System and Method for Providing Patient Record Synchronization In a Healthcare Setting

Abstract

A system provides an information sharing architecture that allows physically separate healthcare information systems, called “deployments,” to share and exchange information. The collection of these participating deployments is referred to as the “Community,” and systems within the Community sometimes store records for patients in common. The system allows participants in the Community to share information on data changes to these patients, and to reconcile concurrent and conflicting updates to the patient's record.

1 .- 101 . (canceled) 
     
     
         102 . Within an enterprise healthcare information management system having at least one deployment, the deployment including data stored within a data structure, the data at least relating to a data entity of the enterprise healthcare system and the deployment being operable for autonomous management of the data stored within the data structure, a data record corresponding to the data entity comprising:
 a first portion of the data record identifying a generation of the data record; and   a second portion of the date record identifying an update history of the data record.   
     
     
         103 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the data entity comprises at least one of: a patient, a healthcare provider; a healthcare administrator; a benefits provider and a benefits administrator. 
     
     
         104 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the data record comprises groups, and wherein each group has associated therewith a first portion identifying a generation of the group and a second portion identifying an update history of the group. 
     
     
         105 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the first portion is associated with an current update level of the data record and wherein the second portion is associated with an update history by deployment for the data record. 
     
     
         106 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the first portion and the second portion facilitate data conflict resolution. 
     
     
         107 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the healthcare information management system comprises a plurality of communicatively coupled deployments, and wherein the update history table reflects each of the plurality of deployments contributing to the data record, and the generation represents a latest update attributable to a corresponding deployment. 
     
     
         108 . The data record of  claim 102 , wherein the generation and update history table reflect sequential continuity of the data record. 
     
     
         109 . A method of managing data within a healthcare information management system, the healthcare information management system comprising at least one deployment, the deployment including data stored within a data structure, the data at least relating to a data entity of the enterprise healthcare system and the deployment being operable for autonomous management of the data stored within the data structure, a data record corresponding to the data entity and having a first portion identifying a generation of the data record and a second portion of the data record identifying an update history of the data record; the method comprising the steps of:
 receiving at a deployment of the healthcare information system a data record for a data entity;   updating at the deployment the data record; and   correspondingly incrementing the generation to a current generation and the update history table to reflect the updating deployment and the current generation.   
     
     
         110 . The method of  claim 109 , comprising the steps of:
 determining in the update history table a previous update attributable to the deployment; and   discarding from the update history table the previous update.   
     
     
         111 . The method of  claim 109 , wherein the data record comprises a plurality of groups and each group has associated therewith a first portion and a second portion identifying a generation and an update history of the group. 
     
     
         112 . The method of  claim 109 , wherein prior to the step of updating at the deployment the data record the method comprising the step of:
 determining if the data record is sequentially continuous based upon the generation and the update history table.   
     
     
         113 . The method of  claim 112 , wherein the step of determining if the data record is sequentially continuous based upon the generation and the update history table comprises:
 determining the data record is an older but sequentially continuous data record; and   ignoring the older but sequentially continuous data record.   
     
     
         114 . An enterprise healthcare information management system comprising:
 at least a first deployment and a second deployment;   the first deployment having a first data structure with a first data structure configuration for storing data therein and the second deployment having a second data structure with a second data structure configuration, different from the first data structure configuration, for storing data therein, the data at least relating to a data entity of the enterprise healthcare system and each deployment operable for autonomous management of the data stored within its respective data structure;   a communication network communicatively coupling the first and second deployments; and   each deployment having a data mapping functionality, the data mapping functionality operable to reconcile data stored in one of the first deployment and the second deployment for use in the other of the first deployment and the second deployment upon communication of data from the other deployment to the one deployment.   
     
     
         115 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , wherein the data mapping functionality is operable to perform database record pointer resolution. 
     
     
         116 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , wherein the data mapping functionality is operable to perform deployment-to-deployment record pointer resolution. 
     
     
         117 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 116 , wherein the deployment-to-deployment record pointers comprise selection list data values. 
     
     
         118 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , wherein data associated with a data entity comprises a community identification and a local deployment identification. 
     
     
         119 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , wherein data associated with a data entity comprises a direct match identification. 
     
     
         120 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , wherein the data mapping functionality is operable responsive to a data type and a deployment type. 
     
     
         121 . The enterprise healthcare information management system of  claim 114 , the healthcare information management system comprising a master file index, the data mapping functionality operable responsive to the master file index.