Nurse Call System Visual Assignment Layout
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing nurse call systems fail to efficiently distribute nursing loads among nurses, leading to uneven assignments and reduced efficiency and quality of nursing services in hospitals.
Innovation Solution
A nurse call system that displays patients and nurses in a format allowing nurse managers to visualize and reorganize nursing assignments across different time zones and hospital layouts, enabling more balanced load distribution by associating patients with nurses and hospital rooms, and allowing for input and reflection of patient memos to facilitate intended assignment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If nurse managers use traditional nurse call systems to assign patients to nurses, then patient information can be displayed, but nursing load distribution becomes uneven and concentrates on particular nurses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a visual layout screen that displays hospital room arrangements in two-dimensional space, with patient names, nurse assignments, and workload indicators overlaid on the physical layout. This spatial visualization adds a new dimension to traditional text-based patient information display, enabling nurse managers to instantly grasp nursing load distribution across different areas and make balanced assignments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time feedback by displaying workload indicators (such as color-coded markers or numerical values) that show each nurse's current patient load. This immediate feedback mechanism allows nurse managers to adjust assignments to achieve more balanced distribution, preventing workload concentration on particular nurses while maintaining comprehensive patient information visibility.
2Productivity
If nurse managers manually reorganize nursing assignments, then load distribution can be adjusted, but time and operational efficiency are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary calculations and visualizations of nursing load distribution before actual assignments are made. By pre-displaying projected workload balances and potential assignment scenarios on the layout screen, nurse managers can make informed decisions instantly without time-consuming manual calculations or iterative reorganizations, thus achieving balanced load distribution efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an automated assignment assistance function that acts as an intermediary between nurse managers and final assignment decisions. This function can suggest optimal assignments based on displayed workload indicators and constraints, reducing the time required for manual reorganization while maintaining the ability to achieve balanced nursing load distribution.
3Manufacturing precision
If detailed patient information is displayed for each nurse, then assignment accuracy improves, but system complexity and display requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by displaying different types of information in different areas of the layout screen. Patient details, nurse information, and workload indicators are selectively presented at relevant locations on the hospital layout map, rather than uniformly across all displays. This localized information presentation maintains high assignment accuracy while avoiding unnecessary display complexity in areas where such details are not needed.
Data Source
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AI summary
A nurse call system according to the present invention includes a nurse call master unit (3) which includes a first display part (31); a patient information memory unit (52a) which stores patient information containing at least names of patients and person-in-charge information representing nurses each in charge of one or more of the patients; a working information memory unit (38a) which stores working information of the nurses for each date and each working time zone; and a display control unit (36) which can display a plurality of the patients and the individual nurses in charge of the plurality of patients in a next or succeeding working time zone simultaneously on the first display part (31), in a manner of associating each of the plurality of patients with one of the nurses, based on the patient and working information.