Coordinating communications among healthcare providers

Abstract

Computer-implemented systems and methods automatically track the dynamic composition of a patient-care team by combining and harvesting information from at least two electronic audit trails: (1) a trail recording access to electronic medical records (EMR), e.g., read-access to patient data, electronic prescriptions and physician orders, etc., and (2) a trail recording electronic communications (email, text messages, etc.) regarding and referencing the patient.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 .- 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method of facilitating communication among personnel responsible for care of a patient, the method comprising:
 a. providing, at an audit server, access to (A) a database comprising records relating patients to a master list of healthcare personnel, the master list of personnel corresponding to a plurality of patient care teams each associated with a patient, and (B) an involvement index assigning weights to activities indicative of responsibility for care of patients at least on the basis of a significance of the activity and/or a temporal component of the activity;   b. with the audit server, identifying one or more activities indicative of responsibility for care of a patient, by one or more persons, at least in part by monitoring a plurality of electronic audit trails each selected from the group consisting of (i) a first audit trail recording access to electronic medical records, (ii) a second audit trail recording electronic communications regarding patients, and (iii) a third audit trail recording electronic events related to patients;   c. updating, by the audit server and based at least in part on the one or more identified activities and the involvement index, an interaction score of each person identified in step (b); and   d. revising, by the audit server and at least on the basis of the one or more updated interaction scores, one or more patient care team lists associated with the patient.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the involvement index assigns weights to activities indicative of responsibility for care of patients at least on the basis of a significance of the activity and a temporal component of the activity. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein step (d) comprises adding the person to at least one said patient care team list, removing the person from at least one said patient care team list, or moving the person from one patient care team list to another. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein, in step (b), the first audit trail, the second audit trail, and the third audit trail are all monitored. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising causing a communication to be sent to all listed members of at least one patient care team for the patient. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the communication comprises one or more revised patient care team lists. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein at least one of the first, second, or third audit trails comprises information logged by observer agents resident on user devices utilized by the one or more persons to access one or more applications. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein each observer agent monitors screens that identify patients and/or hooks into a message queue for the one or more applications. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein step (d) comprises, for each person with an updated interaction score:
 comparing the updated interaction score to a first threshold and a second threshold lower than the first threshold;   when the updated interaction score exceeds the first threshold, ensuring that the person is on a first patient care team associated with the patient;   when the updated interaction score exceeds the second threshold but not the first threshold, ensuring that the person is on a second patient care team associated with the patient but not on the first patient care team associated with the patient; and   when the updated interaction score does not exceed the second threshold, ensuring that the person is not on the first patient care team associated with the patient or the second patient care team associated with the patient.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the involvement index assigns weights to activities on the basis of preferences of healthcare personnel. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein step (d) comprises adding a person to a patient care team list associated with the patient. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 31 , further comprising automatically adding one or more additional people to the patient care team list irrespective of interaction scores of the one or more additional people. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 21 , further comprising, when a member of a patient care team associated with the patient is unavailable, adding a replacement member to the patient care team list irrespective of an interaction score of the replacement member.