Patent Document ID: 20010016821
Application ID: 09734824
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An information management system for tracking and analyzing information relating to medical supply usage on a procedural level in a clinical setting, the system comprising: a general purpose computer system, including: storage means for storing data corresponding to the information; processing means for processing instructions relating to tracking and analyzing the information; display means for presenting the information in a human perceptible format; and input means for receiving user input relating to tracking and analyzing the information; information management software installed on the general purpose computer system, including: node software objects, each of the node software objects providing a health-care information management function, including: a clinical pathway node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining user-defined, user-configurable clinical pathway module software objects adapted to function with the clinical pathway node software object and representing provider-specific procedural templates of the information relating to health care services procedures, the clinical pathway module software objects including: resource software objects, corresponding to resources to be used in providing health care services, including: a list of supplies predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during a given medical procedure; and a recordation form for the given procedure based upon at least one of the provider-specific procedural templates for the given procedure, the recordation form including at least a partial listing of the supplies predetermined to be preferred by a particular healthcare provider for use during the given procedure based upon the at least one provider-specific procedural template, the recordation form including a scheduled amount of each of the supplies included in the at least one provider-specific procedural template to be used during the given medical procedure; and container software objects for containing software objects having at least one common characteristic; a case management node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable case management module software object adapted to function with the case management node software object from the clinical pathway module software object, the case management module software object representing a selected clinical pathway module software object as modified to reflect a prospective patient-specific case, and containing patient-specific information, and adapted to receive additional patient-specific information; and a resource utilization tracking node software object for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining at least one user-defined, user-configurable model module software object adapted to function with the resource utilization tracking node software object and the case management module software object, the model module software object representing the case management module software object as modified by at least the patient-specific information to reflect a historical patient-specific case by recording on the recordation form actual usage information reflecting actual usage of supplies during the given procedure, the recording including: recording an issued amount of each of the supplies included in the at least one provider-specific procedural template, where the issued amount is an amount issued for use in the given procedure; recording a consumed amount of each of the supplies included in the at least one provider-specific procedural template, where the consumed amount is an amount actually consumed during the given procedure; recording a returned amount of each of the supplies included in the at least one provider-specific procedural template, where the returned amount is an amount returned to storage after the given procedure; and recording a scrapped amount of each of the supplies included in the at least one provider-specific procedural template, where the scrapped amount is an amount disposed of but not consumed during the given procedure nor returned to storage; the resource utilization tracking node software object further for selectively creating, managing, and maintaining a user-defined, user-configurable utilization study module software object from the at least one model module software object; and the resource utilization tracking node software object further for analyzing the utilization study module software object to determine supply request and actual usage patterns on a procedural level over a given time period for the particular healthcare provider by comparing the issued, consumed, returned, and scrapped amounts, and modifying the provider-specific procedural template to more fully conform to the actual usage patterns based on the analyzing.