System And Method For Recording Events That Occur During A Medical Procedure, Including Events Associated With The Inventorying Of Articles Used During The Procedure

Abstract

A sponge reconciliation system for maintaining an inventory of articles used during a medical or surgical procedure, where, in the event an article for which the status needs to be reconciled is left in a patient, the system generates a record that the article is in a partially reconciled state and when a subsequent procedure is performed, the scanner employed during the procedure has the records of the partially reconciled articles associated with the patient.

1 . A sponge reconciliation system for maintaining records of sponges used during a medical/surgical procedure to ensure proper removal of surgical sponges following the medical/surgical procedure, said sponge reconciliation system including:
 a plurality of scanners each said scanner having: a scanning head adapted to read identifying data from an sponge; an input/output unit; a display; a scanner processor; a memory; and a transceiver, the scanner processor configured to: based on the data from the scanning head and signals from the input/output unit able to generate an article record indentifying an unique indentification of a sponge scanned into a procedure; and transmit the article record over the transceiver; and   a server with a server transceiver, the server transceiver configured to receive the article records transmitted by the scanner transceivers and to transmit the article records to the scanner transceivers and the server is configured to store the received article records,   characterized in that,   the scanner processor is further configured to, based on data entered from the associated input/output unit generate a record indicating that a sponge previously scanned into the procedure is in a partially reconciled state and the patient with which the sponge is associated;   the server maintains records of the sponges in the partially reconciled state for plural patients;   the scanner processor is further configured to: obtain from the server the records of the sponges in the partially reconciled state associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated and, based on the records of the sponges in the partially reconciled state, present on the display information regarding the sponges in the partially reconciled state associated with the patient;   the scanner processor is further configured to: for select sponges scanned in during the current procedure, based on the number of sponges scanned into the medical/surgical procedure and the sponges scanned out of the procedure, generate and display data indicating the number of sponges currently left in the patient; and based on the records for the partially reconciled state sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is associated and the sponges scanned out of the procedure, generate and display data indicating the number of partially reconciled sponges left in the patient.   
     
     
         2 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein, the scanner processors are further configured to:
 receive from the server a table containing the records of partially reconciled sponges for plural patients; and   extract from the table file the records of the partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated.   
     
     
         3 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein the scanner processors and the server are collectively configured so that:
 a scanner processor sends a message to the server that identifies the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated; and   in response to receipt of the message, the server transmits to the scanner processor the records of the partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is associated.   
     
     
         4 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein a scanner processor is further configured to present on the associated display separate data regarding: the status of sponges scanned in to the current procedure with which the scanner is associated and the status of partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient. 
     
     
         5 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein
 the display of the number of scanned in sponges left in the patient is separate from the display of the number of partially reconciled sponges left in the patient.   
     
     
         6 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein a scanner processor is further configured to:
 for a plurality of different types of sponges scanned into the procedure with which the scanner processor is associated present on the display for each type of sponge, data indicating the number of sponges of that type scanned into the procedure; and   based on the records for the partially reconciled state sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is associated, for each of the different types of partially reconciled sponges, display data indicating the number of sponges of that type that are in the partially reconciled state, wherein for each type of sponge, the display of the number of sponges scanned into the procedure is separate from the display of the number of partially reconciled sponges of that type.   
     
     
         7 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein: the scanners and server include complementary wireless transceivers configured to facilitate the wireless of exchange of signals between the scanners and the server. 
     
     
         8 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 a scanner includes a scanning head configured to read machine readable information that identifies a sponge that is scanned by the scanner; and   the scanner processor is connected to the scanning head to receive the information that identifies the sponge and to, based on the information, generate the article record for the sponge, where the generated article record includes a field with the information that identifies the sponges.   
     
     
         9 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 8 , wherein the scanning head is capable of: optically reading the machine readable information; or reading data from an RFID tag. 
     
     
         10 . The sponge reconciliation system of  claim 1 , wherein:
 a scanner processor is further configured to generate article records for the partially reconciled sponges associated with the procedure with which the scanner processor is associated that contains data that specifically identify the procedure; and, when generating a record that an sponge is in the partially reconciled state, include in the record data identifying a specific procedure with which the sponge is associated;   the server for a patient maintains a file that contains records identifying the at least one procedure associated with the patient; and   the scanner processor and the server are collectively further configured so that scanner processor obtains from the server the record of the sponges in the partially scanned state associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated by: the scanner processor sending data identifying the patient to the server; the server, in response to the data identifying the patient and reference to the procedure files retrieve the data that identify previous procedures associated with the patient; and, based on the data identifying the previous procedures associated with the patient and the data in the records of the partially reconciled sponges, retrieve and forward to the scanner processor the records of the partially reconciled sponges that are associated with the patient.   
     
     
         11 .- 13 . (canceled) 
     
     
         14 . A sponge reconciliation method for maintaining records of sponges used during a medical/surgical procedure to ensure proper removal of surgical sponges following the medical/surgical procedure, said sponge reconciliation method including:
 providing a plurality of scanners each said scanner having: a scanning head adapted to read identifying data from a sponge; an input/output unit; a display; a scanner processor; a memory; and a transceiver,   generating an article record identifying an unique identification of a sponge scanned into a procedure;   transmitting the article record over the transceiver to a server with a server transceiver;   receiving and storing the article records transmitted by the scanner transceivers at the server;   generating a record indicating that a sponge previously scanned into the procedure is in a partially reconciled state and the patient with which the sponge is associated;   obtaining from the server the records of the sponges in the partially reconciled state associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated;   presenting on the display information regarding the sponges in the partially reconciled state associated with the patient; and   generating and displaying data indicating the number of sponges currently left in the patient for sponges scanned in during the current procedure.   
     
     
         15 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the steps of receiving from the server a table containing the records of partially reconciled sponges for plural patients; and extracting from the table file the records of the partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated. 
     
     
         16 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the steps of sending a message to the server that identifies the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated; and transmitting to the scanner processor the records of the partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is associated. 
     
     
         17 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the step of presenting on the associated display separate data regarding the status of sponges scanned in to the current procedure with which the scanner is associated and the status of partially reconciled sponges associated with the patient. 
     
     
         18 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , wherein the step of presenting on the display information regarding the sponges in the partially reconciled state associated with the patient is separate from the step of displaying data indicating the number of sponges currently left in the patient for sponges scanned in during the current procedure. 
     
     
         19 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the steps of presenting on the display, for each type of sponge, data indicating the number of sponges of each type scanned into the procedure; and displaying data indicating the number of sponges of each type that are in the partially reconciled state, wherein for each type of sponge, the display of the number of sponges scanned into the procedure is separate from the display of the number of partially reconciled sponges of that type. 
     
     
         20 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , wherein the steps of transmitting and receiving are facilitated by complementary wireless transceivers of the scanners and the server. 
     
     
         21 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the steps of scanning a sponge with said scanning head to read machine readable information that identifies the sponge; receiving said machine readable information at the scanner processor; and generating the article record for the sponge, wherein the article record includes a field with the information that identifies the sponge. 
     
     
         22 . The sponge reconciliation method of  claim 18 , wherein the step of scanning the sponge with said scanning head comprises optically reading said machine readable information or reading data from an RFID tag. 
     
     
         23 . The sponge reconciliation method of claim  11 , further comprising the steps of:
 generating article records for the partially reconciled sponges associated with the procedure with which the scanner processor is associated that contains data that specifically identify the procedure; and, when generating a record that an sponge is in the partially reconciled state, include in the record data identifying a specific procedure with which the sponge is associated;   maintaining on the server a file that contains records identifying the at least one procedure associated with the patient; and   obtaining from the server the records of the sponges in the partially scanned state associated with the patient with which the scanner processor is currently associated by: the scanner processor sending data identifying the patient to the server; the server, in response to the data identifying the patient and reference to the procedure files retrieve the data that identify previous procedures associated with the patient; and, based on the data identifying the previous procedures associated with the patient and the data in the records of the partially reconciled sponges, retrieve and forward to the scanner processor the records of the partially reconciled sponges that are associated with the patient.