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 application further incorporates by reference U.S. patent application publication no. US / ______, which is the publication of U.S. nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 12 / 119,664, filed May 13, 2008. The '664 application represents the filing of the incorporated '784 provisional application as a nonprovisional application. [0003] The present invention generally relates to the fields of automated resource manag...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

Improves patient placement efficiency, reduces wait times and costs, and provides accurate, on-demand data analysis and alerts, ensuring timely and informed clinical and business decisions while protecting patient confidentiality.

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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