Bed/room/patient association systems and methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9830424-B2
Application number	US-201414487279-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2014
Priority date	Sep 18, 2013
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods of associating beds and/or rooms and/or patients are provided. One system and method involves using a signature of emitted light to determine a location of a patient bed in a healthcare facility. Another system and method involves reading a bar code from an array of redundant bar codes. Still another system and method involves manually entering location information on a graphical user interface of a patient bed for subsequent transmission. A further system and method involves sending bed ID and location ID along parallel paths from two independent circuits on a patient bed for receipt by two different transceivers and ultimately by two different remote computers that cooperate to associate the bed ID with the location ID. Still a further system and method involves using circuitry on a bed to mutate a received location ID and a bed ID into a single unique mutated ID such as by adding the location ID and bed ID and then performing a hashing operation.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system comprising
a first subsystem for associating a bed to a room of a healthcare facility, the first subsystem comprising
a locator unit that is fixed in place and that transmits a location ID,
a patient bed having first circuitry that has a first ID and that receives the location ID, the patient bed having second circuitry that is independent of the first circuitry, the second circuitry being configured to transmit a bed ID and bed status data,
a first transceiver spaced from the locator unit and spaced from the patient bed, the first transceiver receiving the first ID and location ID transmitted by the first circuitry,
a second transceiver that is spaced from and independent of the first transceiver, the second transceiver receiving the bed ID and the bed status data transmitted by the second circuitry,
a first remote computer device receiving the location ID and first ID transmitted to the first remote computer device by the first transceiver, and
a second remote computer device that receives the bed ID and the bed status data which is transmitted to the second computer device by the second transceiver, wherein the first and second remote computer devices cooperate to associate the location ID and the bed status data with the bed ID; and

a second subsystem comprising
a light source that emits visible light having a signature that is unique to a location of the healthcare facility in which the light source is situated, and
a second patient bed including second circuitry that analyzes the light from the light source to determine the signature corresponding to the location, the circuitry being configured to transmit data corresponding to the signature and to transmit a second bed identifier (ID) of the second patient bed to the network.

2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
an array of redundant bar codes, and
a third patient bed spaced from the array of redundant bar codes, the third patient bed including third circuitry that comprises a bar code reader that reads at least one of the redundant bar codes in the array, the third circuitry being configured to transmit data corresponding to the at least one of the redundant bar codes and to transmit a third bed identifier (ID) of the third patient bed to the network.

3. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a third patient bed including a frame, third circuitry carried by the frame, and a graphical user interface carried by the frame and coupled to the third circuitry, the graphical user interface displaying at least one user interface screen that is used by a caregiver to manually enter location data indicative of a location in a healthcare facility occupied by the third patient bed, the circuitry transmitting the location data entered by the caregiver and a third bed identification (ID) off of the third patient bed.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a locator unit that is fixed in place and that transmits a location ID in a first format, and
a third patient bed having a bed ID and circuitry having stored therein ID translation software, the circuitry receiving the location ID in the first format and, in accordance with the ID translation software, converting the location ID to a modified ID having a second format different than the first format, the circuitry transmitting the bed ID and the modified ID, whereby the location ID received by the circuitry of the patient bed is not transmitted by the circuitry.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a second locator unit that is fixed in place and that transmits a second location ID, and
a third patient bed having a third bed ID and third circuitry having stored therein ID mutation software, the circuitry receiving the second location ID and, in accordance with the ID mutation software, mutating the second location ID and the third bed ID into a mutated ID, the mutated ID being a single unique ID, the circuitry transmitting the mutated ID, whereby neither the second location ID received by the third circuitry nor the third bed ID of the third patient bed is transmitted by the third circuitry.

6. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a hospital bed for use with a locating and tracking system, the hospital bed comprising
a patient support structure configured to support a patient,
third circuitry carried by the patient support structure, the third circuitry being in communication with the locating and tracking system, and
an indicator coupled to the third circuitry and that is signaled by the third circuitry to provide an indication that a successful bed-to-room association has been made.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a first computer device that is remote from a third patient bed and that receives bed data transmitted from the third patient bed, the first computer device receiving prospective bed-to-room association data transmitted from a second computer device to indicate that the third patient bed is in a particular location, the second computer device being included as part of a locating system, wherein after receiving the prospective bed-to-room association data the first computer device analyzes the bed data to determine if it includes information indicating that a power cord of the third patient bed is plugged into a power outlet, and if the bed data includes information indicating that the power cord is plugged into a power outlet, the first computer device stores the prospective bed-to-room association data in a database associated with the first computer device as finalized bed-to-room association data.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a third patient bed having third bed circuitry that is configured to control bed functions of the third patient bed, to receive wireless signals, and to transmit signals,
a heart rate monitor that is worn by a patient, the heart rate monitor having monitor circuitry that is programmed to store a medical record number (MRN) of the patient, the monitor circuitry being configured to transmit the MRN wirelessly to the bed circuitry, wherein the third patient bed circuitry is configured to transmit third bed identification (ID) data and the MRN, and
a first remote computer device that is configured to receive the third bed ID data and the MRN of the patient and that is configured to generate patient-to-bed association data for storage in a database based on the third bed ID data and the MRN.

9. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a third patient bed having third bed circuitry that is configured to control bed functions of the third patient bed, to receive wireless signals, and to transmit signals,
a heart rate monitor that is worn by a patient, the heart rate monitor having monitor circuitry that stores monitor identification (ID) data, the monitor circuitry transmitting the monitor ID data wirelessly to the third bed circuitry, wherein the third bed circuitry transmits third bed identification (ID) data and the monitor ID data, and
a first remote computer device that receives the third bed ID data and the monitor ID data, that correlates the monitor ID data with a medical record number (MRN) of the patient and that generates patient-to-bed association data for storage in a database based on the third bed ID data and the monitor ID data.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising
a third subsystem comprising
a third patient bed having a first radio frequency (RF) communication module that has first

Assignees

• Hill Rom Services Inc

Inventors

• Dixon Steven Alan
• Huster Keith A
• Hood Michael S
• Allen James Maurice
• Christie John D
• Sing Jack Barney
• Tallent Dan R
• Owsley Clay Gerome
• Rajani Umesh Jairamdas
• Heil Thomas F
• Schuman Sr Richard Joseph
• Wildman Timothy D

Classifications

• G16H40/20 Primary

  for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms · CPC title

• A61G7/05

  Parts, details or accessories of beds (devices for prevention against falling out A47C21/08, A47D7/00 {; mattresses A47C27/00}) · CPC title

• G06F19/327 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q50/24

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06Q50/22

  Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services · CPC title