System and method for caregiver availability determination

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10916119-B2
Application number	US-201916695573-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 26, 2019
Priority date	Dec 27, 2018
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

A system and method to determine availability of caregivers to respond to nurse calls or other alerts originating in patient rooms is provided. Caregivers are designated as unavailable depending upon room types in which they are located, or depending upon patient types in the rooms in which they are located, or depending upon how long they have been present in certain rooms, or depending upon whether the caregivers have designated themselves as unavailable, or any combination of the foregoing. A system and method to escalate alerts to other caregivers if a primary caregiver is unavailable includes escalating first to a designated secondary caregiver and then to a caregiver who is closest in proximity to the room from which the alert originated if the secondary caregiver is also unavailable.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system to determine caregiver availability for responding to alert calls in a healthcare facility having a plurality of patient rooms, the system comprising
a plurality of locating tags, each of which is worn by a respective caregiver in the healthcare facility, each locating tag having tag identification data (ID) stored therein, each locating tag having a transmitter configured to transmit the respective tag ID,
a plurality of transceivers mounted at fixed locations throughout the healthcare facility, each transceiver being configured to receive the tag ID's from the plurality of locating tags that are within a communication range of the transceiver, each transceiver having a transceiver ID stored therein,
a locating server communicatively coupled to the plurality of transceivers to receive the tag ID's and the transceiver ID's transmitted by the plurality of transceivers and the locating server being configured to determine a location of each caregiver in the healthcare facility based on the tag ID's and the transceiver ID's,
a plurality of alert placement devices, at least one alert placement device of the plurality of alert placement devices being located in each of the patient rooms of the plurality of patient rooms, each alert placement device being configured to send an alert call, and
a nurse call server communicatively coupled to the plurality of alert placement devices to receive alert calls therefrom and communicatively coupled to the locating server, wherein the nurse call server is configured to send text messages to selected portable communication devices to respond to the received alerts based on the alert and the type of patient;
a plurality of wireless access points communicatively coupled to the nurse call server and mounted within the healthcare facility configured to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of portable communication devices;
a plurality of portable communication devices, each portable communication device being carried by a respective caregiver, wherein the portable communication devices are configured to receive software from the wireless access points which configures the portable communication devices to receive and transmit text messages to the nurse call server; wherein the plurality of portable communication devices are configured by the software to transmit available and unavailable text message responses to the nurse call server regarding the received text messages from the nurse call server; and
wherein the nurse call server is configured to determine which caregivers of the plurality of caregivers are unavailable to respond to alert calls transmitted by the alert placement devices based on text message responses received from the plurality of portable communication devices and on a type of patient assigned to each of the patient rooms in which each of the caregivers are currently located as determined by the locating server.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alert placement devices comprise pillow speaker units each having a nurse call button that is selected by a respective patient to generate the alert call.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alert placement devices comprise patient beds each having a nurse call button that is selected by a respective patient to generate the alert call.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alert placement devices comprise patient beds and the alert calls comprise bed status alerts transmitted from the patient beds.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the bed status alert from each patient bed comprises one or more of the following: a siderail position alert, a caster brake alert, a mattress alert, a bed lift system alert, a bed component temperature alert, a head of bed angle alert, or a bed height alert.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alert placement devices comprise patient beds including heart rate sensors and the alert calls relate to sensed heart rate.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of alert placement devices comprise patient beds including respiration rate sensors and the alert calls relate to sensed respiration rate.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of room stations, each room station being located in a respective patient room of the plurality of patient rooms and communicatively coupled to the nurse call server, and the room stations are each usable to send a respective alert call.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein each patient room has a primary caregiver assigned thereto, and the nurse call server is configured to send an alert message to the portable communication device of the primary caregiver to notify the primary caregiver of any alert calls originating from any of the primary caregiver's assigned patient rooms if the primary caregiver has not been determined to be unavailable.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein each patient room has a secondary caregiver assigned thereto and if the primary caregiver has been determined to be unavailable, the nurse call server sends an alert message to the portable communication device of the secondary caregiver to notify the secondary caregiver of any alert calls originating from any of the secondary caregiver's assigned patient rooms if the secondary caregiver has not been determined to be unavailable.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein if the secondary caregiver has also been determined to be unavailable, the nurse call server sends an alert message to the portable communication device of a closest caregiver, other than the primary and secondary caregiver, determined by the locating server to be closest to the patient room from which a respective alert call has originated if the closest caregiver has not been determined to be unavailable.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein if the closest caregiver has also been determined to be unavailable, the nurse call server sends an alert message to the portable communication device of a next closest caregiver, other than the primary and secondary caregiver, determined by the locating server to be next closest to the patient room from which a respective alert call has originated if the next closest caregiver has not been determined to be unavailable.

13. The system of claim 1 , wherein the nurse call server is configured also to designate caregivers as unavailable based on a qualification of the respective caregiver or the role of the respective caregiver.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the nurse call server is configured also to designate caregivers as unavailable based on a distance between the respective caregiver and the patient room in which a respective alert call has originated exceeding a distance threshold.

15. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of transceivers and the plurality of locating tags communicate via ultra-wideband (UWB) signals.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the location of the plurality of locating tags is determined by the locating server using two way ranging and/or time difference of arrival (TDOA) techniques.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the locating server uses signals from only a subset of the plurality of transceivers to determine the location of each locating tag of the plurality of locating tags, the subset being determined based on signal strength of UWB signals between the transceivers and the respective locating tag.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the subset comprises at least three transceivers from the plurality of transceivers having highest signal strength values as compared t

Assignees

• Hill Rom Services Inc

Inventors

• Baker Steven D
• Smith Bradley T
• Agdeppa Eric D
• Wells Pamela
• Hassey Laura A
• Robinson Andrew S

Classifications

• G08B25/10

  using wireless transmission systems {(G08B25/009 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G01S13/0209

  Systems with very large relative bandwidth, i.e. larger than 10 %, e.g. baseband, pulse, carrier-free, ultrawideband · CPC title

• G01S13/878

  Combination of several spaced transmitters or receivers of known location for determining the position of a transponder or a reflector (G01S13/874 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G01S13/88

  Radar or analogous systems specially adapted for specific applications (electromagnetic prospecting or detecting of objects, e.g. near-field detection, G01V3/00) · CPC title

• A61B5/746

  Alarms related to a physiological condition, e.g. details of setting alarm thresholds or avoiding false alarms · CPC title