Centralized Database for Real-Time Specialist On-Call Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for locating specialists on-call in healthcare facilities are inefficient and time-consuming, often requiring manual searches, which can delay emergency medical care and potentially harm patients.
Innovation Solution
A centralized database or data bank that provides real-time information on healthcare facilities with on-call physicians, accessible via the Internet, including location, specialty, and transportation options, allowing for quick identification and transfer of patients to appropriate facilities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual telephone searches are used to locate specialists on-call, then no centralized real-time data system is required, but the process becomes time-consuming and inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
Healthcare facilities pre-submit their on-call specialist schedules to the centralized database before they become effective. This allows the system to have specialist availability information ready in advance, enabling immediate retrieval when a transfer is needed without real-time manual searching.
Solution Approach 2:
A centralized database serves as an intermediary between healthcare facilities and hospitals needing specialist care. The database stores and manages on-call specialist information from multiple facilities, allowing requesting hospitals to quickly query and obtain specialist availability information without direct contact with individual facilities.
2Loss of information
If hospitals manually call other hospitals to find specialists, then no database infrastructure is needed, but enormous time and effort is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into independent components: healthcare facilities that submit their schedules, a centralized database that stores and manages the data, and querying hospitals that retrieve information. Each component operates independently but connects through standardized interfaces, allowing the system to scale without requiring complete system redesign.
Solution Approach 2:
The centralized database serves multiple functions: storing on-call schedules, providing real-time queries, supporting transfers between facilities, and potentially expanding to include additional healthcare information. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems for different healthcare information needs.
3Productivity
If real-time specialist location is achieved through automated systems, then patient care time is reduced, but system infrastructure complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Healthcare facilities independently submit their own on-call specialist schedules to the centralized database without requiring manual data entry or verification by the system operator. This self-service approach reduces the operational complexity of maintaining the database while ensuring accurate, up-to-date information is available.
Data Source
AI summary
A system which contains real-time specialist on-call data is disclosed. The system allows for the input and searching of specialist on-call data for various health care locations. The system is configured to allow a patient in need of the medical care of a specialist not currently available at the patient's location to search for the nearest health care location(s) with a physician of the desired specialization presently or soon to be on call. Methods of the same are also disclosed.