Communications: electrical – Systems – Call station
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-13
2002-03-26
Lefkowitz, Edward (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Systems
Call station
C340S286060, C340S870030
Reexamination Certificate
active
06362725
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a hospital communication system, and particularly, to a communication system having a bed status system for providing patient bed information to attending medical personnel.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Nurses and other attending staff in a hospital ward or hospital wing work under conditions involving high pressure, stress and long hours. These caregivers must remain alert to respond to patient needs, in both emergency and non-emergency situations. Due to economic practicalities and the ever-increasing costs of medical care, it is necessary to make the most efficient use of nurses and staff on call in a hospital wing, particularly at night when nurse and staff levels are maintained at a minimum.
On the other hand, a desire to optimize the efficiency of nurse and staff personnel is of secondary importance relative to the primary objective, that of providing a high level of medical care to a patient. If nurse and staff levels are reduced for the sake of efficiency without any corresponding simplification of duties and responsibilities, the level of patient care will decrease. Therefore, it is desirable to maximize the efficiency of nurses and staff on call in a hospital wing, but to do so in a manner which does not increase the work load or stress levels of these professional caregivers nor decrease the level of patient care.
One approach to maximizing the efficiency of nurses and other hospital staff involves the use of a location and identification system to continuously monitor the various locations of these persons. For instance, White U.S. Pat. No. 4,275,385 discloses a personnel locating system where individuals to be located wear infrared transmitters, and each transmitter transmits a pulse-coded signal which corresponds to the identity of the wearer. A number of other U.S. Patents also disclose personnel locating or monitoring systems which purport to improve upon the system disclosed in the White patent. However, these improvements relate to the mechanics of signal detection, or the organization, maintenance and retrieval of stored information for making reports. These patents do not disclose a communication system which helps nurses and staff do their jobs more efficiently and more effectively. Furthermore, even with such automated communication systems which allow retrieval of information at a central, remote location, certain traditional tasks have still been handled locally at the patient location and have required the hospital personnel to physically be present with the patient to visually observe the patient or the status of the equipment utilized by the patient.
One such traditional task of hospital nurses and staff is to monitor the condition or status of a large number of hospital patient beds. Currently available hospital beds are equipped with a variety of mechanical and electrical systems related to patient care, and these systems must be monitored to ensure proper care. For example, the condition of the mattress surface as well as the shape of that surface must often be monitored by the attending staff to ensure that the patient is in the proper position and will not suffer from skin breakdown or other ailments due to an extended time spent in the bed. Furthermore, it is often necessary to know whether the patient is actually In the bed or has exited the bed, despite the request of the attending personnel. Still further, various other mechanical bed conditions must also be monitored to determine that they are working properly or are in a desired state. With conventional beds, the status of the bed is revealed at either headboard or footboard consoles or in a console located on the wall inside of a patient room. Therefore, monitoring the bed status requires attendance of personnel within the room to locally view and interpret the various bed consoles. Not only is such a task time consuming, but certain bed status conditions, such as whether the patient is still in the bed, should be responded to as soon as possible rather than at some predetermined interval that corresponds with scheduled patient visits by the attending personnel.
Therefore, it is an objective of the invention is to improve the overall effectiveness of hospital personnel in monitoring the status of hospital beds.
It is a further objective of this invention to continuously monitor a patient bed status such that hospital personnel have instant access to bed status information.
It is still another objective of the invention to simplify interaction with and retrieval of bed status information from a hospital communication system, to thereby reduce stress levels of nurses and staff.
It is also an objective of this invention to assist nurses and staff in achieving optimum efficiency in monitoring and utilizing a large number of patient beds in a hospital wing.
It is a further objective to facilitate the ready availability of record-keeping information and identification of beds for maintenance of the beds and necessary retrofitting, as well as for accounting purposes for billing a patient during occupancy of the bed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention achieves the above-stated objectives. The bed status system of the invention indicates to attending personnel the status of a number of different patient beds for improved care to a patient and more efficient utilization of the beds. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the bed status system operatively connecting a bed-monitored interface board to the in-place patient
urse communication system of a hospital, to selectively retrieve, store and display, at a remote location, information conveyed to the station from the bed interface board, provides bed status information to locations remote from the bed, such as at a master station or a nursing unit station. Thus, medical personnel, maintenance personnel and accounting personnel do not have to physically view the bed to determine information about the bed and the patient therein, thereby increasing their efficiency. Furthermore, the ability of medical personnel to more efficiently monitor the bed status of a patient bed reduces their tasks and allows them to focus upon patient care in a less stressful environment. The system provides instantaneous retrieval of unique identification information about the bed and provides status information related to the position of the bed, the configuration of the mattress surface, the status of the safety systems on the bed as well as the current state of various patient care systems integrated with the bed.
More specifically, the bed status system of the invention utilizes a plurality of bed condition signal generators which are coupled to a patient bed. The signal generators are physically or electrically coupled to a variety of different mechanisms and systems on the bed to indicate the operational status of those mechanisms or systems. The signal generators generate bed condition input signals indicative of one or more detected bed conditions, and are electrically coupled to a bed interface board which includes a processor. The interface board contains bed identification information about the particular bed being monitored, and is preferably permanently carried by the frame of the bed, such as in the headboard or footboard of the bed. Thus, the information from the interface board is unique to the particular bed. Identification information from the interface board identifies the model type of the bed, as well as other identification information, such as the serial number of the bed and its functional capabilities. In that way, attending personnel are able to determine which types of beds are in which locations, and what functions the beds are capable of providing. The bed interface board, in turn, is connected over a serial datalink to a system interface unit which is preferably positioned or mounted in a hospital room or other appropriate location, such as within a wall close to where the patient beds are located. The system interface unit provides communication capabilities between the bed bo
Jennings Bob
Myers Julie
Novak Joe
Scott Tom
Ulrich Daniel J.
Bose McKinney & Evans LLP
Hill-Rom Services Inc.
Lefkowitz Edward
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