Telehealth control system and method
A telehealth control system and method examine a data structure to determine whether a patient having a waiting location in an order among several patients in a virtual waiting room for a virtual encounter with a healthcare provider has been waiting at least as long as a threshold time period. Responsive to determining that the patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period, the data structure is changed to indicate that the patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room while a scheduling system of the telehealth system attempts to schedule an upcoming virtual appointment involving the patient. Responsive to being unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment involving the patient, the data structure is changed to return the patient to the virtual waiting room without the patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room.
1. A method comprising:
providing remote access of a telehealth system across a network to plural healthcare provider devices associated with plural healthcare providers to allow the plural healthcare providers to conduct a virtual encounter with patients;
directing applications of the plural healthcare provider devices each associated with the healthcare provider to notify the plural healthcare providers that one or more of the patients are available for the virtual encounter;
establishing a first wireless connection across the network between a first healthcare provider device of the plural healthcare provider devices and a first patient device of a first patient of the one or more of the patients responsive to receiving a request from the first healthcare provider device for the virtual encounter with the first patient;
examining a data structure stored in a database of a telehealth system to determine whether a second patient having a waiting location in an order among the patients in a virtual waiting room for the virtual encounter with the plural healthcare providers has been waiting at least as long as a threshold time period;
responsive to determining that the second patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period, changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to indicate that the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room while a scheduling system of the telehealth system attempts to schedule an upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, wherein changing the data structure changes a digital display of the applications of the plural healthcare provider devices to change an appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the applications to indicate that the second patient is not available for the virtual encounter;
responsive to the scheduling system being unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room with a second patient device associated with the second patient indicated as an available communication connection with the healthcare provider devices in the database of the telehealth system, wherein changing the data structure to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room changes the digital display of the applications of the plural healthcare provider devices to change the appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the applications to indicate that the second patient is available for the virtual encounter; and
establishing a second wireless connection across the network between the first healthcare provider device and the second patient device after changing the data structure to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating the threshold time period using an artificial intelligence (AI) neural network and one or more models of the AI neural network;
using the threshold time period obtained from the AI neural network to determine whether the second patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period;
providing feedback to the AI neural network indicating that the second patient was unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment;
changing the one or more models of the AI neural network based on the feedback that is provided to the AI neural network; and
changing the threshold time period using the AI neural network and based on the one or more models that are changed.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second patient cannot be selected by any of the plural healthcare providers for the virtual encounter while the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to indicate the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room by adding a lock flag or changing a value of the lock flag in the data structure.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room by removing the lock flag or changing the value of the lock flag in the data structure.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room such that one or more prior patients that entered the virtual waiting room before the second patient are ahead of the second patient in the virtual waiting room and one or more subsequent patients that entered the virtual waiting room after the second patient are behind the second patient in the virtual waiting room.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein at least one of the one or more subsequent patients entered the virtual waiting room while the second patient was working with the scheduling system to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to remove the second patient from the virtual waiting room responsive to the scheduling system successfully scheduling the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient.
9. A telehealth system comprising:
one or more processors of a scheduling system configured to direct applications of plural healthcare provider devices each associated with a healthcare provider to notify plural healthcare providers that patients are available for a virtual encounter, wherein the one or more processors are configured to provide remote access of a telehealth system across a network to each of the plural healthcare provider devices to allow the healthcare provider to conduct the virtual encounter with the patients,
the one or more processors configured to establish a first wireless connection across the network between a first healthcare provider device of the plural healthcare provider devices and a first patient device of a first patient of the patients responsive to receiving a request from one of the healthcare provider devices for the virtual encounter,
the one or more processors configured to examine a data structure stored in a database of the telehealth system to determine whether a second patient of the patients having a waiting location in an order among the patients in a virtual waiting room for the virtual encounter with one of the plural healthcare providers has been waiting at least as long as a threshold time period, the one or more processors configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system responsive to determining that the second patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period,
the one or more processors configured to change the data structure to indicate that the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room while the scheduling system attempts to schedule an upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure to change a digital display of each of the applications of the plural health provider devices to change an appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the applications to indicate that the second patient is not available for the virtual encounter,
the one or more processors configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room responsive to the scheduling system being unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room to change the digital display of each of the applications of the plural healthcare provider devices to change the appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the applications to indicate that the second patient is available for the virtual encounter,
the one or more processors configured to establish a second wireless connection across the network between the first healthcare provider device and a second patient device of the second patient after changing the data structure to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room.
10. The telehealth system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure to prevent the second patient from being selected by any of the plural healthcare providers for the virtual encounter while the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room.
11. The telehealth system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to indicate the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room by adding a lock flag or changing a value of the lock flag in the data structure.
12. The telehealth system of claim 11 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room by removing the lock flag or changing the value of the lock flag in the data structure.
13. The telehealth system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room such that one or more prior patients that entered the virtual waiting room before the second patient are ahead of the second patient in the virtual waiting room and one or more subsequent patients that entered the virtual waiting room after the second patient are behind the second patient in the virtual waiting room.
14. The telehealth system of claim 9 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to change the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to remove the second patient from the virtual waiting room responsive to the scheduling system successfully scheduling the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient.
15. A method comprising:
providing remote access of a telehealth system across a network to plural healthcare provider devices associated with plural healthcare providers to allow the plural healthcare providers to conduct a virtual encounter with several patients;
determining a threshold time period using an artificial intelligence (AI) neural network and one or more models of the AI neural network;
directing applications of the plural healthcare provider devices to notify the plural healthcare providers that one or more of the patients are available for the virtual encounter;
establishing a first wireless connection across the network between a first healthcare provider device of the plural healthcare provider devices and a first patient device of a first patient of the several patients responsive to receiving a request from the first healthcare provider device for the virtual encounter with the first patient;
examining a data structure stored in a database of the telehealth system to determine whether a second patient of the several patients having a waiting location in an order among the several patients in a virtual waiting room for the virtual encounter with a healthcare provider has been waiting at least as long as the threshold time period that was determined using the AI neural network;
responsive to determining that the second patient has been waiting for at least as long as the threshold time period, changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to indicate that the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room while a scheduling system of the telehealth system attempts to schedule an upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, wherein the second patient cannot be selected by the healthcare provider for the virtual encounter while the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room;
changing a digital display of the applications of the healthcare provider devices to change an appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the application to indicate that the second patient is not available for the virtual encounter;
responsive to the scheduling system being unable to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient, providing feedback to the AI neural network and changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room,
wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room such that one or more subsequent patients that entered the virtual waiting room after the second patient are behind the second patient in the virtual waiting room;
changing the digital display of the applications of the healthcare provider devices of the healthcare providers to change the appearance of the second patient in the virtual waiting room displayed in the applications to indicate that the second patient is available for the virtual encounter;
changing the one or more models of the AI neural network based on the feedback that is provided to the AI neural network;
changing the threshold time period using the AI neural network and based on the one or more models that are changed; and
establishing a second wireless connection across the network between the first healthcare provider device and a second patient device of the second patient after changing the data structure to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to indicate the second patient is locked out of the virtual waiting room by adding a lock flag or changing a value of the lock flag in the data structure.
17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room by removing the lock flag or changing the value of the lock flag in the data structure.
18. The method of claim 15 , wherein at least one of the subsequent patients entered the virtual waiting room while the second patient was working with the scheduling system to schedule the upcoming virtual appointment.
19. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
changing the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system to remove the second patient from the virtual waiting room responsive to the scheduling system successfully scheduling the upcoming virtual appointment involving the second patient.
20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the data structure stored in the database of the telehealth system is changed to return the second patient to the virtual waiting room without the second patient losing the waiting location in the order of the virtual waiting room such that one or more prior patients that entered the virtual waiting room before the second patient are ahead of the second patient in the virtual waiting room.