SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING HEALTH INFORMATION
A system for providing healthcare information regarding a patient's hospital visit includes a health information application that operates on a plurality of electronic devices. The application displays first data regarding the patient's visit; processes information indicating a current location of the mobile electronic device; and displays second data regarding the patient's visit that is delayed until the mobile electronic device crosses a boundary of a geo-fenced area. The electronic device may also communicate with a bed server at the healthcare facility and authorize the bed server to automatically send a notification message to a second mobile electronic device associated with the patient's friend or family member based on the patient's sleep status and/or movement into or out of bed. The application may also gather and process data useful to healthcare administrators, such as HCAHPS survey scores, status data for medical devices, equipment servicing information, and other information.
This application claims priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/295,722 filed Oct. 17, 2016, by inventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING HEALTH INFORMATION, which in turn claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/242,735 filed Oct. 16, 2015, by inventors Krishna Bhimavarapu et al. and entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING HEALTH INFORMATION, the complete disclosures of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe present disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing health information regarding a patient's visit to a healthcare facility, such as a hospital.
SUMMARYSome of the embodiments of the present disclosure address the past difficulties in presenting timely, helpful, and/or complete information to a patient, his or her friends or family, and other individuals associated with the patient before, during, and/or after the patient's visit to a healthcare facility. In one embodiment, a health information application adapted to be executed on an electronic device, such as, but not limited to, smart cell phone, a tablet, a laptop computer, or the like, is provided to a patient, his or her friends or family, and/or other individuals associated with the patient. The patient, or other receiver of the application, then utilizes the application on his or her smart cell phone or other electronic device. When utilized thereon, the electronic device retrieves a variety of different information about the patient's stay from one or more computer servers or software applications, some of which may be on the healthcare facility's local area network, and some of which may be coupled thereto via another network connection (e.g. the Internet). In other embodiments, a healthcare information application is provided that is accessed and used by healthcare providers in order to easily review and/or input information regarding patients, medical equipment, treatment, and other information.
According to one embodiment, a system is provided that includes a mobile electronic device adapted to perform the following: display on a display of the mobile electronic device first data regarding a patient's visit to a healthcare facility; process information indicating a current location of the mobile electronic device; and display second data regarding the patient's visit to the healthcare facility. The processor of the mobile electronic device delays displaying the second data until the mobile electronic device crosses a boundary of a geo-fenced area.
In some embodiments, the geo-fenced area encompasses the entire healthcare facility. In other embodiments, the geo-fenced area encompasses only a portion of the healthcare facility. In still other embodiments, multiple geo-fenced areas are defined and different data is delayed from being displayed depending upon which geo-fenced area is crossed.
The geo-fenced area or areas may have boundaries substantially defined by one of the following: a room within the healthcare facility, a floor within the healthcare facility, a wing within the healthcare facility, a department within the healthcare facility, a set of elevators within the healthcare facility, and a parking lot of the healthcare facility.
The mobile electronic device also displays, in at least one embodiment, third data regarding the patient's visit to the healthcare facility, wherein the processor of the mobile device delays displaying the third data until a clock in communication with the processor indicates a specific time has passed or a specific event has occurred. The specific time may correspond to a completion of a task in a treatment plan for the patient, and the specific event may include at least one of the following: admission to the healthcare facility; completion of a medical treatment within the medical facility; and discharge from the healthcare facility. In some embodiments, the specific event is a completion of a medical treatment and the mobile electronic device wirelessly receives a message indicating the completion of the medical treatment.
The mobile electronic device may also receive information from the patient and transmit the received information to a healthcare facility computer. In some embodiments, the received information includes answers provided by the patient to at least one question displayed on the display. The question relates to a quality of the patient's visit to the healthcare facility, in some embodiments. The question may be incorporated into a Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) score, in at least some embodiments. Such HCAHPS surveys were developed by the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
The second data displayed on the mobile electronic device relates, in some embodiments, to at least one of the following: a medication prescribed to the patient, a medical treatment scheduled for the patient, a location within the medical facility, a caregiver of the medical facility, dietary guidelines for the patient, and at least one question about a quality of the patient's visit to the healthcare facility.
In some embodiments, the mobile electronic device displays instructions enabling the user to authorize a family member to access third data regarding the patient's visit to the healthcare facility via a second mobile electronic device carried by the family member. The third data includes at least one piece of information recorded in an electronic medical record of the patient.
The mobile electronic device may also display instructions enabling the user to authorize a friend to access fourth data regarding the patient's visit to the healthcare facility via a second mobile electronic device carried by the friend.
In some embodiments, the mobile electronic device displays at least one control for controlling an aspect of a bed assigned to the patient and transmitting a command to the bed in response to the patient manipulating the control.
The mobile electronic device may also provide access to an electronic chat room that is limited to participants who have received treatment for a medical condition that is the same, or similar to, a medical condition of the patient. The electronic chat room may be limited to participants who have received treatment for the medical condition at the healthcare facility.
According to another embodiment, a system is provided that includes a mobile electronic device that is adapted to display first data regarding a patient's visit to a healthcare facility. The processor of the mobile electronic device is also adapted to display a sequence of patient events associated with the patient's visit to a healthcare facility, and to display further information regarding a selected one of the patient events in response to a user of the mobile electronic device selecting the selected patient event.
According to other aspects, the mobile electronic device communicates with an electronic medical records server at the healthcare facility in response to the user selecting the selected patient event.
The mobile electronic device may also, or alternatively, communicate with a bed server at the healthcare facility that receives status data from a plurality of beds. When communicating with the bed server, the device receives data from the bed server indicating how much time the patient has spent out of bed. The data from the bed server may also or alternatively include data indicating when the patient has returned to his or her bed.
According to another embodiment, a mobile electronic device is provided that is adapted to display on its display first data regarding a patient's visit to a healthcare facility. A processor of the mobile electronic device is also adapted to communicate with a bed server at the healthcare facility that receives status data from a plurality of beds. The mobile electronic device authorizes, based on user input, the automatic sending of a notification message to a second mobile electronic device associated with a friend or family member of the patient when the bed server receives status data from the patient's bed.
According to other aspects, the status data may indicate when the patient left his or her bed, returned to his or her bed, and/or when the patient is awake or asleep.
The mobile electronic device may also be configured to display questions regarding the patient's visit to the healthcare facility on the display of the first mobile electronic device, receive answers to the questions, and forward answers to the questions to a server located at the healthcare facility.
In some embodiments, the mobile electronic device, or a server in communication with the mobile electronic device, is adapted to receive a code from an electronic medical records server at the healthcare facility, convert the code to a description of the service, and display the description of the service on the screen of the first mobile electronic device. The code may be an International Classification of Disease (ICD) code, or other code commonly used in healthcare settings for documenting medical tasks.
Before the various embodiments disclosed herein are explained in detail, it is to be understood that the claims are not to be limited to the details of operation or to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The embodiments described herein are capable of being practiced or being carried out in alternative ways not expressly disclosed herein. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including” and “comprising” and variations thereof is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items and equivalents thereof. Further, enumeration may be used in the description of various embodiments. Unless otherwise expressly stated, the use of enumeration should not be construed as limiting the claims to any specific order or number of components. Nor should the use of enumeration be construed as excluding from the scope of the claims any additional steps or components that might be combined with or into the enumerated steps or components.
A health information system 20 according to a first embodiment of the disclosure is shown in
Health information system 20 of
The users 34 of health info app 30 may vary, and include such users as charge nurses 34a, biomedical technicians 34b, nurses or other caregivers 34c, patients 34d, patient spouses 34e, service technicians 34f of the vendor 24, Information Technology (IT) personnel 34g of the vendor 24, friends 34h of patients 34d, and family 34i of patient 34d.
Health info app 30 is supplied, in the embodiment illustrated, from a cloud location 36 of vendor 24. Cloud location 36 need not be owned by or operated by vendor 24, but instead provides a location accessible to the Internet for distributing health info app 30 to Internet-connected users and allowing one or more resources at vendor 24′s place of business to communicate with health info app 30. As shown by way of illustration in
These vendor resources include a file server 40, a real time communication server 42, an application server 44 and a commerce server 46. It will be understood that this particular set of resources may vary and that vendor 24 may include a different set of resources, including, but not limited to, connections to resources provided by third parties with which vendor 24 has one or more contractual agreements for providing support and/or services to health info app 30. File server 40 stores files and data used by health info app 30. Real time communication server 42 manages the ongoing communications between the resources of vendor 24 and the multiple devices 32 that have health info app 30 stored and executing thereon. Application server 44 provides the health info app 30 that is initially downloaded onto the devices 32, as well as overseeing updates to health info app 30 and other operational aspects of health info app 30. Commerce server 46 manages the billing and financial information associated with the use of health info app. In some instances, this billing is directed to hospitals 22 which provide health info app 30 to one or more of their patients and/or the friends and relatives of the patients. In some instances, commerce server 46 may oversee financial charges that are applied directly to one or more users 34 of health info app 30.
After health info app 30 is downloaded to a hospital 22 via Internet connection 38, it is initially stored on a local vendor server 48. Local vendor server 48 is supplied by vendor 24. Local vendor server 48 is, in some embodiments, purely a software server 48 that resides on server hardware owned and/or operated by hospital 22. In other embodiments, vendor 24 may provide server hardware for local vendor server 48. Local vendor server 48 oversees the distribution of individual copies of health info app 30 to the devices 32 located within hospital 22, as well as the communication between those devices 32. Local vendor server 48 also provides an interface between the devices 32 within hospital 22 and vendor cloud 36. Still further, local vendor server 48 provides an interface between devices 32 and one or more servers or services that are a part of a local area network 50 of hospital 22.
In the embodiment shown in
Local vendor server 48, in at least one embodiment, communicates with electronic devices 32 via one or more wireless access points 64 of computer network 50 of a hospital 22. In at least one embodiment, such wireless communication is carried out via WiFi (IEEE 802.11). Other wireless protocols and/or wired protocols can alternatively be used, including combinations of such protocols (such as, but not limited to, both WiFi and Ethernet). One or more of the electronic devices 32 may also be adapted to communicate with a Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1) beacon 66 that is communicatively coupled to local network 50. Such devices 32 are therefore able to communicate with local vendor server 48 via Bluetooth communications, and vice versa.
Local vendor server 48 also communicates with one or more of the servers 52-62 on network 50. EMR server 52 is an electronic medical records server that stores, retrieves, and updates medical records of the patients at hospital 22. Streaming media server 54 is a server that provides streaming video, audio, and/or other content when requested by the health info apps 30 operating on any of the devices 32 of any of the users 34, as will be discussed in greater detail below. Education management server 56 provides educational materials regarding health conditions, drugs, treatments, and the like. These materials are accessed and displayed by health info app 30 when such information is requested by a user 34.
Database server 58 contains data used by health info app 30 at different times, including, but not limited to, map information regarding hospital 22, employees and personnel of hospital 22, work flow information, and other data. Mobile information server 60 manages communications between healthcare personnel, such as one or more smart phones 32a, badges, pagers, etc. Thus, for example, if a particular caregiver, or set of caregivers, is to be notified of an alert, or provided with other information, health info app 30 can send a notification request via local vendor server 48 to mobile information server 60 and mobile information server 60 will send a text, page, or other notification to a mobile device carried by the caregiver, or set of caregivers. Web server 62 provides web access to any of the servers and/or applications executing on network 50 and/or in communication with network 50. Health info app 30 is therefore able to utilize web server 62 to communicate with the World Wide Web using web server 62.
All of the servers 52-62 may be conventional servers. Health info app 30 is configured to extract the information contained within any one or more of these servers 52-52 as needed by app 30, and in some cases update the information stored therein, as will be described in greater detail below. Health info app 30 may be configured to communicate with additional servers not shown in
The Bluetooth beacons 66 located at hospital 22 may be part of a location system in which the locations of each of the Bluetooth beacons 66 are fixed and known to server 48. When local vendor server 48 receives a message from a device 32 that passes through a Bluetooth beacon, the Bluetooth beacon appends to the message a unique identification corresponding to that particular Bluetooth beacon 66. Local vendor server 48 consults a look-up table that correlates that unique identifications it receives from the Bluetooth beacons 66 to their locations within the hospital 22 (such a table may be stored in database server 58, or elsewhere). Local vendor server 48 is therefore able to determine the approximate location of any device 32 that is communicating with local vendor server 46 via a Bluetooth beacon 66. In other words, the location of that device is determined to be within a close proximity of the Bluetooth beacon 66, given the relatively short range of Bluetooth. Similarly location technology may be used for determining the location of devices communicating via WiFi access points 64 using knowledge of the location of the access point 64 and, in some cases, triangulation of signal strength. One example of such location technology that may be used with health info app 30 is disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/559,458 filed Dec. 3, 2014, by inventors Michael Hayes et al. and entitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In other embodiments, a conventional RF ID tag system may be used for detecting the location of mobile electronic devices 32. In still other embodiments, the location of mobile electronic devices 32 can be monitored using any of the locating techniques disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,674,826 issued to Becker et al. and entitled LOCATION DETECTION SYSTEM FOR A DEVICE, the complete disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Still further, in some embodiments, when health info app 30 is installed on a smart phone 32a, it uses the built-in location technologies of the smart phone 32a (GPS, cellular triangulation, etc.) to determine its location, which is then forwarded to local vendor server 48.
Access points 64 and beacons 66 contained with hospital 22 enable users of health info app 30 to communicate with vendor cloud 36 while those users are at hospital 22. As will be discussed in greater detail below, however, not all users of health info app 30 are located within hospital 22. Some users are located outside of hospital 22, such as in city 26. It will be understood that references to “city 26” refer to not just the local municipality in which hospital 22 is located, but instead refers to a broader geographic designation that includes any areas in which potential patients and/or relatives of patients of hospital 22 may be located. Thus, in some embodiments, “city 26” is broad enough to include any place outside of hospital 22 in which there is Internet access.
Users 34 who are located outside of hospital 22 and in city 26 are able to communicate with vendor cloud 36 via one or more cell phone towers 68 that provide Internet access to mobile phone subscribers. As indicated in
Users 34 may also be located within individual homes 28. Such users may communicate with vendor cloud 36 using a home based access point 70, although it will be understood that alternative methods for communicating with vendor cloud 36 are possible. Any conventional home-based Internet connection, such as WiFi, Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), fiber optic connections, satellite connections, cellular connections, etc. may be used by home based users to communicate with vendor cloud 36.
Vendor cloud 36 allows and manages the communications between users 34 of health info app 30 who are located outside of hospital 22 and the data located at hospital 22. In some cases, vendor cloud 36 allows communication between the health info app 30 used by patient 34d at the hospital and the health info app 30 installed on those users electronic device 32. Vendor cloud 36 manages access rights to health information so that only authorized friends of a specific patient 34d are allowed to use health info app 30 to see information regarding that specific patient 34d. In other words, the information that is displayable by health info app 30 is not open to the public. Further, the health information of a first patient 34d is only viewable by authorized friends and relatives of that first patient, and not other members of the public who may have health info app 30 installed on their device 32. Thus, for example, if there are two patients at hospital 22 and the first patient has a first set of friends and family and the second patient has a second set of friends and family, the first set of friends and family will only be able to access information about the first patient using health info app 30, not information about the second patient. Similarly, the second set of friends and family will only be able to access information about the second patient using health info app 30, not information about the first patient.
Vendor 24 may also have one or more copies of health info app 30 operating on one or more devices 32 that are directly coupled to vendor cloud 36. Such users include one or more Information Technology (IT) persons 34g who are able to actively manage the operation of health info app 30, troubleshoot health info app 30, and access information regarding the operation of health info app. Vendor 24 may also include one or more service technicians 34f who use health info app 30 for scheduling, monitoring, and carrying out the servicing of one or more medical devices used by hospital 22.
Although
Health info app 30 is configured in one embodiment to provide timely and contextual information regarding one or more aspects of a patient's visit to hospital 22. These features are discussed in more detail below but generally include information regarding arrival at the hospital (e.g. parking, location, check-in, etc.), the patient's expected treatment and procedures, the patient's schedule, milestones achieved by the patient, maps of locations within the hospital 22, general medical information, providing feedback to the hospital 22 regarding the patient's visit, and follow-up information for after the patient's discharge from the hospital 22. In other embodiments, health info app 30 is also configured to provide information used for managing one or more pieces of medical equipment at the hospital 22. In these embodiments, the equipment management features may be combined together with the patient information features of health info app 30, or they may be included in a separate health info app 30 that is only accessible to authorized users who have need for such equipment management information. If the patient information features and equipment management features are combined into a single health info app 30, then health info app 30 is configured to limit usage of the equipment management features to only personnel having need for that information, and to likewise limit usage of the patient information features to only people who are authorized to access such information.
In some embodiments, hospitals 22 may encourage the use of health info app 30 by providing a bar code or QR code at various locations within hospital 22. After scanning the bar code or QR code, the user is taken to the download screen, such as shown in
As noted, vendor 24 and hospital 22 cooperate and share information regarding what codes have been provided to users 34. In this manner, when a particular hospital 22 provides a code to a particular patient 34d, vendor 24 is apprised of this fact so that communications received at vendor cloud 36 from sources outside of the that hospital 22 (e.g. city 26 and/or home 28) are routed to the proper hospital 22. Vendor 24 and hospital 22 may also agree that the codes provided to user 34 expire after certain time periods so that health info app 30 may no longer provide health information after those time periods expire. The time periods may vary for different users 34, the individual schedule and/or treatment of particular patients, and/or based on other factors. In some embodiments, after the time period has expired, a potential user 34 who has not downloaded health info app 30 is no longer able to do so. Further, in some embodiments, users 34 who have already downloaded health info app 30 are no longer able to use some or all of the features of health info app 30 after the appropriate time period has expired.
After a user 34 has entered an approved code into code field 72, health info app 30 is downloaded and installed on that user's device 32. The downloaded health info app 30 comes from vendor 24, who may store health info app 30 on application server 44. In some embodiments, vendor 24 allows one or more copies of health info app 30 to be stored at local vendor server 48 so that health info app 30 may be downloaded to devices within hospital 22 without requiring access to vendor 24. This enables health info app 30 to be installed when communications with vendor cloud 36 may be temporarily interrupted. In still other embodiments, health info app 30 may be downloaded from one or more commercially available app stores, such as, but not limited to, the Apple iTunes store or Google Play store. When downloaded from these commercial stores, the user may need to enter the code prior to installation of health info app 30 or it may be entered after download and installation of health info app 30. In some embodiments, a first code may need to be entered for downloading and a second code may need to be entered for using health info app 30. Other variations are possible.
Once health info app 30 is installed on a particular device, health info app 30 is configured to tailor many of the features and information provided to the user 34 based upon the user's location. As shown in
Health info app 30 uses the geo-fenced areas 74 in conjunction with location information provided by device 32 (e.g. the location services of a smart phone 32a) and/or the location information provided from a hospital's location system (e.g. beacons 66 and/or any of the location techniques previously described). Health info app 30 uses this location information to detect when a user 34 crosses one of the boundaries of geo-fenced area 74. As will be described in more detail below, health info app 30 is configured in some embodiments to take one or more appropriate actions in response to such boundary crossings. In one embodiment, health info app 30 provides info to a user 34 that wasn't previously provided to the user prior to the user crossing the geo-fenced area. As one example, health info app 30 provides directions to the user 34 of app 30 regarding where to park, enter, and/or walk within the hospital 2 when the user crosses a geo-fenced area that encompasses the hospital 22.
In addition to displaying location-sensitive information and/or providing location-sensitive features, health info app 30 is also configured to display time-sensitive information and/or provide time-sensitive features. As shown in
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the particular set of options shown on main menu screen 82 may be changed from what is illustrated in
As noted,
In some embodiments of health info app 30, when health info app 30 is downloaded on a device 32 other than the patient 34d's device, health info app 30 is configured to populate the calendar with an identification of the patient 34d so that the user of that device understands who the calendar entries relate to. Such patient identification is not provided, in some embodiments, by the copy of health info app 30 that is executing on the patient's device because the patient already knows that the events 80 on his or her calendar relate to himself or herself.
The summary screen 98, as well as the other screens shown in
In some embodiments, health info app 30, or a server in communication with health info app 30 (e.g. local vendor server 48), reads medical codes from EMR server 52 and translates the codes into a written description that is understandable to people who are not medical coders. For example, an ICD code ICD-9-CM might be translated to “administered diphtheria immunization.” Health info app 30, or a server in communication therewith, is configured in some embodiments to convert codes from different coding systems, such as ICD, HCPCS, CPT, ICF, DRG, and/or NDC into written descriptions that are understandable by untrained users 34 of health info app 30.
As one example,
As shown in
Health info app 30 is configured to allow a patient, or the patient's spouse, to authorize the sharing of one or more types of information with friends and/or family members 34h and/or 34i. That is, a patient 34d and/or his or her spouse 34e are able to use health info app 30 to select what information they are willing to share about the patient's visit to hospital 22 with friends and family members 34h and 34i. The selection of what information to share and what information not to share is forwarded to local vendor server 48 which stores that information. When local vendor server 48 receives information from one or more servers on network 50, or from Internet connection 38, it determines whether the receiving information is to be shared with other users 34 who are associated with a particular patient (e.g. friends or family members of that patient). Information that is to be shared is forwarded to the devices 32 of the authorized recipients via Internet connection 38. Information that is not to be shared is forwarded, as appropriate, to only the device(s) 32 associated with the patient 34d and/or his or her spouse 34e.
In some embodiments, health info app 30 is configured to communicate with a bed server (not shown) that receives status information from the hospital beds. Such a bed server determines information about the patient, such as his or her sleep status (including, but not limited to, the amount of sleep, when the patient has fallen asleep or is awake, the quality of the sleep, the type of sleep, etc.), when he or she is present in the bed or absent from the bed, and other data regarding the patient's movement or activities while in the bed. This bed status information is forwarded to local vendor server 48 which, as appropriate, forwards it to one or more users 34.
For example, if a patient falls asleep and this is detected by sensors integrated into the patient's bed, the bed communicates a message to the bed server indicating that the patient has fallen asleep. This information is then forwarded by the bed server to local vendor server 48. Local vendor server 48 then updates a current status of the patient to being asleep. Any copies of health info app 30 that are installed on devices 32 that are authorized to receive information about that particular patient are then forwarded a message indicating that the patient is currently asleep. In some embodiments, the forwarded message is sent to those devices 32 immediately so that the devices can alert the users 34 of the change in the patient's status (i.e. having fallen asleep). In other embodiments, the health info app 30 does not receive the sleep status message until a user executes health info app 30 on his or her device 32. Health info app 30 and server 48 operate in a similar manner for other data received by server 48 that comes from other sources, such as EMR server 52 and/or other devices 32 (e.g. info entered from a caregiver 30's device who is associated with a particular patient). Still further, in some embodiments, the notification of an event detected by health info app 32 is forwarded to a patients' social media page, such as a Facebook page. The patient and other users of health info app 30 are able to configure which social media websites receive information from health info app 30.
Beds that are configured to detect when a patient has fallen asleep or is awake, when the patient is out of bed or has returned, the quality of the patient's sleep, and other characteristics regarding the patient's movement and activities are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent publication 2016/0022218 filed Mar. 13, 2014, by inventors Michael Hayes et al. and entitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUS WITH PATIENT INFORMATION SENSORS, the complete disclosure of which has already been incorporated herein by reference.
As noted previously,
Educational screen 106b of
Navigation screen 108b of
Local vendor server 48 forwards the information entered on patient information screen 112 to EMR server 52 and/or to any other server located within hospital 22 that the hospital administration has designated. The information is then available to the hospital personnel. In some embodiments, the information is flagged as having been entered by a friend or family member, rather than a hospital employee, so that viewers of the information are apprised of the source of the information. In addition, some embodiments of health info app 30 allow friends or family members to change information that was previously entered by hospital personnel, but which may be mistaken. In these embodiments, health info app 30 maintains both the incorrectly entered information and the family-supplied corrected information so that viewers can see both data entries. Appropriate individuals at the hospital 22 may then be tasked with rectifying such data discrepancies.
Badge 116a is awarded to a patient when the patient has achieved a mobility milestone. The mobility milestone may vary from patient to patient and condition to condition, but is generally an achievement that is awarded when the patient has reached a predetermined level of mobility. This may include the patient sitting up on his or her own, entering or exiting his or her bed without assistance, being out of bed for a predetermined amount of time, or still other types of mobility thresholds. In some embodiments, the mobility of the patient is measured by one or more sensors that are integrated into the patient's bed and which report their data to local vendor server 48. The information from such sensors may be augmented by one or more additional sensors that track the amount of movement of the patient when he or she is out of bed.
In some embodiments, the beds at hospital 22 include mobility sensors such as those disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent publication 2016/0106345 filed by inventors Marko Kostic et al. and entitled PERSON SUPPORT APPARATUSES WITH MOTION MONITORING, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Still further, in some embodiments, one or more mobility sensors of the type disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/928,513 are used for tracking the movement of a patient while in bed and/or out of bed. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/928,513 is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application and was filed Oct. 30, 2015, by inventors Richard Derenne et al and entitled PATIENT SUPPORT APPARATUSES WITH PATIENT MOBILITY MONITORING, the complete disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Health info app 30 may also derive mobility information from EMR 52 and/or other sources.
Badge 116b of
Feedback screen 118c illustrates an inquiry to the patient regarding the cleanliness of his or her restroom. As with the other feedback screens 118, the patient's response to this screen may be forwarded to individuals that are custom selected by the hospital. That is, instead of forwarding the patient's answer to the inquiry of
The types of feedback screens 118a-c shown in
In some embodiments, health info app 30 is configured to automatically present a feedback screen, such as screen 118d of
Communication screen 120b of
It will of course be understood that the information described above that is displayable to a user 34 of health info app 30 can vary from the specific information shown and discussed. Menu 82 may include different options from that illustrated, as well as more or fewer options. In some embodiments, health info app 30 also displays information for a patient prior to his or her scheduled visit that may be useful to the patient. This information may include such things as such as dietary restrictions, driving directions, check-in information, etc. Once the patient arrives at hospital 22 (as detected by the geolocation fencing feature described above), health info app 30 may display additional information to the patient, such as the wait times for clinical procedures, a question log for nurses, education material, bed controls, etc. After the patient leaves hospital 22, or is about to leave the facility, still other information is displayable by app 30, such as discharge procedures, post-visit dietary restrictions, medications, etc.
In addition to presenting individual question summaries 124, feedback summary screen 122a of
In addition to including sound data, detailed summary 128a of
As shown in
The percentile indicators 140 are based on a comparison of the hospital's scores to the national scores for those HCAHPS sections, in some embodiments. In some embodiments, health info app 30 is configured to allow health care administrators compare their HCAHPS scores to any other geographic area of interest. Such geographic areas include cities, counties, states, regions of the country, and the entire country. Health info app 30 is also configured to allow hospital administrators to compare their HCAHPS scores to other specific hospitals 22. The HCAHPS scores from other hospitals are pulled by health info app 30 from one or more existing Internet-accessible national databases that store the scores and make them available to hospitals.
Health info app 30 is configured to share patient answers to feedback questions, such as the HCAHPS survey, as well as other feedback question, with hospital personnel immediately. In this manner, appropriate hospital personnel can receive certain types of feedback from the patients while the patients are still in hospital 22. This gives the hospital the opportunity to address any issues the patient may be having prior to the patient leaving. This may improve the overall experience of the patient as well as lead to higher scores on the HCAHPS survey for the hospital.
In some embodiments, health info app 30 is adapted to present questions to the patients that are customized by the hospital administrators. The hospital administrators can therefore ask about specific items of interest to them. Further, health info app 30 is configurable by the hospital administrators in terms of the timing of those questions. Consequently, the hospital administrators can determine not only the content of one or more questions to the patients, but also the timing of those questions, the frequency of questions, and/or the overall amount of questions. Still further, the questions may be custom tailored based upon the reasons for the patient's stay at the hospital, based upon his or her caregivers, based upon the location of the patient in hospital 22, and/or based upon other factors. In this manner, specific questions may be presented to the patients that give the administrators more focused feedback on areas of potential interest to the administrators.
If a caregiver selects any of the items displayed on rounding screen 142b of
Health info app 30 is supplied by vendor 24 with a set of pre-populated fall risk questions that are customizable by the administrators of hospital 22. The hospital 22 can therefore tailor their fall risk assessments in any manner that they see fit. Once tailored, health info app 30 presents the caregivers with the custom tailored questions via a screen such as that shown in
In addition to helping the caregivers assess the fall risk of patients, rounding screens 142 of health info app 30 also provide screens on which data associated with the caregivers rounding duties can be entered and automatically charted to the patient's electronic medical record, or to any other suitable server on network 50. Rounding screen 142d of
Each of these sections refers to different features that are provided by particular beds. The protocol reminder is a built-in feature that reminds caregivers of times and/or steps to be taken for different protocols. The calculator feature is an electronic calculator that is accessible via a screen of the bed and usable to perform calculations. The converter feature is a mathematical function that is accessible via a screen of the bed to allow a user to convert measurements expressed in a first type of units to another type of units (e.g. pounds to kilograms). The translation feature is a feature of the bed that translates words and/or speech from one language to another. The Braden scale feature is a series of questions and/or instructions that are displayable on a screen of the bed for assisting caregivers in assigning a Braden scale score to a patient. The documentation feature is a feature that allows patient data to be documented automatically via the bed to EMR server 52. The sound therapy feature is a feature that allows a user to select music, or other desired sounds, to be played on the speakers of the bed. The bed status feature is a feature that allows the bed to transmit data regarding its usage and status to network 50. Such data may include, but is not limited to, status regarding the bed's siderails, the height of its litter frame, whether the brakes are activated or not, the state of an exit detection system, the presence or absence of the patient, and/or other data.
Each section 156 of circle 154 includes statistics regarding the usage of these different features. Specifically, as shown in
Service screen 166 identifies the piece of medical equipment and, in some cases, includes a picture 168 of the equipment. If there are any error codes associated with the medical equipment, they are listed on screen 166. Screen 166 also includes information regarding a current service call, if any, and past servicing information for that particular medical device. For example, service screen 166 shows an expected time or arrival of a service appointment, an estimate of how long the servicing will last, a case number for the service call, and any other information that may be relevant to a service call.
Service screen 166 is primarily intended for use by technicians or other personnel involved in the servicing of the equipment at hospital 22. In some embodiments, screen 166 is used by service tech vendor 34f, or by a service technician associated with the vendor of the piece of medical equipment shown on screen 166. Health info app 30 is also configured to not only show service information on screen 166, but to allow users of app 30 to enter service data onto these screens166, including requesting servicing for a particular medical device. Caregivers and other users 34 of health info app 30 can therefore easily request service of a piece of equipment if they notice it is malfunctioning, or otherwise in need of service, while they are performing their everyday activities, thereby improving the speed at which servicing takes place.
It will be understood that the principles disclosed herein can be embodied as a software application in which instructions for one or more processors are tangibly and non-transitorily fixed in a computer-readable medium. The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, carry out any one or more of the health information functions described herein.
Various additional alterations and changes beyond those already mentioned herein can be made to the above-described embodiments. This disclosure is presented for illustrative purposes and should not be interpreted as an exhaustive description of all embodiments or to limit the scope of the claims to the specific elements illustrated or described in connection with these embodiments. For example, and without limitation, any individual element(s) of the described embodiments may be replaced by alternative elements that provide substantially similar functionality or otherwise provide adequate operation. This includes, for example, presently known alternative elements, such as those that might be currently known to one skilled in the art, and alternative elements that may be developed in the future, such as those that one skilled in the art might, upon development, recognize as an alternative. Any reference to claim elements in the singular, for example, using the articles “a,” “an,” “the” or “said,” is not to be construed as limiting the element to the singular.
Claims
1. A non-transitory computer readable medium with computer executable instructions stored thereon adapted to be executed by a processor of a mobile electronic device having a display, the computer executable instructions, when executed, causing the processor to perform a method comprising:
- wirelessly retrieve bed data from a server hosted on a computer network of a healthcare facility, the server being in communication with a plurality of beds positioned within a healthcare facility, the bed data including at least one of the following: a position of a siderail of a particular bed of the plurality of beds, a status of a brake of the particular bed, a height of a litter frame of the particular bed, or a status of an exit detection system of the particular bed;
- display on the display of the mobile electronic device the bed data;
- display on the display of the mobile electronic device rounding data relating to a caregiver's performance of his or her rounding duties;
- receive rounding information from the caregiver regarding a performance of his or her rounding duties; and
- transmit the rounding information to the computer network of the healthcare facility.
2. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises displaying on the display of the mobile device fall risk data, wherein the fall risk data indicates a fall risk of a patient assigned to the particular bed.
3. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
- receiving location information from the server, the location information identifying a location of the particular bed within the healthcare facility; and
- displaying the location of the particular bed within the healthcare facility on the display of the mobile electronic device.
4. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
- receiving patient presence information from the server, the patient presence information identifying whether the patient is present on the particular bed or not; and
- displaying the patient presence information on the display of the mobile electronic device.
5. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises displaying a name of a patient assigned to the particular bed on the display of the mobile electronic device.
6. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
- displaying on the display of the mobile electronic device a plurality of questions for assessing a fall risk of a patient assigned to the particular bed;
- receiving answers to the plurality of questions from a caregiver associated with the patient.
7. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises calculating a fall risk score from the received answers to the plurality of questions.
8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises allowing an administrator of the healthcare facility to customize the plurality of questions.
9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
- retrieving patient data from an electronic medical record server in communication with the computer network of the healthcare facility; and
- displaying the patient data on the display of the mobile electronic device, wherein the patient data includes names of patients assigned to a particular caregiver.
10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the patient data further includes health conditions of the patients assigned to the particular caregiver.
11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 wherein the patient data further includes data indicating when rounding was last performed for the patients assigned to the particular caregiver.
12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises transmitting the rounding information to the server.
13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises:
- retrieving patient data from an electronic medical record server in communication with the computer network of the healthcare facility;
- displaying the patient data on the display of the mobile electronic device, wherein the patient data includes a list of patients assigned to a particular caregiver; and
- displaying additional information about a particular patient from the list of patients in response to a caregiver selecting the particular patient from the list of patients.
14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 wherein the additional information includes at least one of the following: a room to which the particular patient is assigned; an indication of whether the particular patient is in bed or out of bed; a fall risk of the patient; or a health condition of the particular patient.
15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the rounding information includes a reminder to perform at least one of the following: activate a brake of the particular bed; put the particular bed into a low height condition; offer toileting assistance to a patient assigned to the particular bed; check for adequate lighting for the patient; check that a room in which the particular bed is located is cleared of spills; or assess the patient.
16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the mobile electronic device is one of a smart phone or a table computer.
17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the bed data further includes connectivity data indicating whether each of the plurality of beds is currently connected to the computer network of the healthcare facility, and wherein the method further includes displaying on the display of the mobile electronic device the connectivity data.
18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 1 wherein the bed data further includes electrical connection data indicating whether each of the plurality of beds is currently plugged into an electrical outlet, and wherein the method further includes displaying on the display of the mobile electronic device the electrical connection data.
19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 18 wherein the bed data further includes angular data indicating whether each of the plurality of beds has a Fowler section elevated to an angle greater than a threshold, and wherein the method further includes displaying on the display of the mobile electronic device the angular data.
20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 wherein the mobile electronic device is one of a smart phone or a table computer and the method includes wirelessly retrieving the bed data from the server using WiFi communications between the mobile electronic device and a wireless access point of the computer network of the healthcare facility.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 7, 2020
Publication Date: Jan 21, 2021
Inventors: Krishna Sandeep Bhimavarapu (Kalamazoo, MI), William Dwight Childs (Plainwell, MI), Christopher Ryan Sweeney (Portage, MI), Annie Désaulniers (Bothell, WA)
Application Number: 17/064,864