System for dynamic location-aware patient care process controls and dynamic location-aware tracking

1. A system for tracking physical assets within an enclosed facility comprising:

a system backend comprising a backend processor configured to track a physical asset location of at least one physical asset within the enclosed facility;

a group of mobile devices communicably connected via a network to the system backend;

a low energy (LE) beacon array arranged in a predetermined relationship with and differentiating between different physical locations within the enclosed facility, and communicably connected to each of the mobile devices, wherein each mobile device is configured to resolve its mobile device proximity to the different physical locations within the enclosed facility using at least (1) a first proximity value based at least in part on a first identifying signal received from the LE beacon array, and (2) a second proximity value based at least in part on a second identifying signal received from, a low energy (LE) beacon associated with the at least one physical asset and detectable by each of the mobile devices, wherein the low energy (LE) beacon associated with the at least one physical asset is distinct from a different low energy (LE) beacon associated with another of the at least one physical asset;

wherein the backend processor is configured to identify the at least one physical asset and dynamically determine its physical asset location based on the resolved mobile device proximity of at least one mobile device of the group of mobile devices.

2. A system for tracking physical assets within a health care facility, the system comprising:

a first low energy (LE) beacon that is associated with a discrete physical location within the health care facility and is positionable in a predetermined physical relationship relative to the discrete physical location;

a physical asset positionable within the health care facility and associated with a second LE beacon;

a mobile device communicably connected via a network to a system backend, the system backend comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, upon execution by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive an association identifier corresponding to the association between the first LE beacon and the discrete physical location;

receive proximity data from the mobile device over the network, the proximity data based at least in part on: (1) a first proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a first identifying signal received by the mobile device from the first LE beacon, and (2) a second proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a second identifying signal received by the mobile device from the second LE beacon; and

determine that a location of the physical asset corresponds to the discrete physical location based at least in part on the proximity data and the association identifier.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the first LE beacon is one of a plurality of LE beacons within the health care facility, the first LE beacon being further arranged relative to other LE beacons of the plurality of LE beacons, the other LE beacons being arranged, respectively, relative to other discrete physical locations within the health care facility and associated, respectively, with the other discrete physical locations.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the physical asset is a moveable asset belonging to a group of moveable assets, the physical asset being moveable to another discrete physical location of the other discrete physical locations within the health care facility.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein the mobile device belongs to a group of similarly configured mobile devices and is assigned to a medical care professional, and wherein execution of the instructions further causes the processor to:

receive second proximity data from a second mobile device of the group of similarly configured mobile devices, the second proximity data based at least in part on: (1) a third proximity value determined by the second mobile device based at least in part on a third identifying signal received by the second mobile device from a third LE beacon, and (2) a fourth proximity value determined by the second mobile device based at least in part on a fourth identifying signal received by the mobile device from the second LE beacon; and

determine that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the discrete physical location, based at least in part on: (1) the proximity data, (2) the second proximity data, and (3) the association identifier.

6. The system of claim 2 , wherein execution of the instructions further causes the processor to:

receive a second association identifier corresponding to an association between a third LE beacon and a second discrete physical location within the health care facility, the third LE beacon positionable in a second predetermined physical relationship relative to the second discrete physical location;

receive second proximity data from the mobile device over the network, the second proximity data based at least in part on: (1) a third proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a third identifying signal received by the mobile device from the third LE beacon, and (2) a fourth proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a fourth identifying signal received by the mobile device from the second LE beacon;

determine that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the second discrete physical location, based at least in part on the second proximity data and the second association identifier; and

update a data store of the system backend to reflect that the location of the physical asset has changed from the discrete physical location to the second discrete physical location, based at least in part on determining that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the second discrete physical location.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein the physical asset is a type of durable medical equipment comprising at least one of an intravenous (IV) unit or a gurney, the second LE beacon being physically connected to the physical asset such that the second LE beacon is transportable together with the physical asset within the health care facility.

8. The system of claim 2 , wherein the mobile device belongs to a group of similarly configured mobile devices and the physical asset belongs to a group of moveable assets within the health care facility, wherein execution of the instructions further causes the processor to:

receive proximity data from each mobile device of the group of similarly configured mobile devices; and

based at least in part on the received proximity data from each mobile device, update a data store of the system backend to reflect updated location information for one or more physical assets of the group of moveable assets.

9. The system of claim 2 , wherein execution of the instructions further causes the processor to:

receive second proximity data from a second mobile device over the network, the second proximity data based at least in part on a third proximity value determined by the second mobile device based at least in part on a third identifying signal received by the second mobile device from the second LE beacon; and

determine the location of the physical asset based in part on performing signal triangulation utilizing at least the second proximity value received from the mobile device and the third proximity value received from the second mobile device.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein execution of the instructions further causes the processor to:

receive third proximity data from a third mobile device over the network, the third proximity data based at least in part on a fourth proximity value determined by the third mobile device based at least in part on a fourth identifying signal received by the third mobile device from the second LE beacon; and

perform error correction with respect to an aspect of the proximity data based at least in part on the second proximity data and the third proximity data.

11. A method for tracking physical assets within a health care facility, the method comprising:

receiving, by a mobile device, a first identifying signal from a first low energy (LE) beacon that is positionable in a predetermined physical relationship relative to a discrete physical location within the health care facility and associated with the discrete physical location by an association identifier;

determining, by the mobile device, a first proximity value based at least in part on the first identifying signal, the first proximity value corresponding to a first proximity of the first LE beacon to the mobile device;

receiving, by the mobile device, a second identifying signal from a second LE beacon, the second LE beacon associated with a physical asset within the health care facility;

determining, by the mobile device, a second proximity value based at least in part on the second identifying signal, the second proximity value corresponding to a second proximity of the second LE beacon to the mobile device; and

transmitting, by the mobile device, proximity data to a system backend, the proximity data based at least in part on: (1) the first proximity value, and (2) the second proximity value, wherein the system backend is operable to determine that a location of the physical asset corresponds to the discrete physical location based at least in part on the proximity data and the association identifier.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first LE beacon is one of a plurality of LE beacons within the health care facility, the first LE beacon being further arranged relative to other LE beacons of the plurality of LE beacons, the other LE beacons being arranged, respectively, relative to other discrete physical locations within the health care facility and associated, respectively, with the other discrete physical locations.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving, by the mobile device, a third identifying signal from a third LE beacon of the plurality of LE beacons;

determining, by the mobile device, a third proximity value based at least in part on the third identifying signal, the third proximity value corresponding to a third proximity of the third LE beacon to the mobile device;

determining, by the mobile device, that the first LE beacon is in closer proximity to the mobile device than the third LE beacon, based at least in part on determining a difference between the third proximity value and the first proximity value; and

transmitting, by the mobile device, the proximity data to the system backend based at least in part on determining that the first LE beacon is in closer proximity to the mobile device than the third LE beacon.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein determining the first proximity value further comprises analyzing a signal strength of the first identifying signal.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the mobile device is configured to transmit updated proximity data to the system backend upon detecting another identifying signal from another LE beacon, wherein the updated proximity data is based at least in part on another proximity value that is derived from the another identifying signal and corresponds to a third proximity of the another LE beacon to the mobile device.

16. The method of claim 11 , wherein the physical asset is a type of durable medical equipment, and the system backend assigns a clinical task to a different care member of a patient care team based at least in part on the determined location of the physical asset.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, upon execution on a system backend, configure the system backend to perform operations comprising:

receiving an association identifier corresponding to an association between a first low energy (LE) beacon and a discrete physical location within a health care facility, the first LE beacon positionable in a predetermined physical relationship relative to the discrete physical location;

receiving proximity data from a mobile device over a network, the proximity data based at least in part on: (1) a first proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a first identifying signal received by the mobile device from the first LE beacon, and (2) a second proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a second identifying signal received by the mobile device from a second LE beacon that is associated with a physical asset within the health care facility; and

determining that a location of the physical asset corresponds to the discrete physical location, based at least in part on the proximity data and the association identifier.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the mobile device belongs to a group of similarly configured mobile devices and the physical asset belongs to a group of moveable assets within the health care facility, and wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving proximity data from each mobile device of the group of similarly configured mobile devices; and

based at least in part on the received proximity data from each mobile device, updating a data store of the system backend to reflect updated location information for one or more physical assets of the group of moveable assets.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving second proximity data from a second mobile device of the group of similarly configured mobile devices, the second proximity data being based at least in part on: (1) a third proximity value that corresponds to a third proximity of a third LE beacon to the second mobile device, the third proximity value being derived from a third identifying signal from the third LE beacon, and (2) a fourth proximity value that corresponds to a fourth proximity of the second LE beacon to the second mobile device, the fourth proximity value being derived from a fourth identifying signal from the second LE beacon; and

determining that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the discrete physical location based at least in part on comparing the first proximity value with the third proximity value or comparing the second proximity value with the fourth proximity value.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a second association identifier corresponding to an association between a third LE beacon and a second discrete physical location within the health care facility, the third LE beacon positionable in a predetermined physical relationship relative to the second discrete physical location;

receiving second proximity data from the mobile device over the network, the second proximity data based at least in part on: (1) a third proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a third identifying signal received by the mobile device from the third LE beacon, and (2) a fourth proximity value determined by the mobile device based at least in part on a fourth identifying signal received by the mobile device from the second LE beacon;

determining that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the second discrete physical location, based at least in part on the second proximity data and the second association identifier; and

updating a data store of the system backend to reflect that the location of the physical asset has changed from the discrete physical location to the second discrete physical location, based at least in part on determining that the location of the physical asset corresponds to the second discrete physical location.