Intermediate check points in medical care lines for automatically identifying care deficiencies

1. A care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients, the care management system comprising:

a case data store that includes a plurality of cases, each case of the plurality of cases identifying:

a patient;

a type of a medical care received by the patient, the medical care including a treatment or surgery;

an entity that provided the medical care;

a set of check-point indicators, at least one check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators indicates which medication was provided or when the medication was provided; and

a care result variable that indicates whether the patient has died, experienced a medical complication, contracted a hospital-acquired condition, was readmitted to a medical institution, or a length of admission at a medical institution;

an aggregator that, in real-time, identifies a set of recent cases from amongst the plurality of cases, each case of the set of recent cases being associated with a same type of medical care, a same entity and medical care occurring at least partly within a recent time period;

a population quantifier that:

analyzes, in real-time, care-result variables in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population care-result statistic as a function of the recent time period and that relates to a prevalence or magnitude of patient mortality, occurrence of a complication, contraction of a hospital-acquired condition, readmission to an institution, cost of care or length of admission; and

analyzes, in real-time and for each of the set of check-point indicators, the check-point indicators in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population check-point statistic as a function of the recent time period, wherein the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each of the at least one check-point indicator corresponds to a quantity of the set of recent cases for which a case-specific satisfaction criterion was satisfied; and

a satisfaction engine that:

determines, for each recent case in the set of recent cases mapped to the recent time period and for each of the at least one check-point indicator, whether the case-specific satisfaction criterion is satisfied based on the check-point indicator; and

identifies a threshold based on a previous time period, the threshold to compare at least one of the real-time population check-point statistics to, the threshold having been generated based on data from case data reflecting medical care occurring during the previous time period;

a case-specific engine that:

monitors, in real-time, data pushed and/or pulled from one or more medical devices pertinent to a set of specific cases and, based at least in part on the monitored data, determining that the threshold is satisfied, wherein the one or more medical devices detect a condition of a body of a patient and/or affect the body of the patient, and the data pertains to the detecting and/or the affecting;

consequent to the determining that the threshold is satisfied, identifies, in real-time, a recommended change to a controllable parameter that influences a check-point pertinent to a specific case of the set of specific cases;

a presentation engine that:

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, generates an alert and transmits the alert to a remote user device to alert the remote user device and cause a presentation that includes each of:

the real-time population care-result statistic;

an identification of the threshold or whether it is determined that the at least one of the real-time population check-point statistic exceeded the threshold; and

the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators;

updates the presentation in real-time to reflect current values of the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistics, wherein the presentation or another presentation identifies the controllable parameter and the recommended change to the controllable parameter; and

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, causes at least one system component to automatically make the recommended change to the controllable parameter.

2. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein the presentation is presented at a time less than fifteen minutes from an end of the recent time period.

3. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein a subsequent presentation includes the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistics in a manner that indicates that they pertain to historical data.

4. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein the entity is a hospital, physician, nurse or medical team.

5. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein the presentation further includes a comparative population care-result statistic corresponding to one or more other entities.

6. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , further comprising a case manager that receives an upload that identifies the entity and that includes medical data pertaining to a check-point indicator of the set of check-point indicators and that prior to the identification of the set of recent cases, updates a case in the set of recent cases based on the medical data.

7. A computer-implemented method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients, the method comprising:

accessing a case data store that includes a plurality of cases, each case of the plurality of cases identifying:

a patient;

a type of a medical care received by the patient, the medical care including a treatment or surgery;

an entity that provided the medical care;

a set of check-point indicators, at least one check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators indicates which medication was provided or when the medication was provided; and

a care result variable that indicates whether the patient has died, experienced a medical complication, contracted a hospital-acquired condition, was readmitted to a medical institution, or a length of admission at a medical institution

identifying, in real-time, a set of recent cases from amongst the plurality of cases, each case of the set of recent cases being associated with a same type of medical care, a same entity and medical care occurring at least partly within a recent time period;

generating a population care-result statistic corresponding to the recent time period for the set of recent cases based on at least one care-result variable in at least some of the set of recent cases;

analyzing, in real-time, care-result variables in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population care-result statistic as a function of the recent time period and that relates to a prevalence or magnitude of patient mortality, occurrence of a complication, contraction of a hospital-acquired condition, readmission to an institution, cost of care or length of admission;

determining, for each recent case in the set of recent cases mapped to the recent time period and for each of the at least one check-point indicator, whether a case-specific satisfaction criterion is satisfied based on the check-point indicator;

analyzing, in real-time and for each of the set of check-point indicators, the check-point indicators in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population check-point statistic as a function of the recent time period, wherein the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each of the at least one check-point indicator corresponds to a quantity of the set of recent cases for which the case-specific satisfaction criterion was satisfied;

identifying a threshold based on a previous time period, the threshold to compare at least one of the real-time population check-point statistics to, the threshold having been generated based on data from case data reflecting medical care occurring during the previous time period;

monitoring, in real-time, data pushed and/or pulled from one or more medical devices pertinent to a set of specific cases and, based at least in part on the monitored data, determining that the threshold is satisfied, wherein the one or more medical devices detect a condition of a body of a patient and/or affect the body of the patient, and the data pertains to the detecting and/or the affecting;

consequent to the determining that the threshold is satisfied, identifying, in real-time, a recommended change to a controllable parameter that influences a check-point pertinent to a specific case of the set of specific cases;

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, generating an alert and transmits the alert to a remote user device to alert the remote user device and cause a presentation that includes:

the real-time population care-result statistic;

an identification of the threshold or whether it is determined that the at least one of the real-time population check-point statistic exceeded the threshold; and

the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators;

updating the presentation in real-time to reflect current values of the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistic, wherein the presentation or another presentation identifies the controllable parameter and the recommended change to the controllable parameter; and

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, causing at least one system component to automatically make the recommended change to the controllable parameter.

8. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , wherein the presentation is presented at a time less than six hours from an end of the recent time period.

9. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , wherein a subsequent presentation includes the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistics in a manner that indicates that they pertain to historical data.

10. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , wherein the entity is a hospital, physician, nurse or medical team.

11. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , wherein the presentation further includes a comparative population care-result statistic corresponding to one or more other entities.

12. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

receiving an upload that identifies the entity and that includes medical data pertaining to a check-point indicator of the set of check-point indicators; and

prior to the identification of the set of recent cases, updating a case in the set of recent cases based on the medical data.

13. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions configured to cause one or more data processors to perform actions including:

accessing a case data store that includes a plurality of cases, each case of the plurality of cases identifying:

a patient;

a type of a medical care received by the patient, the medical care including a treatment or surgery;

an entity that provided the medical care;

a set of check-point indicators, at least one check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators indicates which medication was provided or when the medication was provided; and

a care result variable that indicates whether the patient has died, experienced a medical complication, contracted a hospital-acquired condition, was readmitted to a medical institution, or a length of admission at a medical institution

identifying, in real-time, a set of recent cases from amongst the plurality of cases, each case of the set of recent cases being associated with a same type of medical care, a same entity and medical care occurring at least partly within a recent time period;

generating a population care-result statistic corresponding to the recent time period for the set of recent cases based on at least one care-result variable in at least some of the set of recent cases;

analyzing, in real-time, care-result variables in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population care-result statistic as a function of the recent time period and that relates to a prevalence or magnitude of patient mortality, occurrence of a complication, contraction of a hospital-acquired condition, readmission to an institution, cost of care or length of admission;

determining, for each recent case in the set of recent cases mapped to the recent time period and for each of the at least one check-point indicator, whether a case-specific satisfaction criterion is satisfied based on the check-point indicator;

analyzing, in real-time and for each of the set of check-point indicators, the check-point indicators in the set of recent cases to determine a real-time population check-point statistic as a function of the recent time period, wherein the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each of the at least one check-point indicator corresponds to a quantity of the set of recent cases for which the case-specific satisfaction criterion was satisfied;

identifying a threshold based on a previous time period, the threshold to compare at least one of the real-time population check-point statistics to, the threshold having been generated based on data from case data reflecting medical care occurring during the previous time period;

monitoring, in real-time, data pushed and/or pulled from one or more medical devices pertinent to a set of specific cases and, based at least in part on the monitored data, determining that the threshold is satisfied, wherein the one or more medical devices detect a condition of a body of a patient and/or affect the body of the patient, and the data pertains to the detecting and/or the affecting;

consequent to the determining that the threshold is satisfied, identifying, in real-time, a recommended change to a controllable parameter that influences a check-point pertinent to a specific case of the set of specific cases;

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, generates an alert and transmits the alert to a remote user device to alert the remote user device and cause a presentation that includes:

the real-time population care-result statistic;

an identification of the threshold or whether it is determined that the at least one of the real-time population check-point statistic exceeded the threshold; and

the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators;

updating the presentation in real-time to reflect current values of the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistic, wherein the presentation or another presentation identifies the controllable parameter and the recommended change to the controllable parameter; and

consequent to the identifying the recommended change, causing at least one system component to automatically make the recommended change to the controllable parameter.

14. The computer-program product as recited in claim 13 , wherein the presentation is presented at a time less than six hours from an end of the recent time period.

15. The computer-program product as recited in claim 13 , wherein a subsequent presentation includes the real-time population care-result statistic and the real-time population check-point statistics in a manner that indicates that they pertain to historical data.

16. The computer-program product as recited in claim 13 , wherein the entity is a hospital, physician, nurse or medical team.

17. The computer-program product as recited in claim 13 , wherein the presentation further includes a comparative population care-result statistic corresponding to one or more other entities.

18. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein:

the population quantifier further analyzes, in real-time, other care-result variables in the set of recent cases to determine an additional real-time care-result statistic relating to another of: a prevalence or magnitude of patient mortality, occurrence of a complication, contraction of a hospital-acquired condition, readmission to an institution, cost of care or length of admission; and

the presentation further includes the additional real-time care-result statistic.

19. The care management system for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 1 , wherein:

the population quantifier further generates a care score based on a combination of the real-time population check-point statistic determined for each check-point indicator in the set of check-point indicators;

the presentation further includes the care score; and

the update of the presentation further reflects a current value of the care score.

20. The method for providing presentations to monitor a quality of care being provided to patients as recited in claim 7 , further comprising:

identifying a controllable parameter that influences a check-point in the at least one check-point indicator;

when it is determined that the at least one of the real-time population check-point statistic exceeds the threshold, identifying a recommended change to the controllable parameter;

wherein the presentation or another presentation identifies the controllable parameter and the recommended change to the controllable parameter.