Patent ID: 8000978

Claim:
A system for automatically assigning clinical care providers to patients, comprising: a computerized clinical data store configured to store factors for a patient, the factors comprising one or more of patient acuity status, a patient workload estimate, patient morbidity status, patient mobility status, patient demographic data, patient immune condition status, patient infectious condition status, patient surgical status, patient ventilator status, patient life support status, patient pharmaceutical use status, patient one-to-one provider requirement status and patient preference data; a care provider data store configured to store care provider factors; the care provider factors comprising one or more of provider clinical qualifications, provider schedule, provider workload status and provider infectious exposure status; a first assignment engine on a first computer, the first assignment engine configured to communicate with the clinical data store and the care provider data store to automatically generate a first care provider assignment of the patient to a first clinical care provider based on comparison of at least one of the patient factors or provider factors, wherein the first care provider assignment is automatically generated by invoking a rules-based assignment engine to access a rule set comprising an ordered weighting of an analysis of patient acuity status compared to provider clinical qualifications, an analysis of continuity of patient care, an analysis of provider workload status incorporating a patient workload estimate, and provider preference data, wherein continuity of patient care identifies a care provider that has been previously assigned to the patient; and a reassignment engine, the reassignment engine communicating with the clinical data store and the care provider data store to automatically generate a reassignment of the patient to a second care provider by replacing the first care provider assignment based on a change that is received to one or more of the patient or care provider factors.