Managing Patient Bed Assignments and Bed Occupancy in a Health Care Facility

Abstract

An integrated health care delivery network with enabling software and network technology to maximize bed resources, manage varying census levels, and avoid patient diversions through real-time monitoring, automation and communication, is disclosed. Preferably, the present invention is embodied in a bed management system that interfaces with and complements existing Admission / Discharge / Transfer (ADT) systems. The bed management system is an easy-to-use business intelligence application that is designed to allow administrators, clinicians and managers to easily access, analyze and display real-time patient and bed availability information from ancillary information systems, databases and spreadsheets. It enables users to see trends and relationships in hospital (bed) management data directly from their desktop personal computers.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] The present application is a U.S. continuation patent application of, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to, U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 10 / 238,427, filed Sep. 9, 2002, which '427 application is incorporated by reference herein and which '427 application is a nonprovisional patent application of, and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to, U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60 / 317,784, filed on Sep. 7, 2001, which '784 application is incorporated by reference herein.[0002] The present invention generally relates to the fields of automated resource management and virtual instrument technology. More particularly, the present invention relates to a real-time support tool for patient bed assignments and other process in a health care facility and for profiling historical, current and future activities and events such as bed occupancy levels therein. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0003] Most hospitals employ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] The present invention satisfies, to a great extent, the foregoing and other needs not currently satisfied by existing systems. This result is achieved, in an exemplary embodiment, by providing an integrated health care delivery network with enabling technology to maximize bed resources, manage varying census levels, and avoid patient diversions through real-time monitoring, automation and communication.

[0009] Preferably, the present invention is embodied in a bed management system that interfaces with and complements existing health care facilities admission systems such as Admission / Discharge / Transfer (ADT) systems. The bed management system is an easy-to-use intelligent application that is designed to allow administrators, clinicians and managers to easily access, analyze and display real-time patient and bed availability and related information from ancillary information systems, databases and spreadsheets. In other words, it enables users to see trends and relationships in hospital management data directly from their desktop personal computers and / or handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs).

[0010] The present invention improves patient placement efficiency and saves time and money by assisting with the clinical and business decision process that occurs when a patient needs to be admitted to a hospital, for instance. The system includes the use of virtual instruments to provide a cross-functional view of enterprise status throughout a facility or organization. Decision makers can easily move from big-picture analyses to transaction-level details while, at the same time, safely sharing this information throughout the enterprise to derive knowledge and make timely, data-driven decisions.

Problems solved by technology

However, there are existing problems in ADT systems.

One problem, for example, is the inability of current ADT systems to provide sufficient clinical information for appropriate patient placement.

Another problem area is the lack of accurate bed availability information.

This generally results in lost admissions and excessive wait times.

Inefficient communication while searching for the appropriate bed for a patient, is another problem.

High incidences of ‘observation’ outpatients that occupy inpatient beds without payer authorization, is another problem.

Additionally, current ADT systems often lack the ability to access and provide meaningful historical, current and predictive data regarding bed occupancy levels and other activities and events related to the operation of a health care facility.

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