Nurse Call Mobile Gateway for Smartphone Alert and Status Data
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing nurse call systems fail to fully integrate with modern wireless mobile devices like smartphones, lacking comprehensive alert and status data integration and integration with other healthcare system functionalities.
Innovation Solution
A healthcare information system that includes a nurse call server, connected services architecture, and a mobile application gateway, enabling communication between a nurse call server and wireless mobile devices via multiple paths, including and excluding a proxy server, to provide integrated nurse calls, alerts, and device status data, with features like risk designation, task management, and performance metrics.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If nurse call systems use traditional infrastructure (pagers, VOCERA badges), then integration is simple and reliable, but the system cannot fully utilize modern smartphones with large computing power and diverse applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a mobile application gateway as an intermediary component between the nurse call system and modern smartphones. This gateway receives notifications from the nurse call system and translates them into appropriate actions on the smartphone interface, enabling integration without requiring complex modifications to either system. The gateway acts as a mediator that bridges the traditional infrastructure with modern device capabilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The mobile application gateway is designed to work with multiple types of wireless devices including smartphones, tablets, and traditional pagers. It provides universal functionality by adapting the nurse call system notifications to various device platforms and user interfaces, allowing the system to serve both legacy and modern devices through a single integrated architecture.
2Loss of information
If the system provides comprehensive alert and status data integration, then caregiver information access is improved, but data transmission paths and system architecture become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data transmission architecture into distinct paths: a primary path through the mobile application gateway for comprehensive data delivery, and an alternative path through the connected services architecture proxy server for redundant or filtered data transmission. This segmentation allows the system to provide complete alert and status data while managing architectural complexity through modular, independent transmission routes that can be optimized separately.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system integrates with connected services architecture proxy server, then remote entity access is enabled, but communication paths and system routing become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic communication routing where the mobile application gateway can selectively route notifications through different paths based on real-time conditions. The gateway dynamically decides whether to send data through the connected services architecture proxy server or through alternative direct paths, optimizing the communication route based on system state, network conditions, and operational requirements without requiring manual path configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and tangible computer-readable storage media to link a nurse call system of a healthcare facility with a mobile phone, are provided. A nurse call server receives nurse calls, alerts, and device status data. A connected services architecture (CSA) is located at an entity geographically remote from the healthcare facility. The CSA has a proxy server to replicate the nurse calls, alerts, and device status data communicated to the proxy server from the nurse call server. A mobile application gateway is coupled to the nurse call server via a first path that excludes the proxy server and via a second path that includes the proxy server of the CSA. Wireless mobile devices of caregivers receive the nurse calls, alerts, and device status data from the mobile application gateway.