System and method for collection of community health and administrative data

Abstract

A health care patient document system and method which enable patients to enter clinical, administrative, and financial information normally completed on a clipboard in a medical office into a computerized system that stores the information. The patient is then enabled to direct the stored information to any health care provider whether the provider is enabled to receive the data electronically nor not. For those provider clinicians and organizations not enabled to receive the information electronically, the system completes the paper-based forms already in use within the organization and sends the completed form by facsimile or mail delivery.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A computerized system for collecting medical information from patients, the system comprising:
 an internal module configured to map positional coordinates of predefined locations for answer spaces associated with a plurality of clipboard forms having distinct layouts, wherein the internal module is configured to create a patient questionnaire based on substantially common questions in the plurality of clipboard forms;   an external module configured to register a patient with an account on a web-based system, wherein the external module is configured to interact with the patient to obtain responses to the patient questionnaire and store the patient's responses on the web-based system to create a patient record;   wherein the external module is configured to populate a clipboard form associated with a selected healthcare provider with at least a portion of the patient record so that the patient record appears in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout of the selected healthcare provider's clipboard form and to send the populated clipboard form to the selected healthcare provider.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the external module is configured to receive a selection for a referral request to a referral receiving organization, wherein the external module is configured to populate a clipboard form associated with the referral receiving organization with at least a portion of the patient record so that the patient record appears in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout for the referral receiving organization's clipboard form, wherein the external module is configured to send the populated clipboard form to the referral receiving organization. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the external module is configured to determine whether the clipboard form associated with the referral receiving organization includes one or more specialized questions not included in the patient questionnaire and is configured to prompt the patient to answer any such specialized questions, wherein the external module is configured to populate the clipboard form associated with the referral receiving organization with the patient's responses to the specialized questions so that the patient's responses appear in the respective answer spaces corresponding to the predefined layout for the referral receiving organization's clipboard form.