Systems and methods for delivering on-call data for health care locations and physicians

Abstract

A system which contains real-time specialist on-call data is disclosed. The system allows for the input and searching of specialist on-call data for various health care locations. The system is configured to allow a patient in need of the medical care of a specialist not currently available at the patient's location to search for the nearest health care location(s) with a physician of the desired specialization presently or soon to be on call. Methods of the same are also disclosed.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for delivering on-call schedule information for health care providers, comprising:
 a machine-readable database comprising on-call schedule information for a plurality of health care providers, and locations of health care facilities with which said health care providers are affiliated; and   a server computer system configured to electronically receive a query comprising a health service category and a patient location, the computer system configured to respond to the query by searching the database to find at least one health care facility having a health care provider currently on-call, the health care provider having expertise in said health service category, said health care facility being within a certain distance of said patient location.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the computer system is configured to output an identification and location of the health care facility found by searching the database. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein said query specifies said certain distance. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of client computer systems each configured to send the query to the server computer system over an electronic network. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the server computer system is configured to respond to the query by sending an identification and location of the health care facility found by searching the database to a client computer system that sent the query to the server computer system, said client computer system configured to allow a user to select the health care facility for receiving a patient currently requiring care from said affiliated health care provider. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the server computer system is configured to respond to a selection of the health care facility by a user of the client computer system by sending an electronic notification of said selection to said selected health care facility. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the server computer system is configured to respond to a selection of the health care facility by a user of the client computer system by storing said selection in a database of health care facility selections. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the server computer system is configured to receive a plurality of queries from said client computers system, each query comprising a health service category and a patient location, the server computer system being configured to respond to each query by sending an identification and location of one or more health care facilities found, if any, by searching the database to the client computer system that sent the query to the server computer system, said client computer systems each configured to allow a user to select one of the health care facilities, the server computer system being configured to record, for each of said queries, (1) the health service category of the query, (2) the patient location of the query, (3) a time of the query, (4) one or more health care facilities, if any, found by searching the database in response to the query, and (5) one or more selections, if any, of said health care facilities whose identifications were sent to a client computer system that sent the query to the server computer system. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the network comprises the Internet. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the database includes contact information for the health care facilities and/or health care providers, the server computer system configured to output contact information of the health care facility found by searching the database. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the server computer system is configured to receive on-call schedule information for the health care providers over an electronic network, the server computer system configured to update the database with the received on-call schedule information. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the database includes contact information for patient transporters, the server computer system configured to respond to the query by:
 searching the database to find at least one patient transporter that can transport a patient from the patient location to the health care facility found by searching the database; and   sending contact information for said found patient transporter to a client computer system that sent the query to the server computer system.   
     
     
         13 . A method of identifying a health care facility, comprising:
 sending a query over an electronic network to a server computer, said query including a health service category and a patient location; and   receiving over the network an identification and location of a health care facility having an health care provider currently on-call, the health care provider having expertise in said health service category;
 wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.. 
   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the query includes a specification of a certain distance, the health care facility being within the certain distance of the patient location. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising selecting the received health care facility from a screen display. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising receiving contact information of the health care facility over the network. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising receiving contact information for a patient transporter that can transport a patient from the patient location to the health care facility. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said receiving comprises:
 receiving over the network identifications and locations of a plurality of health care facilities each having a health care provider currently on call, each of the health care providers having expertise in said health service category; and   receiving over the network, for one or more of the health care facilities, a transportation option for transporting the patient from the patient location to the health care facility.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein each transportation option comprises:
 at least one carrier for transporting the patient from the patient location to the health care facility; and   for each carrier, a time estimate for said transporting the patient.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said receiving comprises:
 receiving over the network identifications and locations of a plurality of health care facilities each having a health care provider currently on call, each of the health care providers having expertise in said health service category; and   receiving over the network, for one or more of the health care facilities, health insurance information related to health insurance accepted by the one or more health care facilities in treating a patient.