Patent ID: 7933817

Claim:
A method of billing for the usage of a portable suction pump for suction-assisted wound treatment, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a portable suction pump to a user for treating a wound; (b) inputting data, by the user, into a user interface of the pump, the data related to compliant operation of the pump, wherein compliant operation is operation of the pump when medically effective suction is being applied to a wound; (c) operating the pump by the user; (d) measuring pump negative pressure from the wound using an instrumentation sensor selected from the group consisting of a pressure sensor and a flow sensor; (e) determining the compliant operation of the pump by a monitoring system of the pump; (f) recording and accumulating time units of compliant operation by a timing subsystem of the pump, (g) reporting time units of compliant operation by a reporting subsystem of the pump; and (h) billing for the pump at a payment schedule that is based at least in part upon the recorded compliant operation.