Method And System For Workflow Modification

1 . A method for workflow modification in a facility, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of signals at a plurality of sensors from a plurality of communication devices, each of the plurality of communication devices associated with an object or a person, each of the plurality of sensors positioned at a plurality of locations in a facility for real-time location tracking of persons and/or objects;

transmitting the plurality of signals to a location engine;

determining at the location engine a location of at least one object or person;

determining a first workflow from at least one location of the object or the person; and

determining a departure from the first workflow.

2 . The method according to claim 1 further comprising transmitting an alert upon determining a departure from the first workflow.

3 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the first workflow is at least one of a series of locations, a series of states, a series of dwell times, a series of interactions, a series of milestones, or a series of detected events.

4 . The method according to claim 3 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of a physician call, an EMS call, an arrival/sign-in, a nurse saw, a doctor saw, an entered department, a departed department, a bed request, a bed check, a bed ready, a fully registered, a triaged, a quick registered, a disposition ordered, and a floor report.

5 . The method according to claim 3 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of case created, a check-in, a ready for pre-op, a pre-op declined, a pre-op accepted, an arrived pre-op room, a ready for pre-op nurse, a patient prepped, a left pre-op, an inpatient ready, an ED ready, an arrived OR, a procedure start, a procedure end, a ready for PACU, a ready for ICU, a ready for post-op, a PACU decline, a post-op declined, a PACU accepted, a post-op accepts OR and a departed OR.

6 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the role of each object associated with each of the plurality of communication devices is maintained and tracked by the location engine.

7 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the object is selected from the group of a patient, a nurse, a physician, housekeeping member, a technician, a transport, a room, a fix location asset, and a moveable asset.

8 . The method according to claim 1 wherein each of the communication devices operates on at least one of the communication protocols selected from ZIGBEE, BLUETOOTH, BLUETOOTH low energy, WiFi, Low-power WiFi, Low Frequency (LF), Ultrasound and Infrared communication formats.

9 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the location engine is a context aware location engine.

10 . A method for workflow modification in a facility, the method comprising:

knowing a first workflow a priori;

receiving a plurality of signals at a plurality of sensors from a plurality of communication devices, each of the plurality of communication devices associated with an object or a person, each of the plurality of sensors positioned at a plurality of locations in a facility for real-time location tracking of persons and/or objects;

transmitting the plurality of signals to a location engine;

determining at the location engine a location of at least one object or person;

determining a departure from the first workflow; and

determining a second workflow.

11 . The method according to claim 10 further comprising comparing the second workflow with the first workflow that is known a priori, to detect a change in the first workflow over a predetermined time period.

12 . The method according to claim 11 further comprising modifying the first workflow to accommodate the detected changes to the first workflow over the predetermined time period.

13 . The method according to claim 11 further comprising transmitting an alert upon detecting changes to the first workflow over a predetermined time period.

14 . The method according to claim 1 wherein the first workflow is at least one of a series of locations, a series of states, a series of dwell times, a series of interactions, a series of milestones, or a series of detected events.

15 . The method according to claim 14 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of a physician call, an EMS call, an arrival/sign-in, a nurse saw, a doctor saw, an entered ED, a departed ED, a bed request, a bed check, a bed ready, a fully registered, a triaged, a quick registered, a dispo ordered, and a floor report.

16 . The method according to claim 14 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of case created, a check-in, a ready for pre-op, a pre-op declined, a pre-op accepted, an arrived pre-op room, a ready for pre-op nurse, a patient prepped, a left pre-op, an inpatient ready, an ED ready, an arrived OR, a procedure start, a procedure end, a ready for PACU, a ready for ICU, a ready for post-op, a PACU decline, a post-op declined, a PACU accepted, a post-op accepts OR and a departed OR.

17 . A system for workflow modification in a facility, the system comprising:

a plurality of sensors positioned at a plurality of locations in a facility for real-time location tracking of persons and/or objects;

a plurality of communication devices, each of the plurality of communication devices associated with an object or a person, each of the plurality of communication devices configured to transmit a signal to at least one of the plurality of sensors; and

a location engine in communication with the plurality of sensors, the location engine configured to determine a location of at least one object or person, determine a first workflow from at least one location of the object or the person, and determine a departure from the first workflow.

18 . The system according to claim 17 wherein the location engine is configured to transmit an alert upon determining a departure from the first workflow.

19 . The system according to claim 17 wherein the standard workflow is at least one of a series of locations, a series of states, a series of dwell times, a series of interactions, a series of milestones, or a series of detected events.

20 . The system according to claim 19 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of a physician call, an EMS call, an arrival/sign-in, a nurse saw, a doctor saw, an entered ED, a departed ED, a bed request, a bed check, a bed ready, a fully registered, a triaged, a quick registered, a dispo ordered, and a floor report.

21 . The system according to claim 19 wherein the series of milestones is at least one of case created, a check-in, a ready for pre-op, a pre-op declined, a pre-op accepted, an arrived pre-op room, a ready for pre-op nurse, a patient prepped, a left pre-op, an inpatient ready, an ED ready, an arrived OR, a procedure start, a procedure end, a ready for PACU, a ready for ICU, a ready for post-op, a PACU decline, a post-op declined, a PACU accepted, a post-op accepts OR and a departed OR.

22 . The system according to claim 17 wherein the object is selected from the group of a patient, a nurse, a physician, housekeeping member, a technician, a transport, a room, a fix location asset, and a moveable asset.

23 . The system according to claim 17 wherein the facility is a hospital and the plurality of workflow stages of patient under tracking comprises at least one of a patient arrival stage, a patient in preparation for a medical procedure, a patient in a medical procedure stage, a patient in post-medical procedure stage, and a patient departure.

24 . The system according to claim 17 wherein the location engine is configured to maintain and track workflow specific usage information about each of a plurality of locations in the facility.