Nursing care document management system

Abstract

To provide a system that can reduce the burden of organizing documents at home care support offices and the like. [Solution] The system 1 is composed of a reading device 2, an electronic information terminal 3, and an application 4, and has a user determination means 7 and an digitized document storage means 10 that are executed using the application 4. The user determination means 7 is a means for determining that the document being determined belongs to a registered user if the name data recognized by the reading device 2 matches any of one or more groups of name data registered for each user on the system, and for determining that the document is unknown if there is no corresponding user, and the digitized document storage means 10 is a means for sorting and storing the document being determined to be unknown based on the determination of the user determination means 7, either in a personal folder for each corresponding user if the determination is a match, or in an unknown folder if the determination is unknown.

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a care document management system that reduces the operational burden of document management at, for example, care managers and home care support offices to which care managers belong. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, with the aging of society, care for those in need of care has become widespread through care businesses (home care, day care, etc.). The types of care provided by care businesses include home care, where a caregiver visits the home of the person in need of care, day care, where the person in need of care goes to a care business such as a day service center to receive care, and facility-based care, where the person in need of care moves into a care business such as a nursing home to receive care.

[0003] For example, day care centers are characterized by the fact that those requiring care can use a variety of services on a day-to-day basis. Day care centers allow those requiring care to receive essential services such as health checks, meals, toileting, and bathing, while also providing a place where they can interact with people other than their family and feel connected to society. They also help reduce the burden on family members who normally provide care.

[0004] Meanwhile, care managers are responsible for planning and managing the content of care services for users who receive care services at care facilities. Care managers are responsible for providing consultations regarding the user's overall care needs and coordinating with various related institutions such as care facilities, medical institutions, and pharmacies, and are generally referred to as "care managers." Specific duties of care managers include interviewing users, assessing the care services they need, creating individual support plans, and conducting regular evaluations after users begin using the service.

[0005] Care managers receive numerous documents for caregiving, including confidential information such as the user's personal and health information, from various related organizations via fax and mail, and care managers are required to store these documents. These documents include a variety of documents, such as plans, performance reports, and medical records, and some are handwritten by the managers and staff of each care facility, doctors, pharmacists, and others. Documents must be stored for a specified period (e.g., two years) from the date the care manager is no longer in charge. Therefore, unless there are special circumstances, care managers are required to continue storing all types of documents, and the volume of documents they must store continues to increase.

[0006] In addition, care managers are generally responsible for multiple clients at the same time. This means that various documents must be organized and stored for each client, and the administrative burden of organizing these documents is enormous. Furthermore, in facilities such as home care support offices where multiple care managers are employed, the number of clients for whom documents must be stored is enormous, and securing storage space for these documents can easily become an issue. As a result, it is not uncommon for documents to be stored all over the facility.

[0007] In recent years, the use of ICT has been promoted in nursing care settings. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a system that enables widespread information sharing between medical institutions and nursing care service providers, and has strong resistance to the leakage of personal information.

[0008] Additionally, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has begun operating a care plan linkage system in April 2023, promoting paperless care plans. This linkage system links data on service provision slips (plans and results) from the care plans exchanged monthly between home care support offices and care facilities, with the aim of reducing the burden of document preparation on home care support offices and care facilities.

[0009] However, the above system does not directly aim to reduce the burden of organizing documents at home care support offices and the like. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0010] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2013-16083 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0011] The present invention has been made in view of the above background, and aims to provide a system that can reduce the burden of organizing documents at home care support offices and the like. [Means for solving the problem]

[0012] The nursing care document management system of the present invention is a nursing care document data management system for converting documents related to users who receive nursing care services into electronic data and managing them, and is composed of a reading device for converting documents related to the users into electronic data by optical character recognition, an electronic information terminal connected to the reading device and operated by a system user, and an application running on the electronic information terminal or a server, and is executed using the application to determine which user a document to be determined that has been converted into electronic data by the reading device belongs to, and has a user determination means for storing the document to be determined, and the user determination means stores the document to be determined. The determination means is a means for determining that the document to be determined belongs to the registered user if the name data recognized by the reading device matches one or more groups of name data registered for each user on the system, and for determining that the document to be determined belongs to the registered user if the recognized name data does not match any of the groups of name data, and for determining that there is no corresponding user and that the document is unknown, based on the determination of the user determination means, and the electronic document storage means is a means for sorting and storing the document to be determined in a personal folder for each corresponding user if the document is determined to match, or in an unknown folder if the document is determined to be unknown, based on the determination of the user determination means.

[0013] The user determination means has a sub-determination means for determining, via the system user, to which user the document to be determined belongs in the case of an unknown determination, and the sub-determination means is a means for making the match determination based on the system user's judgment as to which user registered on the system the document to be determined to belong to that has been determined to be unknown, and for adding the recognized name data to the name data group of the user determined to match.

[0014] The system is characterized in that it has a care manager determination means for determining the care manager in charge of the user from the name data recognized by the reading device, and the electronic document storage means is a means for placing the personal folder under the folder hierarchy of the care manager in charge of the user corresponding to the personal folder based on the determination of the care manager determination means. [Effects of the Invention]

[0015] The nursing care document management system of the present invention is a system comprising a reading device, an electronic information terminal, and an application, and includes a user determination means and a digitized document storage means executed by the application. The user determination means determines that the document to be determined belongs to a registered user if the name data recognized by the reading device matches one or more name data groups registered for each user in the system, and determines that the document to be determined belongs to an unknown user if the recognized name data does not match any of the name data groups. The digitized document storage means sorts and stores the document to be determined, based on the determination by the user determination means, into a personal folder for each corresponding user if the document is determined to match, or into an unknown folder if the document to be determined to be unknown. Since documents related to users are digitized and the digitized documents are automatically stored in the user's personal folder based on the name data recognized by the reading device, the burden of organizing documents at home nursing care support facilities and the like can be reduced. In addition, by storing documents related to users as electronic documents, it is possible to reduce the amount of storage space required to store paper documents and the effort required for storage.

[0016] In character recognition using optical character recognition, name data may be mistakenly recognized as being different from the actual name, but the user determination means has a sub-determination means that, in the case of an unknown determination, determines which user the document to be determined belongs to via the system user, so that the misrecognition can be corrected.

[0017] In addition, various related organizations periodically send documents related to users to businesses and other organizations to manage nursing care service plans and implementation details. While these documents may be handwritten by staff at the relevant organizations (such as staff at each nursing care facility, doctors, or pharmacists), the individuals who complete the documents are generally consistent. Furthermore, depending on the individual's handwriting, writing habits (such as the way characters are written), or mistakes, the name data recognized by the reading device may be mistaken for the actual name. From this perspective, the sub-determination means not only performs the match determination but also adds the recognized name data to the name data group of the user for whom the match was determined. Therefore, even if the document filled out by the same individual is mistakenly recognized again, the next time the reading device reads a document filled out by the same individual, the added name data group can be used to more easily determine a match. Adding (updating) the user's name data group in this way increases the probability of a match, enabling smoother sorting of electronic documents and reducing the burden on system users associated with the sub-determination.

[0018] The system has a care manager determination means that determines the care manager in charge of the user from the name data recognized by the reading device, and the digitized document storage means is a means that, based on the determination of the care manager determination means, creates a personal folder under the folder hierarchy of the care manager in charge of the user corresponding to the personal folder.Therefore, for example, in a home care support facility where multiple care managers are employed, digitized documents can be allocated to users for each care manager, making it easier for each care manager to view and print documents related to the users they are responsible for. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0019] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of a care document management system according to the present invention; [Figure 2] 10 is an example of a list of documents to be assessed. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a processing flow of the nursing care document management system of the present invention. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating addition to a name data group by a sub-determination means. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0020] The nursing care document management system of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the nursing care document management system of the present invention. System 1 of the present invention is a system used by people or businesses who manage documents related to users (those requiring nursing care) who receive nursing care services, and is used, for example, by care managers or businesses to which care managers belong (such as home nursing care support businesses).

[0021] As shown in Fig. 1, the system 1 is composed of a reading device 2, an electronic information terminal 3 operated by a system user (such as a business administrator or staff member, or a care manager), and an application 4 (in the present invention, "application" is also simply referred to as "app") that runs on the electronic information terminal 3. The app 4 may run on a server that is connected to the electronic information terminal 3 via a communication network.

[0022] The reading device 2 is a device (scanner) that converts documents related to the user (documents to be assessed 5) into electronic data using optical character recognition (OCR). Any known device with optical character recognition functionality can be used. The reading device 2 recognizes name data from the electronic documents. The name data may be distinguished between the user's name data and the system administrator's name data based on the document type, the location of the document within the document, nearby terminology, etc.

[0023] Figure 2 shows an example of a list of documents related to a user. As shown in Figure 2, there are a wide variety of document types, and the sources of these documents vary. For example, if a user is using day care services, the day care center will periodically send documents such as an "Performance Report," "Nursing Care Needs Report," and "Monitoring Report." Medical institutions will also periodically send documents such as a "Medical and Nursing Care Coordination Sheet" and "Home Medical Care Management Instructions." In actual business settings, many organizations still file and store documents on paper for each user, and analog management remains the norm.

[0024] Returning to Fig. 1, the digitized documents and recognized name data converted into digital data by the reading device 2 are transmitted to the electronic information terminal 3. The reading device 2 and the electronic information terminal 3 are connected to each other so that they can communicate with each other via wire or wirelessly. The electronic information terminal 3 is not particularly limited, and examples include PCs, tablet terminals, dedicated terminals, etc. located in the business premises, as well as portable smartphones, tablet terminals, mobile phones, and notebook PCs.

[0025] 1, the electronic information terminal 3 has a user determination means 7 that determines to which user a document to be determined 5 that has been digitized by a reading device 2 belongs, and a digitized document storage means 10. The operations of these means are executed using an application 4.

[0026] The digitized document storage means 10 is a means for storing digitized documents, and the digitized documents are stored in folders. As shown in Figure 1, the digitized document storage means 10 has a personal folder 11 in which digitized documents for each user are stored, and an unknown folder 12 in which digitized documents for unknown users are temporarily stored. Note that a plurality of personal folders 11 are provided according to the actual number of users. Furthermore, the system 1 is provided with one or more name data groups registered for each user, and each name data group is linked to a personal folder in a one-to-one correspondence (see Figure 4 described below).

[0027] The system 1 has a function of sorting digitized documents based on the name data recognized by the reading device 2. Specifically, if the name data recognized by the reading device 2 matches any of the name data group, the user determination means 7 determines that the document to be judged belongs to a registered user, and if they do not match, it determines that there is no corresponding user and is unknown. Then, based on the determination by the user determination means 7, the digitized document storage means 10 sorts and stores the document to a personal folder 11 for each corresponding user if the determination is a match, or to an unknown folder 12 if the determination is unknown.

[0028] This allows documents related to users to be managed digitally, and also reduces the administrative burden of organizing documents for each user in an office, etc.

[0029] In FIG. 1, the user determination means 7 has a sub-determination means 8. This sub-determination means 8 is a means for determining, via the system user, to which user the document to be determined belongs when the user determination means 7 determines that the document is unclear. While optical character recognition is a highly versatile and simple form of character recognition, its accuracy is not necessarily high. Furthermore, when reading handwritten documents, the accuracy of character recognition is greatly influenced by the skill, accuracy, and habits of the person who wrote the document. Therefore, by providing the sub-determination means 8, misrecognition can be manually corrected, and the system can learn from misrecognition by adding newly recognized name data to the name data group.

[0030] 1, the electronic information terminal 3 preferably further includes a care manager determination means 6 that determines the care manager in charge of the user from the name data recognized by the reading device 2. The operation of this means is executed using the application 4.

[0031] In many cases, a business establishment employs multiple care managers, and the care manager determination means 6 can sort digitized documents into the personal folders of users for each care manager. Specifically, based on the determination of the care manager determination means 6, the digitized document storage means 10 creates a personal folder 11 under the folder hierarchy of the care manager who is in charge of the user corresponding to the personal folder 11. This allows each care manager to simply access their own folder when checking document data for the user they are in charge of, leading to improved work efficiency.

[0032] As shown in FIG. 1, the electronic information terminal 3 may also have a document type determination means 9 for determining the type of the target document 5 that has been converted into digital data by the reading device 2. The type of the target document 5 is not particularly limited, but may be classified into broad categories such as "plan-related" or "performance report-related," or may be further classified by the name of each document (e.g., the item in the document summary of FIG. 2). The document may also be classified by its sender (e.g., "day care document" or "medical institution document"). The document type determination means 9 can determine the document type from factor data such as "title," "items," "description," and "signature" recognized from the digitalized target document 5.

[0033] Next, the processing flow using the above-mentioned system will be explained using Figure 3. In Figure 3, from the top to bottom, folders for each care manager, folders for each user, and folders for documents classified by type are provided, and digitized documents are stored in the folders for each document. Note that the unknown folder is shown at the same level as the folders for each user, but this is not limited to this.

[0034] Documents related to users are sent to businesses and other locations by fax or mail. Then, an office manager, staff member, or care manager operates the reading device 2 to read the documents, and the documents are converted into electronic data using optical character recognition. Furthermore, the user's name data, the care manager's name data, and factor data for determining the type of document are individually recognized from the digitized documents. Each recognized data is sent to an electronic information terminal along with the digitized documents.

[0035] In the electronic information terminal, first, it is determined which care manager is in charge of the electronically converted document to be determined. Specifically, based on the recognized name data (specifically, the name data of the care manager), a specific care manager is determined by the care manager determination means, and the folder of the determined care manager is selected.

[0036] Next, it is determined which user the digitized document belongs to. Specifically, the user determination means determines whether the name data recognized by the reading device matches any of one or more groups of name data registered for each user in the system.

[0037] Here, we will first explain name data groups with reference to the specific example in Figure 4. As shown in Figure 4, the system has one or more name data groups registered for each user. For example, name data group A-1 is provided for user A-1, and name data group A-2 is provided for user A-2. In Figure 4, the actual name of user A-1 is set to "Taro Tokkyo" and the actual name of user A-2 is set to "Hanako Kokusai."

[0038] Name data group A-1 contains seven name data items, including the actual name "Patent Taro" and other names that are different from the actual name, such as "Patent Taro," "Patent Inurou," "Patent Taro," "Patent Taro," "Mochi Taro," and "Patent Taro." Name data group A-2 contains four name data items, including the actual name "Kokusai Hanako" and other names that are different from the actual name, such as "Kunimatsuri Hanako," "Kokiwa Hanako," and "Kokusai Hanako." In FIG. 4, the name data items that are different from the actual name are intended to be misrecognized, and examples are shown in which some kanji characters have been replaced with other kanji characters that are similar in shape, but this is not limiting. The number of name data items registered in a name data group is not particularly limited, and may be one.

[0039] Case 1 in Figure 4 shows the case where the name data recognized by the reading device is "Takken Taro." The user determination means uses the name data "Takken Taro" as a search key to search for a match with any of the name data group. In this case, since "Takken Taro" matches one of the name data registered in the name data group A-1, the user determination means determines that the document to be determined belongs to a user registered in the system. The digitized document storage means then stores the document to be determined in the personal folder of the corresponding user A-1.

[0040] On the other hand, Case 2 in Figure 4 shows the case where the name data recognized by the reading device is "MOIKO TARO." The user determination means uses the name data "MOIKO TARO" as a search key to search for a match with any of the name data groups. In this case, since "MOIKO TARO" does not match any of the name data registered in name data group A-1 or name data group A-2, the user determination means determines that there is no corresponding user and that the document is unknown. The digitized document storage means then stores the document to be determined in an unknown folder.

[0041] In this way, documents to be judged are sorted and stored based on the judgment of the user judgment means using the name data recognized by the reading device.

[0042] Furthermore, for documents stored in the unknown folder (documents determined to be unknown), the sub-determination means determines, via the system user, which user the document belongs to. Specifically, the system user determines that the document to be determined for the name data "Taro Mochiko" is a document belonging to user A-1 "Taro Tokkyo" by referring to each name data group provided on the system, and performs a predetermined action (such as linking) on ​​the system, which the sub-determination means accepts. As a result, the sub-determination means determines that the document to be determined is a document belonging to a specific user.

[0043] The sub-determination means determines whether a document determined to be unclear belongs to a user registered on the system, based on the system user's judgment, and adds the recognized name data to the name data group of the user determined to be a match. Specifically, as shown in Figure 4, the newly recognized name data "Mochiyo Taro" is added to the name data group A-1 of user A-1. As a result, the number of name data registered in the name data group A-1 increases to eight.

[0044] As a result, even if the name data recognized by the reading device is "Taro Mochiko" from the next time onwards, the document to be judged will be automatically sorted into the folder of user A-1 by the user judgment means. As a result, sub-judgment via the system user is not required, and the workload of the system user can be reduced.

[0045] In this way, by adding newly recognized name data to the name data group using the sub-judgment means and updating the name data group, it is possible to create a name data group that covers the kinds of writing errors and recognition errors that are expected in the user's actual name. Also, since documents related to users are sent regularly from the same related institutions, writing errors and recognition errors by the person filling out the documents are likely to become fixed to a certain extent. Therefore, by registering name data that has been incorrectly recognized due to such circumstances in the name data group, it is possible to smoothly sort electronic documents even if they are recognized in the same way from the next time onwards.

[0046] Returning to Fig. 3, the digitized documents stored in the user folder are further sorted into document folders by type via the document type determination means. For example, document A-1-1 can be a folder related to plans, and document A-1-2 can be a folder related to performance reports, etc.

[0047] In this way, documents related to each user are stored as digitized documents in folders classified by hierarchy, allowing documents to be viewed and printed smoothly, leading to improved work efficiency.

[0048] The above-mentioned system is based on character recognition using optical character recognition, but any resulting misrecognitions are compensated for by manual judgment, making it a relatively simple system that does not require advanced devices or systems such as AI learning, and is easy to introduce even in the nursing care field, where analog management is still the norm.

[0049] The system of the present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and can be modified as appropriate.

[0050] In the above-described configuration, the user determination means determines whether the name data matches any of the name data group based solely on the name data recognized by the reading device, but the determination may also be made based on, for example, the recognized name data plus other attribute information that identifies the user, such as the user's kana name, date of birth, postal code, kana address, kanji address, and telephone number.

[0051] Furthermore, the long-term care manager determination means may also determine the status using the recognized data and a group of name data of long-term care managers registered in the system, as in the case of the user determination means described above. In this case, the newly recognized name data may be added to the group of name data, as in the case of the sub-determination means described above.

[0052] Furthermore, the system of the present invention can be used not only by care managers and the facilities to which they belong, but also in care facilities such as day care (day service, day rehabilitation), home care (helpers, visiting nurses, visiting rehabilitation), and short-term living care (short stay), and can be used in the care field in general. [Industrial Applicability]

[0053] The nursing care document data management system of the present invention can reduce the burden of organizing documents at home nursing care support offices and the like. It also eliminates the need to store documents on paper, reducing the need for storage space and the effort required for storage, making it widely applicable to nursing care facilities such as home nursing care support offices. While reducing the burden of such paperwork can reduce the amount of work time required by caregivers, it can also lead to an increase in the time required for nursing care services, ultimately contributing to improved quality of nursing care services. [Explanation of symbols]

[0054] 1 System (Nursing care document management system) 2 Reading device 3. Electronic information terminals 4. Apps (Applications) 5 Documents to be assessed 6. Care manager qualification assessment tool 7 User determination means 8 Sub-judgment method 9 Document type determination method 10. Digital document storage means 11 Personal Folder 12 Unknown Folder

Claims

1. A care document data management system for converting documents related to users receiving care services into electronic data and managing them, The system comprises a reading device for converting documents relating to the user into electronic data by optical character recognition, an electronic information terminal connected to the reading device and operated by a system user belonging to the business, and an application running on the electronic information terminal or a server, a user determination means for determining which user a document to be determined that is digitized by the reading device and executed using the application; and a digitized document storage means for the document to be determined, The user determination means is a means for determining that the document to be determined belongs to the registered user when the name data recognized by the reading device matches one or more groups of name data registered for each user in the system, and determining that the document is unknown because there is no corresponding user when the recognized name data does not match any of the groups of name data, The digitized document storage means is a means for sorting and storing the document to be determined based on the determination of the user determination means into a personal folder for each corresponding user if the determination is a match, or into an unknown folder if the determination is an unknown, A care manager determination means for determining a care manager in charge of the user from the name data recognized by the reading device, The digitized document storage means is means for creating the personal folder under a folder hierarchy of the care manager who is in charge of the user corresponding to the personal folder, based on the determination of the care manager determination means. A nursing care document management system characterized by:

2. The user determination means has a sub-determination means for determining, via the system user, to which user the document to be determined belongs in the case of the unclear determination, The sub-determination means is a means for determining whether the document to be determined as unclear belongs to a user registered on the system, based on the judgment of the system user, and for performing a match determination, and for adding the recognized name data to the name data group of the user determined as a match.

2. The nursing care document management system according to claim 1.

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