Methods and systems for creating and using multi-disciplinary treatment plans

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for creating and implementing multi-disciplinary treatment plans, which can allow healthcare and medical professionals and providers of various disciplines to collaborate in forming a patient treatment plan and subsequently managing patient care in accordance with this plan. Patient information is first received in a patient planning system. A team of multi-disciplinary healthcare or medical professionals and providers meet and collaborate to form a treatment plan which is then entered in the treatment planning system. As the course of treatment progresses, the treatment plan can be updated in the treatment planning system by each of the team members. The graphical user interface seen by the team members will typically be the same for each team member. This interface includes a generalized treatment planning section and a patient-specific section, each of which can be manipulated to add or update a treatment plan for a particular patient.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of creating a treatment plan for a patient, the method comprising:
 receiving patient information in a treatment planning system;   receiving input from a team of healthcare or medical professionals in the treatment planning system based on the received patient information; and   forming a treatment plan in the treatment planning system based on the received input.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the team of healthcare or medical professionals are comprised of healthcare or medical professionals across a plurality of disciplines. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising updating the treatment plan in the treatment planning system as a course of therapy performed on the patient based on the treatment plan progresses. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the treatment plan is updated based on further received input from the team of healthcare or medical professionals. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the treatment planning system receives the further input after the team of healthcare or medical professionals have met and discussed the treatment plan and the progression of the course of therapy. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the input is received from the team of healthcare or medical professionals after the team has met and discussed a course of therapy appropriate for the patient. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising forming an initial treatment plan in the treatment planning system based on the received patient information. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the initial treatment plan is created based on received patient information by an admitting physician or nurse. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising updating the initial treatment plan in the treatment planning system as a course of initial therapy performed on the patient based on the initial treatment plan progresses. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the course of initial therapy is performed on the patient until the treatment plan is formed. 
     
     
         11 . A graphical user interface for creating a treatment plan for a patient, the graphical user interface comprising:
 a generalized treatment planning section; and   a patient-specific section for displaying patient treatment information.   
     
     
         12 . The graphical user interface of  claim 11 , wherein the generalized treatment planning section comprises a plurality of tabs. 
     
     
         13 . The graphical user interface of  claim 12 , wherein the plurality of tabs comprises a templates tab for creating patient data entries, a previous plan tab for displaying a prior course of patient treatment, a details tab for displaying patient-specific data, and a tasks tab for adding or editing patient-specific tasks. 
     
     
         14 . The graphical user interface of  claim 13 , wherein patient data entries can be created in the templates tab for one or more of patient problems, patient recovery statuses, patient treatment objectives, and patient interventions. 
     
     
         15 . The graphical user interface of  claim 14 , wherein the patient data entries in the templates tab can be dragged onto the patient-specific section of the graphical user interface. 
     
     
         16 . The graphical user interface of  claim 13 , wherein the previous plan tab comprises entries for one or more of patient problems, patient recovery statuses, patient treatment objectives, and patient interventions, wherein the entries in the previous plan tab can be dragged onto the patient-specific section of the graphical user interface. 
     
     
         17 . The graphical user interface of  claim 13 , wherein the tasks tab comprises entries for one or more of a patient problem description, a reassessment frequency, a patient problem type, a patient problem action task, a patient problem status, an entry for an appropriate healthcare or medical professional team member, comments, and tags. 
     
     
         18 . The graphical user interface of  claim 17 , wherein the tasks tab further comprises a signature box for verifying the entries. 
     
     
         19 . A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium having computer-executable code encoded therein, the computer-executable code adapted to be executed to implement a method for creating a treatment plan for a patient, the method comprising:
 receiving patient information;   forming an initial treatment plan based on the received patient information;   receiving input from a team of healthcare or medical professionals based on the received patient information; and   forming a treatment plan based on the received input.   
     
     
         20 . The computer program of  claim 19 , wherein the team of healthcare or medical professionals are comprised of healthcare or medical professionals across a plurality of disciplines. 
     
     
         21 . The computer program of  claim 20 , wherein the healthcare or medical professionals collaborate in conference to form the input received. 
     
     
         22 . The computer program of  claim 21 , wherein the healthcare or medical professionals collaborate in real-time. 
     
     
         23 . The computer program of  claim 22 , wherein the healthcare or medical professionals collaborate virtually or face to face. 
     
     
         24 . The computer program of  claim 19 , further comprising updating the treatment plan as a course of therapy performed on the patient based on the formed treatment plan progresses. 
     
     
         25 . The computer program of  claim 24 , wherein the treatment plan is updated based on further received input from the team of healthcare or medical professionals. 
     
     
         26 . The computer program of  claim 19 , wherein the initial treatment plan is created based on received input from an admitting physician. 
     
     
         27 . The computer program of  claim 26 , further comprising updating the initial treatment plan as a course of initial therapy performed on the patient based on the initial treatment plan progresses. 
     
     
         28 . The computer program of  claim 27 , wherein the course of initial therapy is performed on the patient until the treatment plan is formed.