Hospital communication system

Abstract

The invention is a hospital scheduling system that allows for real-time updates of the status of a medical procedure to be transmitted. More particularly, this transmission allows for the consistent flow of a pre-arranged sequence of events a hospital may use for patient treatment procedures. Once an event has transpired, notice of the event occurrence may be transmitted to interested personnel through specific transmission, or a general broadcast for all personnel such that updates may be checked by any interested hospital personnel. The devices capable of receiving the transmissions may be a wired device, or may be a portable wireless device, such as a hand-held unit. Moreover, the invention describes a pedal that may be capable of programming such that when specific areas of the pedal are compressed, coding will be sent to a computer for translation into status messages that may be transmitted through a network to any number of recipients. The pedal may be adapted such that compressions may be performed by the user's foot.

1 . A method of communicating “real-time” status information of an on-going medical procedure, comprising:
 receiving from a pedal device a set of codes associated with respective stages of a medical procedure; 
 detecting, by a sensor device for sensing a specific stage of a medical procedure, a displacement of a medical instrument on a medical instrument table using electromagnetism whenever medical personnel picks up or places down the medical instrument on the medical instrument table; and 
 transmitting, in response to detecting the displacement of the medical instrument, a status message indicating that the stage of the medical procedure has been completed to a plurality of mobile devices. 
 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 displaying on a display device the real-time status information in a tabulated form, wherein the real-time status information includes:
 a time associated with the specific stage of the medical procedure, an identity of the operating room, 
 an identity of the patient in the operating room, 
 a location associated with the operating room, and 
 the specific stage of the medical procedure. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the pedal includes buttons related to the set of codes such that respective stages of the medical procedure are transmitted with respect to the button pressed. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said pedal is programmable. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said pedal is operable by foot depression. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said sensor device is wireless. 
     
     
         7 . A method for scheduling medical procedures in an operating room, comprising:
 generating, by a pedal, responsive to a medical personnel, a set of codes indicative of specific stages of a medical procedure performed on a patient by said medical personnel in a particular operating room;   detecting, by a sensor device, a displacement of a medical instrument on a medical instrument table using electromagnetism, whenever the medical personnel picks up or places down the medical instrument on the medical instrument table; and   transmitting, in response to detecting the displacement of the medical instrument, a status message indicating that the stage of the medical procedure has been completed.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 translating the set of codes, by a computer coupled to the sensor device and the pedal, into detailed real-time status information concerning the specific stages of the medical procedure performed in the operating room.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 displaying on a display device the real-time status information in a tabulated form, wherein the real-time status information includes:
 a time associated with the specific stage of the medical procedure, 
 an identity of the operating room, 
 an identity of the patient in the operating room, 
 a location associated with the operating room, and 
 the specific stage of the medical procedure. 
   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 distributing, via a network interface, the status message and said real-time status information to a plurality of mobile devices.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the specific stage includes preparation of the patient. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the specific stage includes preparation of a surgical team. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the specific stage includes treatment of the patient. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the specific stage includes observation of the patient. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the specific stage includes a clean-up of the operating room. 
     
     
         16 . A medical communications system comprising:
 a sensor device for sensing a completion of a stage of a medical procedure, the sensor device configured to:
 detect a displacement of a medical instrument on a medical instrument table using electromagnetism whenever a medical personnel picks up or places down the medical instrument on the medical instrument table, and 
 transmit a status message indicating that the stage of the medical procedure has been completed in response to detecting the displacement of the medical instrument; 
 a computer adapted to distribute the status message to one or more display devices; and 
   a pedal device, in communication with the computer, adapted to generate a set of codes indicative of specific stages of the medical procedure, wherein the pedal device includes buttons related to the codes such that respective stages of the procedure are transmitted with respect to the button pressed, and wherein the computer is further adapted to translate the set of codes from the pedal into real-time status information concerning the medical procedure.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein one of the one or more display devices is configured to generate the real-time status information in a tabulated form. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the real-time status information includes:
 a time associated with the specific stage of the medical procedure;   an identity of the operating room;   an identity of the patient in the operating room;   a location associated with the operating room; and   the specific stage of the medical procedure.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein said pedal is operable by foot depression. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein said sensor device is wireless.