Remote command center for patient monitoring

Abstract

A remote command center for providing services to geographically dispersed hospitalized patients. A datastore accessible to the remote command center receives patient data from geographically dispersed hospitalized patients. Monitored data elements of geographically dispersed hospitalized patients are also received at the remote command center and stored in the datastore. A smart alert module generates and applies patient specific rules to data elements. If a patient-specific rule for a hospitalized patient has been contravened, an alert is issued from the remote command center. A patient care module displays selected data elements of the hospitalized patients. A decision support module applies decision support algorithms to selected data elements of a hospitalized patient and to user input to provide patient care advice. Patient care advice comprises a diagnosis, a method of treatment, and a laboratory protocol. The decision support module also writes orders for medication, laboratory protocols and surgical procedures.

1 . A system for providing to a remote command center alerts concerning patients in geographically separate health care locations (HCLs) comprising:
 a network;   the remote command center;   wherein the network is connected to the remote command center and wherein the network is configured to provide the remote command center access to:
 a database; 
 monitoring stations located in the geographically separate health care locations comprising instructions for obtaining monitored patient data elements, wherein the monitored patient data elements are communicated to the database via the network, and wherein the database comprises stored patient data elements comprising the monitored patient data elements and other patient data elements associated with medical conditions of the patients; 
 a computerized patient care management system, wherein the computerized patient care management system comprises a processor and a memory comprising computer readable instructions, and wherein the instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
 accessing patient data elements from the stored patient data elements; 
 utilizing a rules engine to apply rules repeatedly and automatically to at least two patient data elements, wherein the rules applied by the rules engine identify existing or potential patient conditions; 
 using information generated by the rules engine to determine if an alert should be provided to the remote command center; and 
 providing alerts to be concurrently displayed at the remote command center for all patients for whom the computerized patient care management system determines that an alert should be displayed at that time.