Managing Patient Bed Assignments and Bed Occupancy in a Health Care Facility
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.
1 . A computer implemented system for managing bed occupancy levels in a health care facility comprising: a server computer; a system interface for coupling said server computer to a patient admissions/discharge system of a health care facility; a database coupled to said server computer for storing patient data and bed attribute data for said healthcare facility; at least one client computer coupled to said server computer, said client computer having a user interface including a display monitor coupled thereto; said server computer for monitoring said admissions/discharge system and updating said stored data according to patient admission/discharge transactions and for retrieving, processing and updating said stored data in response to requests from said client computer; said client computer receiving user requests through the user interface and transmitting said requests to said server computer wherein a user can selectively access, analyze and display bed occupancy data for said health care facility.
2 . The system as defined in claim 1 wherein said system interface is configured to couple said server computer to an Admission/Discharge/Transfer (ADT) system of a health care facility.
3 . The system as defined in claim 2 wherein said system interface further comprises a Health Level Seven (HL7) receiver.
4 . The system as defined in claim 1 wherein said system interface coupling said server computer to an admissions/discharge system is an input device coupled to said server computer.
5 . The system as defined in claim 1 wherein said server computer is a Web server and said client computer is connectable thereto via the Internet.
6 . The system as defined in claim 1 wherein said server computer is an Intranet server and said at least one client computer is coupled thereto via a network.
7 . The system as defined in claim 1 wherein said server computer includes at least one intelligent agent for monitoring predetermined conditions related to said data stored in the database.
8 . The system as defined in claim 7 wherein said at least one intelligent agent also provides user notification upon the occurrence of said predetermined conditions.
9 . The system as defined in claim 7 wherein the conditions monitored by said intelligent agents are variable.
10 . The system of claim 1 wherein said server computer in response to request from the client computer for a bed assignment for a patient has the capacity to access the data stored in the database and compare said patient data with said bed attribute data for available beds and, upon identification of an appropriate bed, assign the patient thereto.
11 . The system of claim 10 wherein said server computer has the additional capability to further process the client request for a bed assignment for the patient by updating said stored data according to said bed assignment and transmitting a confirmation thereof to said client computer.
12 . The system of claim 10 wherein if the comparison of said patient data and bed attribute data results in no available bed being identified for the patient, said server computer has the additional capability to analyze said stored data as to patient bed assignments for at least a portion of said health care facility and transmit to said client computer at least one proposed rearrangement of said bed assignments wherein a bed is made available for said patient.
13 . The system of claim 10 wherein if the comparison of said patient data and bed attribute data results in no available bed being identified for the patient, said server computer has the additional capability to transmit an appropriate notification to said client computer.
14 . The system of claim 1 wherein said server computer has a bed management module for generating graphical or tabular representations of said bed assignment data and bed attribute data for at least a portion of said health care facility.
15 . The system of claim 1 wherein said server computer automatically assigns a patient to a bed in said health care facility in accordance with the results of a comparison of said patient data with said bed assignment data and bed attribute data of said health care facility.
16 - 34 . (canceled)
35 . A computer implemented method for managing patient bed assignments and bed occupancy in a health care facility comprising the steps of: monitoring an admission/discharge/transfer system for the health care facility; storing patient data and data pertaining to beds in a health care facility; updating said stored data upon receipt of transaction information from said admission/discharge/transfer system regarding a patient; and displaying at least a portion of said patient data and said data pertaining to beds in the health care facility wherein a user can manage patient bed assignments and bed occupancy levels in a health care facility by accessing and analyzing said stored data.
36 . The method of managing patient bed assignments and bed occupancy in a health care facility as defined in claim 35 further comprising a step of: updating said stored data upon assignment or departure of a patient to/from a particular bed in said health care facility.
37 . The method of managing patient bed assignments and bed occupancy in a health care facility as defined in claim 35 further comprising the steps of: receiving a user request for accessing, analyzing, or updating said stored data; retrieving and processing said stored data in response to said request; and selectively displaying results of said processing, wherein a user can manage patient bed assignments and bed occupancy levels in a health care facility by selectively accessing, analyzing and updating said stored data.
38 . The method of managing patient bed assignments and bed occupancy in a health care facility as defined in claim 35 further comprising a step of: employing intelligent agents for monitoring and notifying users of the occurrence of a predetermined condition related to said stored data.
39 - 41 . (canceled)
42 . A computer implemented system for managing bed assignments in a health care facility having a patient admissions/discharge system comprising: a database for storing patient data and bed assignment data for a healthcare facility having a patient admissions/discharge system; a server computer monitoring the patient admissions/discharge system of the health care facility, for admissions and discharges, and inputting, updating and retrieving patient and bed assignment data stored in the database accordingly; at least one client computer coupled to said server computer and having a user interface for receiving user requests for patient and bed assignment data and transmitting said requests to said server computer, the client computer also having a display for displaying the requested data; said server computer being responsive to the user requests from the client computer whereby a user can selectively request, analyze and display patient and bed assignment data for said health care facility.
43 - 49 . (canceled)