Method and system for monitoring patient care

Abstract

The subject invention is a Patient Care Monitoring System which employs a novel method and system for monitoring the care provided to a patient at a health care facility. In one embodiment, the subject invention includes a central processor in communication with a health care facility's computer systems, receiving data therefrom. This data is arranged and correlated to enable the subject invention to filter through the data and detect if a particular treatment, diagnostic test, or course of action has been or is in danger of being overlooked.

I claim:  
     
         1 . A method of monitoring patient care comprising creating a practice guideline rule having a rule criterion a response criterion and filtering patient data with the practice guideline rules.  
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the rule criterion includes a target drug.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the rule criterion includes a target lab result.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the practice guideline rule includes an associated variable.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the practice guideline rule includes a response interval.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the filtering step includes receiving lab data.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the filtering step includes receiving pharmacy data.  
     
     
         8 . A method of monitoring patient care comprising: 
 creating a practice guideline rule having a rule criterion and a response criterion;    receiving patient data;    filtering the patient data with the practice guideline rules; and    determining whether the rule criterion and the response criterion are satisfied.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the practice guideline rule includes an associated variable, and further comprising filtering the patient data for the associated variable.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , and further comprising generating a reminder if a response criterion is not detected in the patient data after a predefined period of time.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , and further comprising adjusting the predefined period of time based on the value of a lab result.  
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , and further comprising adjusting the predefined period of time based on previous values of a laboratory test.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the step of receiving data includes receiving data from a health care facility's laboratory computer system.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the step of receiving data includes receiving data from a health care facility's pharmacy computer system.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 8 , and further comprising storing patient data.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , and further comprising arranging the stored patient data in a user-defined format.  
     
     
         17 . A system for monitoring patient care comprising 
 a central processor; and    a database in communication with the processor, the database having stored therein a plurality of practice guideline rules, each having practice guideline rule data fields for rule criterion and a response criteria.    
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , and further comprising a data source for patient information, the date source in communication with the central processor.  
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the data source includes a health care facility's pharmacy computer system.  
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the data source includes a health care facility's laboratory computer system.  
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the rule criterion includes a laboratory test.  
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the rule criterion includes drug.  
     
     
         23 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the practice guideline rule includes a data field for an associated laboratory test.  
     
     
         24 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the practice guideline rule includes a data field for an associated drug.  
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the practice guideline rule includes a data field for a response interval.  
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 18 , and further comprising an alarm system in communication with the processor.  
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 26  wherein the alarm system includes an interface to a paging system.  
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 26  wherein the alarm system includes an interface to an E-mail system.  
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 26 , wherein the alarm system includes an interface to a video display.  
     
     
         30 . A computer program product comprising: 
 a computer useable medium; and    computer readable program code embodied on the medium comprising: 
 computer readable program code for causing a computer to receive patient data from a data source;  
 computer readable program code for causing a computer to access a database having a plurality of clinical guideline rules stored therein; and  
 a computer readable program code for causing a computer to filter the patient data with the plurality of clinical guideline rules.  
   
     
     
         31 . The product of  claim 30 , wherein the code for filtering includes computer readable program code for searching the patient data for a rule criterion from the practice guidelines.  
     
     
         32 . The product of  claim 31 , wherein the code for filtering includes computer readable program code for searching the patient data for an associated lab from a practice guideline rule.  
     
     
         33 . The product of  claim 32 , wherein the code for filtering includes computer readable program code for searching the patient data for an associated drug from a practice guideline rule.  
     
     
         34 . The product of  claim 30 , wherein the computer usable medium includes a database embodied therein comprising a plurality of practice guideline rules having data fields for a rule criterion and a response criterion.  
     
     
         35 . The product of  claim 30 , wherein the filtering program code includes a computer readable program code for searching the patient data for a clinical response found in the clinical guideline rules.  
     
     
         36 . The product of  claim 30 , and further comprising computer readable program code for generating a reminder.  
     
     
         37 . The product of  claim 36 , and further comprising computer readable program code to set a predefined period prior to issuing a reminder.  
     
     
         38 . The product of  claim 37 , and further comprising computer readable program code to adjust the length of the predefined period based on a lab result.  
     
     
         39 . The product of  claim 38 , and further comprising computer readable program code to adjust the length of the predefined period based on values of previous lab results.  
     
     
         40 . The product of  claim 38 , and further comprising computer readable program code to extract data from a data record and placing the data in a normalized table.