Patent ID: 8082160

Claim:
A system for collecting and communicating data from a plurality of medical devices of different types to an Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, each of the medical devices having an output port, the system comprising a local data collection module comprising a first controller, a receiver coupled to the first controller and operable to receive local short-range wireless signals, a transceiver coupled to the first controller and operable to communicate wirelessly with a wireless access point of an Ethernet of a healthcare facility, and a plurality of medical device adapters, each medical device adapter having a second controller, an input port coupled to the second controller and coupleable to a respective medical device of the plurality of medical devices to receive data from the output port of the respective medical device, each data communication module having a transmitter coupled to the respective second controller and operable to transmit the data received from the respective medical device as the short-range local wireless signals to the receiver of the local data collection, wherein the local data collection module communicates at least some of the data received from each of the medical devices adapters wirelessly to the EMR system via the wireless access point for automatic entry into a medical record of a patient associated with the plurality of medical devices, wherein each of the medical device adapters includes a disassociate input that is activated by a caregiver when the respective medical device to which the medical device adapter is coupled is to be removed from the plurality of medical devices associated with the patient.