Patent ID: 7904315
Filing Date: 2011-03-08
Classification: G06Q,G16H

Abstract:
1. An interactive clinical-rule based patient referral management system designed using “client/server” architecture to optimize a process flow for cross enterprise operations, as in a health system, the system operating on electronic data-processing equipment and via a global communications network which interconnects a plurality of service providers across a community, the network comprising a plurality of input/output terminals and links among them, and the system carrying out steps of: employing at least one set of clinical rules for making and allowing a patient referral between first, referring and second, referred-to health care providers, each said set of clinical rules being adapted to interact with the first provider for automatically checking the proposed referral against the content of said clinical rules for acceptance or refusal of said referral for the second provider, said clinical rules being applicable to the medical appropriateness of the proposed referral, and the clinical rules providing for sequentially querying the referring provider through dynamic branching based on the responses made; receiving data input to a terminal of said first, referring provider, the data comprising a proposed referral of a particular patient to said second provider, the proposed referral providing clinical information about the patient and the medical conditions prompting the proposed referral; the system being adapted to automatically check the proposed referral against said clinical rules for acceptance or refusal of the referral by the second provider; and the system being adapted to allow or refuse the referral based on the patient's clinical information, medical conditions, and answers stated in view of the applicable clinical rules.