received medical information stored in the memory and identify whether data in the received medical information indicates the medical information corresponds to one or more patients. The data comprises one or more unique identifiers (IDs) associated with the one or more patients. The processor is further configured to provide one or more portions of the received medical information to a single view of one or more displays and manipulate the portions of the received medical information to generate a summary view of the medical information. The medical information is associated with at least one of the patients. The processor is also configured to update at least a first portion of the received medical information upon receiving additional medical data associated with the first portion in response to a determination indicating that the additional medical data corresponds to a patient. The additional medical data is stored in the memory. Additionally, the processor is configured to provide the first portion of the received medical information, as updated, to a single view of the one or more displays and provide an alert(s), received from at least one of the different computer systems, to the summary view, the alert(s) includes data indicating a medical status associated with the patient.
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout. Moreover, the term “exemplary”, as used herein, is not provided to convey any qualitative assessment, but instead merely to convey an illustration of an example.
Also for example, the memory typically may store one or more client applications, instructions or the like that is executed by the processor 84 to perform steps associated with the operation of the electronic device in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. As explained below, for example, the memory may store one or more client application(s), for instance, software, such as for example a patient organization algorithm 87, which may retrieve patient information from disparate medical systems or different computer systems and automatically arrange this information in a single view of a display allowing medical personnel to organize and prioritize patient care. In this regard, the patient organization algorithm, upon being executed by the processor 84, may generate an interdisciplinary patient care plan which may be visible in a single view of a display and which may enable medical personnel to determine medical care that needs to be provided to the patient.
The electronic device can include one or more logic elements for performing various functions of one or more client application(s). The logic elements performing the functions of one or more client applications may be embodied in an integrated circuit assembly including one or more integrated circuits integral or otherwise in communication with a respective network entity (e.g., computing system, client, server, etc.) or more particularly, for example, a processor 84 of the respective network entity.
In addition to the memory 86, the processor 84 can also be connected to at least one interface or other means for displaying, transmitting and/or receiving data, content or the like. The interface(s) can include at least one communication interface 88 or other means for transmitting and/or receiving data, content or the like. In this regard, the communication interface 88 may include, for example, an antenna and supporting hardware and/or software for enabling communications with a wireless communication network. For example, the communication interface(s) can include a first communication interface for connecting to a first network, and a second communication interface for connecting to a second network. In this regard, the electronic device is capable of communicating with other electronic devices over a network such as a Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), the Internet, or the like. Alternatively, the communication interface may support a wired connection with the respective network. In addition to the communication interface(s), the interface(s) may also include at least one user interface that may include one or more earphones and/or speakers, a display 80, and/or a user input interface 82. The display 80 is capable of displaying information including but not limited to medical data associated with one or more patients. In this regard, the display is capable of showing medical information associated with one or more patients, which may be retrieved from one or more disparate medical or facilities, for example hospital information systems, and may show this information in a single view of the display and the information visible on the display may be accessible by medical personnel to organize and prioritize patient care. Additionally, the display is capable of showing one or more medical orders, laboratory results, patient summary information, medical charting information, the location of patients in a medical unit, one or more alerts, interdisciplinary care plans, prescription information and any other suitable medical information including but not limited to web pages associated with one or more websites. The user input interface, in turn, can comprise any of a number of devices allowing the entity to receive data from a user, such as a microphone, a keypad, keyboard, a touch display, a joystick, image capture device, pointing device (e.g., mouse), stylus or other input device.
Reference is now made to
The processor (e.g., processor 84) of the server 150 may execute one or more algorithms or software stored in a memory. For example, the processor of the server 150 may execute software, such as for example the patient organization algorithm 87 (also referred to herein as the organize my day algorithm). In response to the processor executing the patient organization algorithm 87, the processor may retrieve medical data, associated with one or more patients, from one or more disparate entities such as for example medical facility 6, pharmacy 8, laboratory 10, medical facility 2 or any other suitable medical entities. The medical data that may be retrieved by the processor of the server 150 may include, but is not limited to, laboratory results, measurements, medical chart information, one or more medical diagnoses, prescription data, a primary language of a patient(s), information associated with an attending physician, data associated with one or more patient's diet, order(s) information, one or more patient care plans, alert data, patient admission date/time, emergency contact information, information associated with a location of one or more patients within a medical unit of a health care facility, status information associated with one or more tasks (e.g., a status of overdue in response to a task not being performed by an assigned time or upon the expiration of a time) and any other suitable medical data. It should be pointed out that the medical data described in the foregoing sentence may be referred to herein interchangeably as medical information. The medical chart information may be any medical information that is arranged for display in a chart so that it can be easily identified and analyzed. As described above, an order(s) may contain data, content, information or the like related to one or more instructions provided to medical personnel for administering medical care to one or more patient(s). The alerts may consist of reminders or other messages informing medical care personnel, assigned to care for one or more patients, of critical events. For instance, the processor of the server 150 may generate an alert(s) that may be sent to a health care professional(s) in the form of a message before a critical event (e.g., perform a pain assessment 20 minutes after giving a narcotic analgesic to a patient) takes place to remind the health care professional(s) to provide medical care at the specified time (e.g., 20 minutes after administering a narcotic analgesic).
It should be pointed out that the processor of the electronic device 130 of medical facility 2 and the processor of the electronic device 100 of medical facility 6 may both execute one or more order entry applications, which may be utilized by a health care professional (e.g., physician) to generate instructions that may be sent to medical personnel. The instructions may indicate a specific manner in which to provide medical care to one or more patients. For example, a health care professional may utilize a keyboard, for example, of a user input interface to generate an instruction that instructs a nurse to reposition a patient on bed rest every three hours or administer a specified dosage of a drug to a patient at a specified time of day or any other suitable instructions.
The medical information associated with one or more patients may be retrieved by the processor of the server from one or more medical entities (e.g., medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8, and medical facility 6) based on a unique identifier (ID) associated with a patient(s). The unique ID may consist of an alphanumeric code that is used to identify a patient. As an example, consider a patient named Wanda Jameson that is assigned a unique ID such as for example “33 77 12 C”. In response to the pharmacy 8, for example, generating a new prescription for Wanda Jameson, medical data associated with this prescription may include the unique ID (e.g., 33 77 12 C) associated with the patient Wanda Jameson and may be sent by the processor of the electronic device 110, maintained by the pharmacy 8, to the server 150. The data received by the server 150 from the electronic device 110 (as well as medical data received from electronic devices 100, 120 and 130) may be stored in a memory (e.g., memory 86) of the server 150. In this regard, the processor of the server 150 may examine data stored in its memory and determine that new medical data, associated with a prescription in this example, has been received corresponding to patient Wanda Jameson and may send this medical data to a display such as display 80 so that the medical data can be seen by medical personnel and utilized in order to provide medical care to patient Wanda Jameson. The prescription data sent to a display by the processor of the server may be displayed along with other medical data associated with a patient, such as for example, Wanda Jameson. The processor of the server 150 may determine that new medical information associated with a patient was received by examining data containing the unique ID associated with the patient, which in this example is 33 77 12 C.
As another example, laboratory results (also referred to herein as lab results and lab) associated with patient Wanda Jameson may include data identifying the unique ID assigned to patient Wanda Jameson and may be sent by the processor of the electronic device 120, maintained by laboratory 120, to the server 150. The processor of the server 150 may store these laboratory results in its memory and the processor of the server 150 may analyze the data associated with these laboratory results and may detect the unique ID (e.g., 33 77 12 C) corresponding to patient Wanda Jameson. In this regard, the processor of the server 150 may send the laboratory results corresponding to patient Wanda Jameson to one or more displays so that the laboratory results may be viewed by medical personnel. It should be pointed out that the laboratory results sent to a display by the processor of the server may be displayed along with other medical data associated with a patient, in this example Wanda Jameson. In the above example, it should be pointed out that patient Wanda Jameson is a fictitious person for purposes of illustration.
Referring now to
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Additionally or alternatively, a drop down menu (not shown) may allow a user the option to select a list of patients in order to view corresponding medical information based on at least any one of the following; department, room/bed, care provider, work shift, location, temporary location, assigned medical personnel, unassigned to medical personnel, active orders, patient name, account number, medical record number, clinical results, or any other suitable information.
Additionally, a user such as for example medical care personnel may utilize a pointing device or the like of the input user interface to access one or more tabs which when selected provide medical data associated with one or more “labs”, “new data” (also referred to herein as “other new”), “alerts”, “new/changed” medical information as well as “overdue” medical information. For instance, selection of the “Overdue” tab 12 may present the user with a list of all overdue tasks or orders and selection of the “Other New” tab 18 may present the user with a list of all new medical diagnoses provided by a health care professional such as for example a physician. It should be pointed out that orders may include data indicating the entity from which the order was received by the processor of the server 150 and this information (not shown) may also be displayed on a display such as display 80. Additionally, the processor of the server 150 may determine that tasks or orders are overdue in response to determining that a time associated with the performing the task has expired.
Additionally, selection of the “My Patients” pull-down menu 11 may allow a user to switch to a list of all patients and selection of the “My To Dos” tab 15 may present the user with a task list associated with one or more medical tasks that need to be performed for a patient(s). Moreover, selection of the “Labs” tab 20 may allow the user to see one or more lab results associated with a patient(s) and selection of the “Alerts” tab 16 may allow a user to see one or more alerts associated with a patient. The lab results may be received from the laboratory 10. The “New/Changed” tab 14 may allow a user to see a list of new and changed orders that may be generated by a health care professional such as for example a physician, a pharmacist or any other suitable health care professional.
Referring now to
The display may show the date and time that the organize my day algorithm 87 is being accessed, in this example on Feb. 27, 2008 at 6:45 AM. Additionally, the display may provide a list of action items or tasks that the health care professional is scheduled to perform in a menu referred to herein for example as “My To Dos” menu 23. Moreover, the user may utilize a pointing device (e.g., mouse of the user input interface) to access a pull down menu 25 and may select an option to provide a timeline that may be generated by the processor of the server 150 upon selecting the timeline option.
The user may also utilize a pointing device to select a task button 27 as well as an order occurrences button 29 and may select a button 31 specifying that all of the tasks and orders associated with the user's assigned patients are shown for a given a shift of the user, and/or a button 33 specifying that all of the tasks and orders over the next 5 hours are shown. Additionally, the user may utilize the pointing device to select a button 35 associated with overdue tasks and/or occurrences (also referred to herein as overdue to dos) related to assigned patients as well as a button 37 associated with completed tasks and/or occurrences (also referred to herein as completed to dos) related to assigned patients. In the exemplary embodiment of
As an example of a task and order consider that the processor of the server 150 determined that an order was received for the health care professional to administer 20 mg of Furosemide to patient Molly Ellington at 7:00 AM. Additionally, it should be pointed out that the red bar 45 associated with patient Molly Ellington may signify that the health care professional needs to provide medical care to patient Molly Ellington first. In this regard, the red bar 45 may indicate a critical alert to the health care professional. One or more alerts may be received by the processor of the server 150 from various medical entities or systems such as for example the medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8 and medical facility 6. These alerts may be associated with distinctive visible indicia, such as colors (e.g., depicted by the cross-hatching in the bars 43, 45 and 47 in
A yellow bar 43 associated with patients Bill Camp, Bryan Jelsing, Randy Waters and Javonne Saba may indicate a cautionary alert and may signify that there is something for a health care professional to take note regarding the patient but the yellow bar signifies that an action item associated with a patient(s) is not life-threatening. For example, the yellow bar may be utilized to signify that there is a new unviewed lab result but that the lab result is within normal limits and the health care professional simply needs to look at it and mark it as viewed. A green bar 47, such as for example green bar 47 associated with patient Wanda Jameson may indicate a non-critical alert and may signify that a patient(s) medical condition is stable and progressing according to plan. It should be pointed out that colors other than green, yellow and red may be used for the bars 43, 45 and 47 without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Additionally, a link to an electronic Kardex system 49 (also referred to herein as an eKardex system) and a link to an expert plan 51 as well as a link 53 to a care progression may be provided via a display (e.g., any of the displays of electronic devices 100, 110, 120, 130 and server 150). In this regard, a pointing device (e.g., mouse) may be utilized to select the link 49 associated with the eKardex system and upon selecting the link 49, the display may show a summary of medical information associated with a patient(s). (See e.g.,
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In the patient detail box 57, a user such as for example a health care professional can see comprehensive medical information about Molly and can navigate to seek more detailed information if desired. For instance, a link 59 associated with a care plan corresponding to patient Molly Ellington may be selected by a pointing device or the like and a link 61 to a protocol (e.g., a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) protocol) may be selected by utilizing the pointing device. The DVT protocol may be a protocol to prevent complications associated with DVT such as for example, complications that may occur after surgery especially after an orthopedic surgery and when patients are immobile for long periods of time. Selection of the link 59 may provide information associated with the DVT protocol to a display. Moreover, selection of the link 57 may provide information associated with a care plan for a patient, which may be generated by a physician for example.
The medical information in the patient detail box 57 may correspond to medical data that is received by the processor of the server 150 from one or more disparate medical entities or systems such as for example medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8, and medical facility 6, which may contain medical data associated with the patient, in this example patient Molly Ellington. Additionally, the medical information sent by the medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8, and medical facility 6, which may be received by the processor of the server may include a unique identifier(s) associated with the patient so that the processor of the server 150 may determine that the medical information corresponds to a particular patient in this example Molly Ellington.
A current date and time (e.g., Feb. 27, 2008 at 10:33 AM) that the medical information associated with a patient is being accessed by a user (e.g., medical personnel such as for e.g., a nurse) may be shown in the display of
As described above, a health care professional can examine the information in the patient detail box 57 and see that a patient, in this example Molly Ellington, has a care plan that can be accessed upon selecting link 59 and a protocol that can be accessed upon selecting link 61. The patient banner 67 may show the patient's location in a medical unit (e.g., ICU-12) of a medical institution (e.g., hospital), patient's age, gender, birth date, privacy status, diagnosis (e.g., hip replacement), and attending physician as well as easy to navigate links associated with allergies, labs, and other alerts. It should be pointed out that data associated with the alerts may be accessed via link 69. The link 69 may contain visible indicia indicative of the alerts. The visible indicia may consist of one or more colors (e.g. depicted by the cross-hatching in
Referring now to
For example, the IV Therapy block or section 79 may show data including but not limited to one or more drip orders (e.g., “Dextrose 5%-½ Normal Saline 1000 ml at 125 cc/hour” and “Dopamine in D5W 400 MG at 50 cc/hour”) (or any other suitable orders) as well as an order(s) for providing medical care associated with the IV site of insertion (e.g., “Dressing Change Q Shift”) because these tasks may be handled by the health care professional at one time. The drip orders may relate to the type of IV (e.g., the drug) and the rate of administration and the order for care of IV site insertion may relate to care that must be done to the site where a catheter enters a patient since this site may need to be cleaned, flushed, etc. on a regular basis. The Diet and Nutrition block or section 77 may show data indicating diet orders and recommended care that the health care professional should provide to the patient. The Plan of Care block or section 83 may show patient goals and progress towards those goals. Also, the Nursing Orders block or section 85 may show one or more orders associated with one or more tasks that the nurse is to perform for the patient. The Treatment block or section 81 may show one or more treatment orders and respiratory therapy associated with patient Molly Ellington. The Patient Information block or section 87 may show demographic data associated with a patient (e.g., Molly Ellington) including but not limited to family contact, relationship, phone number, medical history, religious affiliation, advanced directives and release information (e.g., patient discharge data). Selection of one or more filters in the left panel 71 may determine what information is shown in the Kardex section on the display. As shown in
As described above, the organize my day algorithm 87 may consist of software code stored in a memory of the server 150 and may be executed by the processor of the server. Additionally or alternatively, it should be pointed out that in response to being executed by the processor of the server, the organize my day algorithm 87 may provide any of the information contained in
Referring now to
At operation 840, the processor of the server may update at least a portion of medical information associated with one or more patients upon receiving new medical data associated with one or patients from one or more of the disparate medical entities or medical systems. It should be pointed out that the processor of the server may determine that the newly received medical information corresponds to a patient(s) based on a unique ID associated with the patient that is contained in the newly received information. In an alternative exemplary embodiment, upon receiving the new medical information, the processor of the server may automatically update at least a portion of medical information associated with one or more patients. Additionally or alternatively, the processor of the server 150 may retrieve new medical data associated with one or more patients by polling the memories of the electronic devices 100, 110, 120 and 130 maintained by disparate medical entities, such as for example medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8, and medical facility 6, in a manner analogous to that discussed above. At operation 850, the processor of the server 150 may provide the updated or new medical data associated with one or more patients to a single view of one or more displays.
Optionally, at operation 860, the processor of the server 150 may analyze some or all of the medical information associated with at least one patient (e.g., patient Molly Ellington), that is received or retrieved from one or more of the disparate medical entities or medical systems (e.g., medical facility 2, laboratory 10, pharmacy 8, or medical facility 6) and provide the medical information associated with this patient(s) to a single view of one or more displays.
It should be understood that each block or step of the flowchart shown in
The above described functions may be carried out in many ways. For example, any suitable means for carrying out each of the functions described above may be employed to carry out the invention. In one embodiment, all or a portion of the elements of the invention generally operate under control of a computer program product. The computer program product for performing the methods of embodiments of the invention includes a computer-readable storage medium, such as the non-volatile storage medium, and computer-readable program code portions, such as a series of computer instructions, embodied in the computer-readable storage medium.
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The patient data monitor view may enable a user (e.g., clinician) to decide on the priority of action for each item when combined with information from other sources such as observations (e.g., physical assessments) or planned activities (e.g., surgeries). For example, the abnormal lab result 93, which contains visible indicia (e.g., a color yellow), for patient Bill Camp may have priority over the arrival of a new transcription 97 because the clinician is waiting for the results of a blood culture obtained on the last shift as a possible explanation for his elevated temperature 2 days post-op. However, patient Randy Waters may have a new transcription 91 which turns out to be of equal importance with the abnormal lab result 92 because the user (e.g., clinician) is preparing patient Randy Waters (and his chart) for surgery at a particular time (e.g., in an hour), and as such the user may be scrambling to gather the most recent lab results and the physician-dictated History and Physical (H&P) information so the user can provide a verbal report to pre-op staff. One or more yellow warning icons (e.g., alerts 108, 111, and/or 112) and red alert icons (e.g., alert 109) may appear in the Alerts column when a set of pre-defined criteria (one or more data points) is outside that which is expected. For example, a yellow alert (e.g., alerts 108, 111 or 112) may indicate that it is time for a re-evaluation of the patient's care plan to remain compliant with a hospital's defined policy. The red alert 109 may indicate that the sum of data points is worthy of further action. For example, a decrease in a patient's charted urine output (from a charting application), together with an elevation in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and an elevation in creatinine level (from the lab system) may indicate decreased kidney function which is worthy of further evaluation and action. One or more green sign icons (e.g., icons 114 and 117) and blue cosgn icons (e.g., 115 and 116) may appear in the Order Actions column when one or more orders exist that need to be signed off by the physician. For example, verbal or phone orders from physicians must be signed off within a pre-defined period of time to remain compliant with hospital policy. In teaching hospitals a physician must cosign the orders written by a resident intern.
Referring now to
The charge nurse view may be tailored for the nurse in charge of a unit for a shift. The charge nurse view may provide a visual status of each direct care clinician's (e.g., nurse) workload as well as one or more upcoming tasks. Patients that have overdue, pending or new/changed orders that need attention are easily discernable from the charge nurse view. In this regard, the charge nurse view is a high level view that informs the charge nurse where help is needed. In the exemplary embodiment of
Referring now to
For example, requesting insurance authorized days task 120 (also referred to herein as request insurance days) may be a task that shows up automatically for all patients that are newly admitted to a health care facility. On a given day(s), for example the next time insurance is due, the requesting insurance authorized days task 120 may automatically show up as a task corresponding to a given patient and may rank below the discharges due today task 121 and the discharge due tomorrow task 122. In other words, the requesting insurance authorized days task 120 may be assigned a weight (e.g., a value such as 30) that is lower that a weight (e.g., a value such as 50) of the discharge due today task 121 or the discharged due tomorrow task 122 (e.g., a value such as 70). Additionally, in an exemplary embodiment, the requesting insurance authorized days task 120 may appear before the initial interviews due today task 123 (also referred to herein as initial interview) and the requesting insurance authorized days task 120 and the initial interviews due today task 123 may be associated with the same patient (e.g., patient Randy Waters). As such, the requesting insurance authorized days task 120 may be assigned a weight (e.g., a value such as 30) by the processor of the server that is greater than a weight (e.g., a value such as 20) assigned by the processor of the server to the initial interviews due today task 123. It should be pointed out that the patient with the tasks of the highest priority in groups with the greatest weight may be displayed first in the care coordinator view.
Referring now to
The exemplary embodiment of
Referring now to
In the exemplary embodiment of
Referring now to
Automating this form, offering site configurability and populating it with data from these various sources would eliminate much of this searching and gathering activity at the beginning of the shift which oftentimes consumes an hour or more of the nurse's time—time that could be more efficiently spent performing patient care.
In the exemplary embodiment of
Referring now to
It should be pointed out that the patients and nurses referred to in the exemplary embodiments of
As described above, the exemplary embodiments may provide health care professionals (e.g., nurses, therapists or the like) with a summary view of medical data associated with their patient(s). Additionally, the exemplary embodiments may provide a picture of patient information allowing health care professionals to prioritize care among multiple patients. In this regard, the exemplary embodiments may provide a centralized source for accessing medical information associated with one or more patients so that medical personnel may understand the appropriate level of medical care associated with one or more of their patients and see new medical information associated with one or more patients easily and timely without having to search for this information in multiple systems.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
