1. A method for processing location related information for use in facilitating movement of a patient in a healthcare enterprise, comprising the steps of:
establishing a profile comprising information enabling a search to identify a plurality of locations available for use by a patient for different purposes and including rooms supporting patient treatment and patient stay, said profile identifies a hierarchical organization of locations within a healthcare enterprise for at least one of (a) hosting a patient encounter with a healthcare enterprise involving patient and healthcare enterprise interaction, and (b) accommodating a patient for a variable duration;
storing said profile and an associated date of validity of said profile;
incorporating in said profile attributes including,
a location type identifier, and
a location characteristic of clinical significance influencing availability of a particular location to a patient having a particular medical condition and identifying a level of care indicative of frequency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location including rooms supporting patient treatment and patient stay suitable for a patient having said particular medical condition; and
employing said profile in providing a user with an indication of location availability in response to user command.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said level of care is indicative of urgency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location, and including the step of
filtering search results identifying candidate locations in response to a business process type associated with the search and wherein
said profile comprises information identifying a plurality of patient locations available to accommodate a patient for different purposes.
3. A method according to claim 1, wherein
said profile supports tracking movement of a patient throughout a healthcare enterprise and
said location type identifier includes information identifying (a) location characteristics and (b) location facilities.
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein
said location characteristics information comprises information identifying at least one of, (a) furnishing items in a location and (b) function associated with a location.
5. A method according to claim 3, wherein
said location facilities information comprises information identifying at least one of, (a) medical equipment available at a location, (b) a gender restriction of a location, (c) a cleaning indicator identifying a location is to be cleaned upon occurrence of a condition, (d) an age range restriction of a location and (e) a billing code identifying a billing category of a location.
6. A method according to claim 1, wherein
said location type identifier identifies a location within said plurality of locations and said plurality of locations include at least two of, (a) a patient room, (b) a hospital waiting room, (c) a hospital department room, (d) a surgery related room, (e) a location within an identified room, (f) an identified room in an identified building inside said enterprise and (g) a location outside said enterprise.
7. A method according to claim 6, wherein
said hospital department room comprises one of (i) a radiology room, (ii) a laboratory room, (iii) a pharmacy room, (iv) a room designated for performing a clinical test of a patient, (v) a room designated for performing patient examination (vi) a room designated for performing an administrative function, (vii) an inpatient room (viii) an outpatient room and (ix) an emergency room.
8. A method according to claim 1, wherein
said location characteristic of clinical significance includes information identifying a level of care category associated with a location, said level of care is indicative of urgency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location.
9. A method according to claim 1, wherein
said location characteristic of clinical significance identifies at least one of (a) whether a location is sterile, and (b) medical facilities available at a location.
10. A method according to claim 1, including the step of
incorporating an attribute in said profile for identifying a maximum capacity of person occupancy of a location.
11. A method according to claim 1, including the steps of
selecting a treatment location different to a patient bed location for occupancy by a particular patient via a displayed user interface image in response to user command.
12. A method according to claim 11, including the steps of
selecting a location for occupancy by a particular patient via a displayed user interface image in response to user command, and
receiving an indication a patient has occupied said selected location.
13. A method according to claim 1, including the step of
incorporating an attribute in said profile for identifying billing information of a particular location including identifying at least one of (a) whether occupancy in said particular location is to be billed for, (b) how occupancy in said particular location is to be billed for, and (c) how billing for individual occupants of a multiple occupancy location is to be performed.
14. A method according to claim 1, including the step of
incorporating an attribute in said profile for identifying occupancy nature of a particular location including identifying at least one of (a) whether a location is designated for a transient patient stay, (b) a length of anticipated patient stay and (c) whether a location is designated for a multi-day patient stay.
15. A method according to claim 1, wherein
in said step of establishing a profile comprising information identifying a plurality of locations available to accommodate a patient for different purposes,
said different purposes include at least two of (a) patient healthcare administration, (b) patient clinical evaluation and (c) patient treatment.
16. A method for managing location related information for use in facilitating movement of a patient in a healthcare enterprise, comprising the steps of:
establishing a first profile comprising information identifying a plurality of locations within a first physical structure, said plurality of locations being available to accommodate a patient for different purposes, said first profile identifies a hierarchical organization of locations within a healthcare enterprise for at least one of (a) hosting a patient encounter with a healthcare enter rise involving patient and healthcare enterprise interaction, and (b) accommodating a patient for a variable duration;
storing said first profile and an associated date of validity of said first profile;
incorporating in said first profile attributes including,
a location type identifier, and
a location characteristic of clinical significance influencing availability of a particular location to a patient having a particular medical condition and identifying a level of care indicative of frequency and urgency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location including rooms supporting patient treatment and patient stay suitable for a patient having said particular medical condition; and
establishing a second profile incorporating information from said first profile, said second profile comprising information identifying a plurality of locations within a second physical structure derived by modifying said first physical structure.
17. A method according to claim 16, including the steps of
storing said first profile and
associating location information common to said first and second profiles using at least one of, (a) common location identifiers and (b) a map linking location identifiers of said first profile to location identifiers of said second profile.
18. A method according to claim 16, including the steps of
date stamping said first profile to indicate at least one of, (a) a last date and (b) a first date, said first profile was valid, and
storing said date stamped first profile.
19. A method for processing location related information for use in facilitating movement of a patient in a healthcare enterprise, comprising the steps of:
establishing a profile comprising information identifying a hierarchical organization of locations enabling a search to identify locations available for use by a patient for different purposes within a healthcare enterprise and including rooms for, (a) hosting a patient encounter with a healthcare enterprise involving patient and healthcare enterprise interaction supporting patient treatment, and (b) accommodating a patient during an inpatient stay;
storing said profile and an associated date of validity of said profile;
incorporating in said profile attributes including,
a location type identifier, and
a location characteristic of clinical significance influencing availability of a particular location to a patient having a particular medical condition and identifying a level of care indicative of the urgency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location including rooms supporting patient treatment and patient stay suitable for a patient having said particular medical condition;
filtering search results identifying candidate locations in response to a business process type associated with the search; and
employing said profile in providing a user with an indication of location availability in response to user command.
20. A method according to claim 19, including the step of
employing said profile in finding information concerning a particular location in response to user entered search criteria.
21. A method according to claim 19, including the step of
initiating generation of a message for triggering a location maintenance function in response to information identifying a change in said profile comprising at least one of, (a) a change in location availability, (b) a change in location occupancy and (c) a change in location condition.
22. A method according to claim 19, including the step of
employing said profile in generating billing information.
23. A method according to claim 19, including the step of
employing said profile in generating a report identifying location usage information.
24. A method according to claim 19, including the step of
incorporating in said profile information associating a location with services provided at said location.
25. A method according to claim 19, wherein said level of care is indicative of the frequency of clinician intervention in patient care supported by a location.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. We claim a multi function Owner Aware Object that mimics the awareness of the presence or absence of its rightful owner and that provides a Safe and Intrusion free three dimensional space for its Owner and his possessions and it is comprised of:
a frequency agile radio transceiver and its antenna that facilitates the creation of an Owner Aware Object Private Three Dimensional Space and the usage of encrypted communications among Owner Aware Objects as every said Owner Aware Object is assigned a private and dynamic range of operating frequencies;
and a Radio Transceiver control circuitry implemented by a highly integrated Microcontroller that is executing a programmed code from its internal Code Space and that provides said Owner Aware Object intelligence and encrypting facilities for said communication messages and also provides a Time Divisions Multiplex and Frequency Division Multiplex control protocol necessary to avoid collisions and jamming, said protocol having;
means of creating a Three Dimensional Owner Aware Object Private Space;
means to operate a modified token ring network protocol in a network in the radiofrequency spectrum;
means of ciphered communication with other Owner Aware Objects by a proprietary network process for the purpose of determining their presence or absence within a three dimensional space volume;
means of self configuring at least one of in pairs or within a Network;
means of automatic self determination of an Identification Code;
means of dropping a disappeared Owner Aware Object Identification Code from the network by automatically reconfiguring the network;
means of sounding dynamically programmed, vocal, visual, tone, tactile and olfactory alarm in any combination when necessary;
means to locally store digital compressed multi lingual voice messages that can be used for alarm purposes or sent through the network to one or multiple remote Owner Aware Objects;
means of at least one of receiving or transmitting and conveying acoustically multi lingual voice messages, paging messages and Morse code messages;
means to be integrated with or made part of a keyless entry system;
means to be integrated with or made part of a RFID system; and
means to store critical personal and health data that can be interrogated remotely and wirelessly by at least one of Health Care or Emergency Medical System workers;
means to connect to a computer for the purpose of retrieving event logs, transmitting voice or Morse messages and paging;
means to recharge batteries by a photovoltaic cell array or by a contact-less charger;
means to enhance an acoustical transducer wave output by using a special mounting position and incorporating it into a specially designed acoustical chamber and its critical physical positioning on the edge of the Owner Aware Object.
2. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that fulfills both tasks, this of a monitor and that of a tag in a single physical enclosure that contains hardware circuits and firmware and power sources needed for its operation.
3. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that said programmed code has means to operate a modified token ring network protocol in the radio frequency spectrum.
4. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 3 that will activate a multiple alarm subsystem when its modified token ring network operations are interrupted or otherwise disturbed by fading, jamming, collisions, node disappearance from the network or electronic active eavesdropping.
5. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that is part of a private radio frequency spectrum network that can accommodate a very large number of Owner Aware Objects and in which any Owner Aware Object can relay messages to any other Owner Aware Object.
6. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that increases the operating range of an Owner Aware Object without increasing the radio frequency output power of a transmitter portion nor by increasing a receiver portion sensitivity but by using a mixed Mode of operations which allow owner Aware Objects to relay network messages beyond the physical range of an owner Aware Private Space Generator.
7. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that can be connected to a Computer SystemNetwork and thus facilitating Owner Aware Objects Voice Messaging and Tone and or Voice Paging and Morse Code Text transmission.
8. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 that is capable of sounding and transmit through an network canned Voice and Morse messages.
9. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 1 with special Dynamically Programmable Alarm Subsystems comprised of:
A) an Acoustical TransducerSpeaker with a physical mounting that is critical to the performance of Owner Aware Objects and produces a variety of acoustical signals;
where an Acoustical Transducer is mounted within a specially designed Acoustical Chamber that enhances and amplifies the audio wave of said Acoustical Transducer, whereas the Acoustical Transducer and its Acoustical Chamber is mounted on the side and laterally to an enclosure such that it will protrude outside and laterally of an enclosure volume, this protrusion creating a cylindrical chamber that terminates in a slightly conical focusing and perforated dome, whereas behind the cylindrical chamber is an elongated conical section that is tuned to a specific mechanical resonance of a certain acoustical frequency range and the position of the protrusion allows Acoustical Ports of said Acoustical Transducer to remain unobstructed even if the Owner Aware Object is compressed in a small wallet;
and B) a Dynamically Programmable Olfactive type Alarm that contains:
a) a high pressure gas container filled with a highly smelling and volatile gas,
b) an electromagnetic valve the can be open or closed under the microcontroller control thus releasing a specific amount of gas in a surrounding environment,
c) a flexible ejecting tube that directs the gas outside of the Owner Aware Object enclosure through an opening in the wall of said enclosure,
d) a high pressure container that can hold high pressure gas mixed with an identifiable and permanent ink that when it is released will smearmark permanently objects on which is falling;
and C) a Dynamically Programmable Visual type alarm that will produce a variety of luminescent indication of the state of the alarm;
and D) a Dynamically Programmable tactile type alarm that will produce a variety of vibration sensation to a user.
10. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 3 that reserves a clear communication channel for at least one of configuration or high priority messaging.
11. I claim an Owner Aware Object according to claim 3 that uses a random number generated by the radio transceiver to compute an Identification Code.