Method and system for monitoring patient care

1. A method for monitoring patient care in a computer-implemented system, comprising:

a) accessing a rule criterion, the rule criterion comprising a drug condition and a lab condition;

b) accessing a response criterion, the response criterion comprising a drug response and a lab response;

c) receiving patient data comprising a drug order and a laboratory test, the laboratory test having a current value;

d) analyzing the patient data according to the rule criterion and the response criterion;

e) generating a practice interval having a defined length of time that is determined based upon the response criterion and the patient data;

f) dynamically adjusting the practice interval based on the patient data:

wherein the practice interval is dynamically adjusted based upon a criticality of the patient data or based upon one or more trends indicated by the patient data,

wherein the criticality is determined as a percentage of the distance between a critical value of the laboratory test and a baseline value of the laboratory test and weighted in relation to a predetermined criticality factor pertaining to the laboratory test, and

wherein a trend indicated by the patient data is determined based upon a value of one or more previously received laboratory tests, if any, the critical value of the laboratory test, the baseline value of the laboratory test, and a predetermined laboratory trend factor pertaining to the laboratory test; and

g) generating a reminder notification if the patient data does not satisfy the response criterion within the practice interval,

wherein the accessing, receiving, analyzing, and generating functions are performed by the computer-implemented system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the rule criterion further comprises an associated drug or lab data (or variable).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing further comprises receiving lab data.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein analyzing further comprises receiving pharmacy data.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing the patient data for a selected drug or lab data (or variable).

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving patient data comprises receiving data from a health care facility's laboratory computer system.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving patient data comprises receiving data from a health care facility's pharmacy computer system.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the patient data in a user-defined format.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reminder is assigned a priority selected from the group consisting of low, medium, and high.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the priority of a reminder pertaining to a laboratory test is determined based upon the critical value of the laboratory test.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the priority of a reminder pertaining to a drug order is assigned as high.

12. A system for monitoring patient care, comprising:

a) a first data source, the first data source comprising a plurality of rule criteria, the rule criteria comprising a drug condition; and the first data source further comprising a plurality of response criteria, the response criteria comprising a drug response;

b) a second data source for receiving patient data comprising at least one drug order or laboratory test;

c) a central processor configured to communicate with the first data source and the second data source;

wherein the central processor is further configured to analyze the patient data according to a rule criterion and a response criterion, generate a practice interval having a defined length of time that is determined based upon the response criterion and the patient data, and generate a reminder notification if the patient data does not satisfy the response criterion within the practice interval, and

wherein the practice interval is configured to be dynamically adjusted by the central processor based upon a criticality of the patient data or based upon one or more trends indicated by the patient data, wherein the criticality is determined as a percentage of the distance between a critical value of the laboratory test and a baseline value of the laboratory test and weighted in relation to a predetermined criticality factor pertaining to the laboratory test, and wherein a trend indicated by the patient data is determined based upon a value of one or more previously received laboratory tests, if any, the critical value of the laboratory test, the baseline value of the laboratory test, and a predetermined laboratory trend factor pertaining to the laboratory test.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second data source comprises a health care facility's pharmacy computer system.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the second data source comprises a health care facility's laboratory computer system.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the rule criterion further comprises a lab condition.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the response criterion further comprises a lab response.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the rule criterion further comprises a data field for an associated laboratory test.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the rule criterion further comprises a data field for an associated drug.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the reminder notification comprises an alarm system in communication with the central processor.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the alarm system comprises an interface to a paging system.

21. The system of claim 19 , wherein the alarm system comprises an interface to an E-mail system.

22. The system of claim 19 , wherein the alarm system comprises an interface to a video display.

23. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first data source further comprises a database.

24. A computer program product, comprising:

a) a computer usable medium, the computer usable medium having embodied thereon a computer readable program code comprising instructions to cause a computer to:

1) access a first data source, the first data source comprising a plurality of rule criteria, the rule criteria comprising a drug condition; and the first data source further comprising a plurality of response criteria, the response criteria comprising a drug response;

2) access a second data source for receiving patient data comprising at least one drug order or laboratory test;

3) analyze the patient data according to a rule criterion and a response criterion;

4) generate a practice interval having a defined length of time that is determined based upon the response criterion and the patient data; and

5) generate a reminder notification if the patient data does not satisfy the response criterion within the practice interval,

wherein the practice interval is dynamically adjustable based upon a criticality of the patient data or based upon one or more trends indicated by the patient data, wherein the criticality is determined as a percentage of the distance between a critical value of the laboratory test and a baseline value of the laboratory test and weighted in relation to a predetermined criticality factor pertaining to the laboratory test, and wherein a trend indicated by the patient data is determined based upon a value of one or more previously received laboratory tests, if any, the critical value of the laboratory test, the baseline value of the laboratory test, and a predetermined laboratory trend factor pertaining to the laboratory test.

25. The product of claim 24 , wherein the computer readable program code for analyzing comprises a computer readable program code for searching the patient data for a rule criterion.

26. The product of claim 24 , wherein the computer readable program code for analyzing comprises a computer readable program code for searching the patient data for an associated lab.

27. The product of claim 24 , wherein the computer readable program code for analyzing comprises a computer readable program code for searching the patient data for an associated drug.

28. The product of claim 24 , wherein the computer readable program code for analyzing comprises a computer readable program code for searching the patient data for a clinical response.

29. The product of claim 24 , further comprising a computer readable program code for adjusting the length of the practice interval based on the values of at least one lab result.

30. The product of claim 24 , further comprising a computer readable program code for extracting a data from a data record and placing the data in a normalized table.

31. The computer program product of claim 24 , wherein the first data source further comprises a database.