Patent ID: 8428961

Claim:
A method of providing resource availability information related to medical facilities to a second device, the method comprising, at a first device: collecting resource availability information from a plurality of medical facilities, wherein the collecting the resource availability information comprises selectively polling, by the first device, one or more resource stores associated with the plurality of medical facilities, wherein the selectively polling the one or more resource stores associated with the plurality of medical facilities is performed: in response to the received resource availability query from the second device, periodically according to a user-defined schedule, or automatically in response to a change in the resource availability information; storing the collected resource availability information in a database accessible using the first device; receiving a resource availability query from the second device using a network, the resource availability query including a resource specification; identifying resource availability data from the collected resource availability information based on the resource specification; aggregating the identified resource availability data; and sending the aggregated resource availability data to the second device.