Patient Room and Bed Management Apparatus and System

Abstract

A patient room and bed management apparatus and system detects changes in a patient's status and updates the status of a room of a healthcare facility associated with the patient. The system may receive the patient status information from a remote system, such as a health information system used by a healthcare facility. The patient room and bed management system may determine one or more actions to be performed by a bed in the patient's room. The system may determine one or more actions to be performed by a caregiver or other staff person of the healthcare facility. The actions to be performed by the bed or staff person may be triggered by a change in status of the patient, the patient's bed, or the patient's room. The actions to be performed may be electronically communicated to the bed, to one or more remote displays, and/or to communication devices associated with staff persons of the healthcare facility. The patient room and bed management apparatus and system may include a user interface module that is not mounted to the patient's bed. A list of actions to be performed by a staff person in the patient's room, the status of the patient, the status of the patient's room, and/or the status of the patient's bed, may be displayed and updated electronically at the user interface module. The user interface module may also provide bed controls that allow a staff person to initiate an electronically-controlled function of the bed from the user interface module.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A healthcare communication system comprising:
 memory in which data and computer-executable instructions are stored;   a communications interface; and   processor circuitry configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
 receive via the communications interface a patient status signal indicating a status of a patient in a healthcare facility; 
 determine, based on the patient status signal, a room status indicative of a status of a room in the healthcare facility, the room comprising a bed assigned to the patient; 
 cause a user interface device to indicate the room status; 
 in response to the room status, generate a room-related activity to be performed by a non-patient person assigned to the room associated with the patient; and 
 by the communications interface, send data relating to the room-related activity to an input/output device. 
   
     
     
         22 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the room-related activity comprises clean the room, and the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to send a clean the room message to the input/output device. 
     
     
         23 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the room-related activity comprises remove obstructions to room exit, and the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to send a remove obstructions to room exit message to the input/output device. 
     
     
         24 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the room-related activity comprises prepare bed for new patient, and the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to send a prepare bed for new patient message to the input/output device. 
     
     
         25 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the room-related activity relates to whether room preparations for a new patient are complete, and the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to send a message indicating whether room preparations are complete to the input/output device. 
     
     
         26 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the room-related activity relates to whether a caregiver's round is complete, and the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to send a message indicating whether a caregiver's round is complete to the input/output device. 
     
     
         27 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generate a list of actions to be performed by the non-patient person, and the list of actions includes a patient-related activity. 
     
     
         28 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generate a message regarding a patient-related activity, and the patient-related activity comprises taking the patient's temperature. 
     
     
         29 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generate a message regarding a patient-related activity, and the patient-related activity comprises giving the patient a pillow. 
     
     
         30 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to generate a message regarding a patient-related activity, and the patient-related activity comprises giving the patient a garment. 
     
     
         31 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to receive user input relating to the room status at the user interface device. 
     
     
         32 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to receive user input relating to a patient status at the user interface device. 
     
     
         33 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to receive user input relating to a bed status at the user interface device. 
     
     
         34 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to assign a room not ready status identifier to the room in response to receiving an indication that the patient has been discharged from the facility. 
     
     
         35 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to assign a room not ready status identifier to the room in response to receiving an indication that the patient has been transferred from the room to another location in the facility. 
     
     
         36 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute a series of checks to determine whether the room is ready for a new patient, wherein the series of checks comprises determining whether the room has been cleaned and determining whether a bed-integrated scale has been zeroed, and to assign a room ready status to the room if the series of checks is completed successfully. 
     
     
         37 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 36 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to assign a bed scale zeroed status to the room in response to receiving an indication that the bed-integrated scale has been zeroed. 
     
     
         38 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 36 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to assign a bed scale not zeroed status identifier to the room in response to receiving an indication that the room has been cleaned and in response to receiving an indication that the bed-integrated scale has not been zeroed. 
     
     
         39 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 21 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to receive a communication indicating a change in the room status, and, based on the change in room status: generate an interactive checklist, and determine action items to include in the interactive checklist. 
     
     
         40 . The healthcare communication system of  claim 39 , wherein the processor circuitry is configured to execute computer-executable instructions to generate a plurality of different interactive checklists for a plurality of different types of non-patient persons.