Abstract:
The present invention discloses and claims a portable medical records organizer having a transportable binder for personal use by a consumer. The binder holds a number of dividers that separate and organize the medical records into predetermined categories. At least one of the predetermined categories separates a record of the consumer&#39;s personal medical biographical information. Additional dividers provide for organizing and separating medical records into additional categories. A consumer may take the transportable binder from one health care provider to another thus aiding in treatment by providing the health care provider with an historical medical record.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]    This patent application claims priority to commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 60/185,289 entitled “H-Files” that was filed on Feb. 28, 2000 and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     
       TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0002]    The present invention relates generally to file organizers. More specifically, the present invention relates to a transportable device for organization of personal medical records.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0003]    When people establish new residences they also require new health care professionals. When traveling for pleasure or business a person may meet with a medical emergency and require the services of an unknown health care professional. These professionals would be aided if they had easy access to the patient&#39;s medical history.  
           [0004]    The patient&#39;s medical history includes biographical data including family medical history. The results of medical tests such as X-rays, MRIs, blood tests, cardiograms, to name but a few, may alert a health care professional to a problem. This is especially true when the test results only indicate a pattern when viewed over long periods of time.  
           [0005]    Unfortunately, the data is neither readily available nor accessible. A new health care professional would have to contact each of the patient&#39;s prior health care providers. This is both prohibitively costly, time consuming, and likely to result in less than desired results. Many prior providers may be out of business, have relocated themselves, or just unwilling to search through possibly ancient records. A patient transferring from one hospital to another may not have transferred their medical records. Further, some hospitals erroneously consider a patient&#39;s original medical record to be hospital property and are reluctant to allow even copies of the information out of their control.  
           [0006]    Even when some of the prior providers make the records available, there may be a long delay from contact to reply to delivery of the information. Mailing records takes days; faxing takes hours to days; almost every method is complicated by middlemen with possible human error, and is subject to equipment failure or possible intercept.  
           [0007]    The result is that health care providers lose valuable time waiting for medical records to be transferred from prior providers, and the information may be needed immediately to begin treatment. In addition, providers who see patients with whom they are not entirely familiar often need to see what other physicians have already done for the patient so as not to duplicate the efforts at the patient&#39;s discomfort and expense.  
           [0008]    It is reasonable to expect this situation to deteriorate with increases in specialists and HMO&#39;s. The more that medical care is fragmented among specialists the greater the need there is to have easily transferable records. HMOs also fragment the medical record when there is change in a patient&#39;s coverage plan, the patient moves, their doctor retires or moves, or the patient is traveling.  
           [0009]    Concerned patients avoid the problem of medical record transfer by transporting copies or originals of their records themselves. These patients may bring their records with them to other hospitals, clinics, doctors, etc. Without an understanding of the records or their relationship to one another, the copies often become disorganized and out-of-order. Further, certain records, such as X-rays, lack adequate protection from damage.  
           [0010]    Medical record holders currently available are inadequate for the tasks listed above. These record holders focus on organization and storage of patients&#39; in-hospital records once that patient is already hospitalized. More importantly, the record holders are the property of the hospital, are designed to stay in the hospital, use hospital-owned original medical records, are emptied out and reused with each patient newly admitted to the hospital, and are not the property of the individual user.  
           [0011]    Therefore, there is a need for a health care consumer to have a way to organize his or her medical records in a personal records transporter, in control of, owned, and carried by the consumer, so that the records may be transported from health care provider to health care provider.  
           [0012]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,452,808 to Abramowitz discloses a portable patient medical record holder having a color-coded system for holding folders and designed for use within a hospital. The holder has slots into which folders may be placed. Markings on the folders are the same as markings on the holder.  
           [0013]    U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,531 to Boone discloses a filing cabinet which can contain multiple filing folders. The cabinet holds clipboards in slotted rows. Each clipboard is identified with the nature of the information held by the clipboard.  
           [0014]    U.S. Pat. No. 3,472,387 to Olsen discloses a portable hospital record chart holder apparatus with a wheel-bearing frame that includes means for supporting hospital record charts vertically. Also provided are bars to hold the charts in place and keep them from clanging. The chart holder is mounted on rollers to make it portable.  
           [0015]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,041,893 to Mulloy discloses a chart for use in hospitals or nursing homes and indicating the next procedure to be taken in the continuing care of a patient. Various linear and one rotary indicator is operable to indicate the time and nature of a particular procedure.  
           [0016]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,865,549 to Sonsteby discloses a documentation system that includes a plurality of sections, each dedicated to a particular body system. Each section has a plurality of peel-off labels, each providing a series of assessment steps. Each label has a distinctive color associated with a particular section, with the text also associated in distinctive color.  
           [0017]    U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,452,808 and 4,865,549 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0018]    The problems and limitations of the existing state of the art are overcome by the present invention. The present invention discloses and claims a portable medical records organizer having a transportable binder for personal use by a consumer. The binder holds a number of dividers that separate and organize either copies or originals of the medical records into predetermined sections. At least one of the dividers is used to establish a category for the consumer&#39;s personal medical biographical information. Additional dividers provide for organizing and separating medical records into predetermined categories and at the same time provide helpful instructions on acquiring the personal records from health care providers. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]    The present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 1 illustrates a completed assembly of the present invention.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 2 illustrates a binder of the present invention; and  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 3 illustrates a representative divider with an optional tab and printed instructions.  
         [0023]    Like reference numbers and designations in the various drawings depict like elements.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0024]    The present invention discloses and claims an apparatus and method for patients to obtain copies of their personal medical records, organize the records into specific sections based on content of the records, and enable the patient to transport the organized copies of the medical records. The organized records, being either originals or copies thereof, are stored in a binder to allow convenient transport of the records. Such personalized transport of copies of one&#39;s medical records provides health care providers with immediate access to records from the patient&#39;s prior health care providers.  
         [0025]    [0025]FIG. 1 illustrates a portable personal medical record holder  10  in accordance with the present invention. Record holder  10  is comprised of a binder  12 . Binder  12  may be of any desired color and proportion. Binder  12  has a front cover  14 , back cover  16 , and spine  18 .  
         [0026]    In a preferred embodiment binder  12  is sized so as to cover completely standard 8½ by 11 sheets of paper. Binder  12  may be assembled from the inexpensive, inflexible, plastic-covered cardboard variety, available in a variety of colors. However, the present invention is not limited by the type of binder selected. It is considered that there may be gradations of binder quality to appeal to consumer preferences. The outer covers may be plain and unlabeled, or they may have a product logo or any other desired markings.  
         [0027]    Record dividers  20  are used to separate personal medical records into predetermined categories. Record dividers  20  may be sized to be substantially the same size as the anticipated medical records. However, this is not a limitation. It is contemplated that the dividers may be color coded to ease and coordinate identification of the medical records. In this way medical records can be marked with a similar color so that the user may easily identify a particular record with its preferred category.  
         [0028]    In a preferred embodiment, record dividers  20  have tabs  22 . These tabs are marked with predetermined categories of medical records. A non-limiting list of categories includes Biography, History &amp; Physical, Discharge Summaries, Labs, Radiology/Pathology, Rehab/Diet/Nutrition, Vaccinations/Medications, Psychiatry, and Miscellaneous. Tabs  16  may be integral with record divider  14  or separable.  
         [0029]    A divider retainer  24  engages record dividers  20  and secures record dividers  20  within binder  12 . Divider retainer  24  may also be employed to engage the medical records. In a preferred embodiment divider retainer  24  is comprised of rings operable to open for insertion through holes in record dividers  20 . Mechanisms using spring pressure as well as others for retaining the dividers are known to those of ordinary skill in the art and may be employed without altering the inventive concept of the present invention.  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 2 illustrates binder  12  for the medical record holder of the present invention. Back cover  14 , front cover  16 , and spine  18  comprise binder  12 . Divider retainer  24  is mounted on spine  18 .  
         [0031]    In a preferred embodiment divider retainer  24  is a made of operable rings that open to accept record dividers which are adapted to fit over the operable rings. The rings are closed thereby securing the dividers within binder  12 . While three rings are illustrated any number are within the ambit of the invention. The rings may be of various sizes depending on the number of pages desired for retention.  
         [0032]    The inside of front cover  16  may contain pockets  26 , preferably formed of plastic. Pockets  26  are approximately 2″ by 4″, or big enough to securely hold business cards of health care providers. Of course, pockets  26  may also serve desired alternative purposes which may be conceived of by the user. It is contemplated that other useful attachments such as a penholder  28  may be added to binder  12 .  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 3 illustrates record divider  20 . It is contemplated that record dividers  20  will be available in several colors as described herein above. In the preferred embodiment record dividers  20  have pre-punched holes  32  arranged and sized to fit over the rings of divider retainer  24 . Pre-labeled tab  22  identifies different sections of the file. It is contemplated that at least one of dividers  20  will be blank to allow for the user to create a new category.  
         [0034]    Each divider may be preprinted with a description of the copied medical records segregated into that section. For example, the “Medications” divider may include an instruction such as: “In this section, place any pages of the medical record containing lists of medicines you have taken or are currently taking. Be sure to include a list of medications you are currently taking, the amounts, how long you have been taking them, and how often you take them.” Other dividers may have similar instructions. It is further contemplated that additional information such as hints on acquiring the desired records may be preprinted on certain dividers or on separate sheets of paper.  
         [0035]    It is contemplated that one divider will be preprinted with additional information such as a description of the use of the personal medical records organizer, instructions on initial set up as well as advice on ways to keep the records current, and a contact point for any questions or comments.  
         [0036]    An additional divider is anticipated to create a category for personal biographical data. This category contains a preprinted fill-in-the-blank questionnaire for personal biographical data. The biographical data requested includes, in a non-limiting list, the user&#39;s name, address, phone number, religious affiliation (if any), name of Pastor, next of kin, etc. A blank area may be provided for any notes the user may wish to make.  
         [0037]    A user organizes the medical records in the portable personal medical records organizer for transport between health care service providers. The personal records are acquired from as many prior or current health care providers that the user can contact. The records are gathered into the categories as indicated by the predetermined printed legends on the record dividers. The record dividers and associated personal records are combined and organized into the predetermined categories. These organized records are engaged by the record retainer into the transportable binder. While a preferred embodiment has been shown and described, various modifications and substitutions may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the present invention has been described by way of illustration and not limitation.