System and method for documenting patient procedures

Abstract

The local surveillance sub-system recognizes that a patient medical procedure has or will soon commence by sensing the presence of a healthcare professional in or near the surveillance area, and in response, creates a separate patient medical procedure A/V file for the surveillance data that will be captured. A dedicated procedure remote may be provided for receiving manual interactions from HC professionals present for a procedure or, alternatively, the local surveillance sub-system may autonomously interact with a personal security token device possessed by the HC professional. A procedure data file is also created that holds all of the pertinent information concerning the procedure that is known by the local surveillance sub-system. The patient procedure surveillance A/V file is given a higher priority than ordinary surveillance data captured by the local surveillance sub-system and is then copied to a nonvolatile memory.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A surveillance system for documenting patient procedures comprising:
 a surveillance camera for capturing a plurality of video frames of a surveillance area;   a sensor device that detects one or more biometric features associated with a healthcare professional proximate to the surveillance area and identify at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform; and   a video processing unit coupled to the surveillance camera for processing the plurality of video frames, the video processing unit configured to:
 determine a beginning of a patient procedure based on the detection of the one or more biometric features; 
 detect an end of the patient procedure based on an absence of motion in the surveillance area for a predetermined time period; 
 associate procedure information to given ones of the plurality of video frames that are within the determined beginning and end of the patient procedure, the procedure information including the at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform; and 
 save the given ones of the plurality of video frames and the procedure information in memory. 
   
     
     
         2 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the sensor device further comprises at least one of a biometric sensor, voice recognizer, fingerprint reader, whole hand scanner, and iris/retina recognizer. 
     
     
         3 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the procedure information includes an identity of the healthcare professional associated with the one or more biometric features. 
     
     
         4 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the beginning of the patient procedure includes a disinfecting procedure performed prior to interacting with a patient. 
     
     
         5 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the sensor device is further configured to detect one or more biometric features associated with a different healthcare professional proximate to the surveillance area. 
     
     
         6 . The surveillance system of  claim 5  wherein the video processing unit is further configured to determine a beginning of a new patient procedure based on the detection of the one or more biometric features associated with the difference healthcare professional. 
     
     
         7 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the procedure information includes patient information, a billing code, identities of healthcare professionals present, and comments made by the healthcare professionals. 
     
     
         8 . The surveillance system of  claim 1  wherein the sensor device is further configured to:
 detect an absence of the healthcare professional from the surveillance area; and 
 document that the detected healthcare professional is not present. 
 
     
     
         9 . A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory, for documenting patient procedures, the method comprising:
 receiving, by a computing device, a plurality of video frames of a surveillance area from a surveillance camera;   detecting, via a sensor device coupled to the computing device, one or more biometric features, the biometric features associated with a healthcare professional proximate to the surveillance area;   identifying, by the computing device, at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform;   determining, by the computing device, a beginning of a patient procedure based on the detection of the one or more biometric features;   detecting, by the computing device, an end of the patient procedure based on an absence of motion in the surveillance area for a predetermined time period;   associating, by the computing device, procedure information to given ones of the plurality of video frames that are within the determined beginning and end of the patient procedure, the procedure information including the at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform; and   saving, by the computing device, the given ones of the plurality of video frames and the procedure information in memory.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the sensor device further comprises at least one of a biometric sensor, voice recognizer, fingerprint reader, whole hand scanner, and iris/retina recognizer. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the procedure information includes an identity of the healthcare professional associated with the one or more biometric features. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the beginning of the patient procedure includes a disinfecting procedure performed prior to interacting with a patient. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising detecting one or more biometric features associated with a different healthcare professional proximate to the surveillance area. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising determining a beginning of a new patient procedure based on the detection of the one or more biometric features associated with the difference healthcare professional. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 9  wherein the procedure information includes patient information, a billing code, identities of healthcare professionals present, and comments made by the healthcare professionals. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising:
 detecting an absence of the healthcare professional from the surveillance area; and 
 documenting that the detected healthcare professional is not present. 
 
     
     
         17 . Non-transitory computer-readable media comprising program code that when executed by a programmable processor causes execution of a method for documenting patient procedures, the computer-readable media comprising:
 computer program code for receiving a plurality of video frames of a surveillance area from a surveillance camera;   computer program code for detecting one or more biometric features, the biometric features associated with a healthcare professional proximate to the surveillance area;   computer program code for identifying at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform;   computer program code for determining a beginning of a patient procedure based on the detection of the one or more biometric features;   computer program code for detecting an end of the patient procedure based on an absence of motion in the surveillance area for a predetermined time period;   computer program code for associating procedure information to given ones of the plurality of video frames that are within the determined beginning and end of the patient procedure, the procedure information including the at least one type of medical procedure the healthcare professional is authorized to perform; and   computer program code for saving the given ones of the plurality of video frames and the procedure information in memory.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the sensor device further comprises at least one of a biometric sensor, voice recognizer, fingerprint reader, whole hand scanner, and iris/retina recognizer. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the procedure information includes an identity of the healthcare professional associated with the one or more biometric features. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer-readable media of  claim 17  wherein the procedure information includes patient information, a billing code, identities of healthcare professionals present, and comments made by the healthcare professionals.