Patent Publication Number: US-2011074585-A1

Title: Patient tracking system

Description:
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/246,263, filed Sep. 28, 2009, which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This application relates generally to a method and apparatus for tracking patients at a medical treatment facility and, more specifically, to a computerized method and apparatus for presenting a graphical user interface to graphically depict a patient&#39;s location within the medical treatment facility. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     The number of patients that visit medical offices seeking medical treatment continues to grow each year. A large number of patients can make it difficult for physicians and support staff to track the location of each patient at the medical office to ensure timely treatment and efficient use of the physicians&#39; time. 
     For example, a medical office with ten practicing physicians can average about 4,500 patient visits per year. If departmentalized into two or more departments catering to the medical needs of patients, that same medical office with ten physicians may serve more than an additional 3,000 patients annually. For example, the medical office may include two allergy departments, each with three Allergists, and an audiology department with four Audiologists that each average about 20 visits per day. Patients may even visit a medical professional in more than one department during any given visit to the medical office. Thus, the large number of patients, as well as the layout of the medical office itself can present logistical challenges in tracking the location and movement of patients during the normal course of a day. Time spent locating patients amounts to a waste of the medical professionals&#39; time, and can also result in lengthy delays in treatment, which can be a source of frustration on the part of the patients. 
     Historically tracking patients has been an intense process that employs visual queues such as lights over doors, physical files hanging on doors or sticky notes left on a desk. Each of these systems is labor intensive, not very well coordinated, and prone to errors. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a method and system for tracking patients at a medical office. Such a method and system can include a computer system executing computer-executable logic stored in an electronic format on a computer readable medium to provide a visual presentation of patient locations within a medical office, and can optionally graphically present patient locations on a graphical layout representing a plurality of rooms associated with a physician. 
     According to one aspect, the subject application involves a method of tracking a patient at a medical facility. The method includes receiving, from a computer terminal, a first location of the patient within the medical facility, and storing the first location occupied by the patient in a computer-readable memory that is accessible to the first computer terminal over a communication network. Content indicating that the patient is occupying the first location is transmitted over the communication network to a remotely-located terminal comprising a display device that is operable to display a graphic indicating that the patient is occupying the first location. A second location of the patient is received, indicating movement of the patient from the first location to the second location, which is different than the first location. In response to receiving the second location, storing the second location occupied by the patient in the computer-readable memory. Content indicating that the patient is occupying the second location is then transmitted over the communication network to the remotely-located terminal for updating the graphic displayed by the remotely-located terminal to reflect movement of the patient from the first location to the second location. 
     According to another aspect, the subject application involves a method of tracking a patient at a medical facility. The method according to the present aspect, includes, using a computer comprising an input peripheral manipulated by a user, receiving a first location of the patient within the medical facility identified by the user via the input peripheral. The first location is displayed on a display device operatively connected to the computer, the first location being identified by a graphical marker representing the first location where the patient can be found. The method also includes, in response to user interaction with the input peripheral, receiving a second location of the patient indicating movement of the patient from the first location to the second location, which is different than the first location. In response to receiving the second location, the graphical marker on the display device operatively connected to the computer is moved to identify the second location where the patient can be found after being moved. 
     According to another aspect, the subject application involves a system for tracking a location of a patient. The system includes a computer terminal operatively connected to a communication network, and a remotely-located computer terminal that is also operatively connected to the communication network. The computer terminal and the remotely-located computer terminal each comprise a display device and are disposed at different locations within a medical facility. A computer-readable memory is accessible by at least one of the computer terminal and the remotely-located computer terminal over the communication network. The computer-readable memory is operable to store information indicative of the location of the patient within the medical facility, and each of the computer terminal and the remotely-located computer terminal comprise a memory storing computer-executable instructions to be executed for performing a method. The method includes receiving from the computer-readable memory information indicative of the location of the patient within the medical facility. In response to receiving the information, a graphical representation of a plurality of different examination locations at the medical facility is presented, each of the plurality of different examination locations being represented by a room icon. An occupied room icon representing one of the plurality of examination locations occupied by the patient includes an appearance that is visually distinguishable from an unoccupied room icon representing another of the plurality of examination locations not occupied by the patient. A movement of the patient from a first examination location to a second examination location is entered. Information indicative of said movement is then transmitted over the communication network to update the graphical representation of the plurality of different examination locations displayed by the remotely-located computer terminal. 
     The above summary presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the systems and/or methods discussed herein. This summary is not an extensive overview of the systems and/or methods discussed herein. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of such systems and/or methods. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention may take physical form in certain parts and arrangement of parts, embodiments of which will be described in detail in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  schematically depicts an illustrative embodiment of a computer for implementing a method of tracking patients in a medical office; 
         FIG. 2  shows an illustrative embodiment of an administrative window generated by a computer system and presented to a technician to enable selection of a basis for tracking patients in a medical office; 
         FIG. 3  shows an illustrative embodiment of a layout window generated by a computer system and presented to a technician to enable the establishment of a reference point; 
         FIG. 4  shows an illustrative embodiment of a room identification window generated by a computer system and presented to a technician to enable arrangement of examination rooms relative to a reference point; and 
         FIG. 5  shows an illustrative embodiment of a monitoring window generated by a computer system and presented to a technician to enable graphical determination of a patient&#39;s location. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and is not to be taken as a limitation on the present invention. Relative language used herein is best understood with reference to the drawings, in which like numerals are used to identify like or similar items. Further, in the drawings, certain features may be shown in somewhat schematic form. 
     It is also to be noted that the phrase “at least one of”, if used herein, followed by a plurality of members herein means one of the members, or a combination of more than one of the members. For example, the phrase “at least one of a first widget and a second widget” means in the present application: the first widget, the second widget, or the first widget and the second widget. Likewise, “at least one of a first widget, a second widget and a third widget” means in the present application: the first widget, the second widget, the third widget, the first widget and the second widget, the first widget and the third widget, the second widget and the third widget, or the first widget and the second widget and the third widget. 
     Provided is a computer system  10  and method for generating a virtual representation of a medical office to provide physicians, nurses, physician assistants, support staff and other medical office personnel (generally referred to herein as “technicians”) with a graphical user interface (“GUI”) indicating a location of one or more patients within the medical office. The virtual representation described herein includes an image, such as a photograph of the patient for example, displayed by a display device  12  provided to a computer terminal  14  such as that operated by a receptionist or other administrative personnel as shown in  FIG. 1  for example. The computer terminal  14  can optionally be located at a reception/waiting location within the medical office where patients arrive and await their turn to be treated. Patients can optionally be checked in by scanning an ID card using an input peripheral such as a scanner  16  that can read a computer-readable code such as a barcode, RFID tag, magnetic strip, etc. . . . The scanner can optionally be locally connected to the computer terminal  14  as shown, but alternate embodiments include the scanner  16  being operatively connected to the computer terminal  14  via a communications network  18  such as a local area network (“LAN”), wide area network (“WAN”) such as the Internet for example, or a combination thereof. Yet other embodiments include checking a patient in manually. According to such other embodiments the receptionist or other technician can enter information related to the patient into the computer terminal  14  using any suitable input peripherals such as a mouse, keyboard, touch-screen interface or a combination thereof. By checking in, the patient&#39;s availability for medical treatment at the medical office can be entered into the computer system  10 . 
     The computer system  10  can optionally also include a database server  20 , such as a SQL Server connected to a communication network  18  to provide network-accessible storage of at least one of medical database information; and content, such as patient location information for example, to be distributed to the computer terminal  14  or any other network-connected computer resource. Another computer terminal  22  also including a display device  24  is operatively connected to the communication network  18  and disposed at a location within the medical office where technicians can gain access to the display device  24  to determine the location of a waiting patient within the medical office. The location within the medical office at which the computer terminal  22  is located is different than the location of the computer terminal  14 , and optionally within a different room or at a different portion of the medical office. For example, the computer terminal  22  can optionally be disposed at a staging area for physicians, nurses or other technicians where they prepare to enter an examination room occupied by a patient. Alternate embodiments include a stand-alone, dedicated display terminal  26  for displaying the GUI described herein, a tablet PC  28  wirelessly connected to the communication network  18 , or a combination thereof instead of, or in addition to the computer terminal  22 . Yet other embodiments can include any computerized terminal including a display component operable to display a GUI such as that generated according to the method described herein. Each of the computer terminal  22 , the display terminal  26 , and the tablet PC  28  includes a display component operable to generate the GUI indicating a patient&#39;s location using locally-stored content, content served over the mutation network  18  from a remotely-located computer terminal such as a server, or a combination thereof. 
     Although the examples provided below include a server operatively connected to the communications network  18  to serve content to remotely-located terminals such as computer terminals  14  and  22 , the content stored and served by the server can optionally be stored on any network-connected computer device as a shared network resource. For example, the information for tracking a patient&#39;s location described herein can be retrieved over the communication network  18  from the shared computer device instead of a network-connected server. According to such embodiments, the information can be retrieved from the shared network resource instead of served by a server to operate in a substantially similar manner as the embodiments described wherein the information is served from a server. 
     According to an illustrative embodiment the virtual representation of patient location can be presented via the GUI according to the execution of computer-executable logic read from a computer-readable medium. Examples of the computer-readable medium suitable for storing the computer-executable instructions can include a magnetic or solid-state hard disk drive provided to one or more of the computer terminals  14 ,  22 , the database server  20 , or other network accessible terminal; a compact disc; a digital versatile disc; EEPROM such as a USB flash drive; and the like. 
     The patient information stored by the database server  20  or other terminal including a computer-readable medium can optionally store medical database information relating to patients receiving medical care at the medical office. For example, the database server  20  can store a virtual file associated with each patient. The virtual file is said to be virtual in that it exists in an electronic format stored on a computer-readable medium, and is capable of being transmitted in whole or in part over the communication network  18  and at least partially displayed by a display device provided to a computer terminal connected to the communication network  18 . The virtual files can optionally include information comparable to that conventionally stored on paper within physical files traditionally stored by the medical office. For instance, each virtual file can include the name of the patient and other personal information of that patient, along with a photograph of the patient associated with that virtual file, medical history information of that patient, and any other information about the patient. The medical database information can optionally include content stored by an existing IT software solution in use with the computer system  10  by the medical office such as that offered under the trade name Centricity by GE Healthcare. 
     The computer-executable instructions executed to generate the GUI described herein can optionally be installed as a standalone product capable of utilizing information managed by an existing IT solution already installed and operable on the computer system  10  to maintain medical records. Thus, the computer-executable instructions executed in performance of the method described herein minimize interference with existing medical record management systems. The method and system described herein can also optionally retrieve any portion of the medical database information utilized by the existing medical records solution and display such information in monitoring the location of patients as described below. 
     In addition to the medical database information, administrative information regarding the medical office, technicians who interact with patients at the medical office, or a combination thereof is also stored in a computer-readable medium such as the hard disk drive or other computer-readable medium provided to the database server  20 . As a specific example, the name of a physician, nurse and/or medical assistant available to see the patient during the administration of medical care can be included in the administrative information. Other embodiments of the administrative information can include the examination room, wing and/or floor of the medical office and/or building where the patient is to be located for receiving medical care, any other geographic information about the medical office and/or its personnel, or a combination thereof can be stored by the database server  20  where it can be accessed and retrieved over the communication network  18 . The computer system  10  operating under the control of computer-executable instructions can access the medical database information and the administrative information to generate the virtual representations described with reference to  FIGS. 2-5 . 
       FIG. 2  illustrates a GUI administrative window  30  included in the virtual representation generated as described herein. As shown, the administrative window  30  is displayed on the display device  12  of the computer terminal  14  in  FIG. 1  within a web-browser software application operating on the computer terminal  14  such as Microsoft Internet Explorer. The administrative window  30  is populated in  FIG. 2  by at least a portion of the administrative information retrieved from the database server  20  over the communication network  18 . The administrative window  30  allows technicians to add, subtract, view, or otherwise access portions of the administrative information through the use of soft keys  32  also displayed within the administrative window  30 . Any changes to the administrative information made via the administrative window  30  can be stored within the database server  20  to update the information already stored therein. 
     From the GUI shown in  FIG. 2  a technician can specify a room, physician, office, or any other type of administrative information is to be the basis for the creation of a GUI for tracking the location of patients associated with the selected administrative information. For example, a technician can select physician entry  34  “Dr. Harmon” from the appropriate menu to generate a GUI for tracking the location of patients arriving at the medical office to be treated by Dr. Harmon. 
     Once the physician or other basis for identifying patients to be tracked has been selected, the method progresses to the layout window  40  shown in  FIG. 3 . From the layout window  40  the technician is to establish a reference point within the medical office for arranging examination rooms. According to an embodiment, this can be accomplished by dragging a workstation icon  42  to the appropriate location within the layout window  40 . The workstation icon  42  can serve to represent any reference point within the medical office. For instance, the workstation icon  42  can optionally represent the location of the workstation in the medical office used primarily by Dr. Harmon. According to alternate embodiments, the workstation icon  42  within the layout window  40  can optionally represent a location of a front desk provided as part of the reception area of the medical office. According to alternate embodiments, the workstation icon  42  does not necessarily represent an actual reference point within the medical office but merely a reference point within the layout window  40  from which the technician, such as the physician treating the patients can readily identify the location of the patient to be treated by looking at the relative positioning of the workstation icon  42  and the various room icons  50 ,  54 ,  56 ,  58  as shown in  FIG. 4 . An illustrative example of the workstation icon  42  arranged as desired within the layout window  40  is shown in the inset image  46  of  FIG. 3 . 
     Once the workstation icon  42  is properly positioned within the layout window  40 , the technician can proceed to identify the examination rooms in which patients are to be examined by Dr. Harmon as shown in  FIG. 4 . According to the illustrative embodiment shown in  FIG. 4 , the first examination room is represented by room icon  50  within the room identification window  52  of the virtual representation. Likewise, a second examination room is designated by room icon  54 , the third examination room is designated by room icon  56  and a fourth examination room in which Dr. Harmon will examine a patient is designated by room icon  58 . Again, the arrangement of the room icons  50 ,  54 ,  56 ,  58  relative to the workstation icon  42  in the room identification window  52  can optionally represent a physical layout of the examination rooms  1 - 4  relative to the physical location of Dr. Harmon&#39;s office within the actual medical office. 
       FIG. 5  shows an illustrative embodiment of a monitoring window  60  included in the virtual representation specific to Dr. Esselman as indicated by the information bar  62  adjacent an upper portion of the monitoring window  60 . Once arrangement of the room icons  64  relative to the workstation icon  42  in  FIG. 5  has been accomplished as described above with reference to  FIG. 4 , medical database information can optionally be retrieved over the communication network  18  from the database server  20  to populate the monitoring window  60 . For instance, the computer system  10  can optionally automatically populate the waiting room field  66 , without intervention by a technician according to an embodiment, in response to a patient being checked in at the reception area of the medical office, such as by scanning an ID card carried by the patient via the scanner  16  ( FIG. 1 ). 
     Any information identifying the patient can be populated within the waiting room field  66  to represent the location of the patient within a waiting room of the medical office. According to an illustrative embodiment, the patient&#39;s name along with a photograph of the patient retrieved over the communication network  18  from the database server  20  can be populated within the waiting room field  66 . When the patient is escorted from the waiting room and into an examination room, such as the examination room represented by examination room icon  68  for the example shown in  FIG. 5 , a receptionist or other technician aware of the patient&#39;s movement can move the representation of the patient (i.e., the patient&#39;s name and photograph) from the waiting room field  66  to the room icon  68 . 
     Moving the representation of the patient can optionally be accomplished by performing a so-called “drag and drop” operation. The technician can select the patient by placing a cursor displayed by the computer terminal  14  on the representation within the waiting room field  66 . While pressing and holding a mouse button the technician can reposition the representation of the patient onto room icon  68 . Room icon  68 , in response, undergoes a change in appearance such as showing a photograph of the patient within the room icon  68 , listing the patient&#39;s name within the room icon  68 , listing an appointment time at which the patient is scheduled to receive medical attention within the room icon  68 , providing a brief description of the patient&#39;s reason for visiting a medical office within the room icon  68 , or a combination thereof. Any information displayed within the room icon  68  can optionally be hidden from view until the room icons  68  is selected by the technician such as by double-clicking on the room icons  68  using a mouse operatively connected to the computer terminal being used to display the monitoring window  60 . In response to selection of the room icons  68  the hidden information can be presented within the virtual presentation to notify the technician of the reason for the patient&#39;s visit or other information relating to that patient. 
     In the event that the patient in the examination room represented by room icon  68  in  FIG. 5  is moved to a different examination room, the monitoring window  60  can be updated to reflect this move. For example, the technician who escorted the patient from one examination room to the examination room represented by room icon  70  can approach the computer terminal  22  in  FIG. 1  and perform another drag and drop operation to move the representation of the patient from room icon  68  to room icon  70 . According to an alternate embodiment, receptionist can optionally perform a similar drag-and-drop operation via the computer terminal  14  to reflect moving the patient to a different examination room. Changes to the GUI shown in  FIG. 5  can optionally be made in any computer terminal with the required authorization to access the data displayed. Thus, updates to patient locations can be graphically displayed in substantially real-time to minimize confusion regarding the location of patients within the medical office. 
     When the physician or other technician is ready to examine the patient, the exact location of the patient can be determined by simply observing the monitoring window  60  shown in  FIG. 5  via the computer terminals  14 ,  22 , a standalone display terminal  26 , the portable display device such as the tablet PC  28  carried by the technician, any other display device, or a combination thereof. Following examination of the patient, a physician that examined the patient or any other technician can access any of the computer terminals  14 ,  22 , display terminal  26 , the tablet PC  28 , or any other networked computer terminal to remove the patient from the monitoring window  60  indicating that the patient has left the medical office, or is at least finished receiving medical attention. All changes made to the monitoring window  60  can optionally be updated at the database server  20  and propagated throughout the computer system  10  to provide a substantially real-time indication of a patient&#39;s location within the medical office. 
     The illustrative embodiments discussed above are mostly implemented by computer executable instructions read from a computer-readable medium. Further, the various virtual presentations described above can be implemented using an interactive website via a user computer connected to the Internet. In this manner, a technician can monitor and track a patient&#39;s location outside the medical office, such as in another building on a medical campus for example. 
     Throughout this disclosure, the term “virtual” is used, for example, to describe the user viewable/hearable material presented to the user on a display device from data and/or computer programs and commands generated and/or provided by the computer system  10 . According to alternate embodiments the data and/or programs, or at least a portion thereof, can be stored locally by a computer terminal displaying the virtual presentation to the technician. 
     Still further provided is a computer readable medium for storing computer readable program code for performing the method disclosed herein by utilizing a computer system, as also disclosed herein. 
     As used herein, the terms “component” and “system” are intended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, a component may be, but is not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program, and a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a server and the server can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers. 
     The invention has been described hereinabove using specific examples; however, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various alternatives may be used and equivalents may be substituted for elements or steps described herein, without deviating from the scope of the invention. Modifications may be provided to adapt the invention to a particular situation or to particular needs without departing from the scope of the invention. It is intended that the invention not be limited to the particular implementation described herein. 
     Illustrative embodiments have been described, hereinabove. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above devices and methods may incorporate changes and modifications without departing from the general scope of this invention. It is intended to include all such modifications and alterations within the scope of the present invention. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim.