WO2015190987A1

WO2015190987A1 - A decision support system and method for resource planning in the healthcare sector

Info

Publication number: WO2015190987A1
Application number: PCT/SE2015/050669
Authority: WO
Inventors: John DOMENSTAM; Jan Thorling; Lena OLSSON
Original assignee: Ledningsbolaget I Skandinavien Ab
Priority date: 2014-06-11
Filing date: 2015-06-10
Publication date: 2015-12-17

Abstract

The present invention relates to a decision support system and procedure for the healthcare sector, in which system indicators from each of the at least one production unit, a planning and decision unit coordinated, processed and allowed to interact. The system comprises: a plurality of indicator sensors or gauges each generating resource information for a healthcare- related resource, a receiving device, wherein the resource information from the plurality of indicator sensors or gauges s received, collected and stored, a processing device, which processes the resource information from the plurality of indicator sensor, wherein the processing device may generate performance information based at least in part on a created model and the collective capabilities information, which performance information reflects the efficiency of at least one of the production units, and a user interface device, which is adapted to display the result information.

Description

A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR RESOURCE PLANNING IN THE HEALTHCARE

SECTOR

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a decision support system and method for resource planning in the healthcare sector. More in detail, the invention relates to systems and methods for operational control of production and capacity utilization in the healthcare sector based on the current need for care, which need is agreed upon with involved stake holders.

BACKGROUND ART Hospitals and other medical facilities, both those owned and operated by the region/county council, other parts of the public sector or by privately held healthcare companies, continuously strive to improve their resource utilization and productivity, i.e. the efficiency and quality of operations. Healthcare is an important and necessary part of a well-functioning society, and it accounts for a significant portion of the expenses in the public sector. Therefore it is of great importance that healthcare operations are managed and performed in a qualitatively adequate and efficient way, and that they are dimensioned to the actual need. Measurable parameters, such as medical quality, service, waiting times, treatment, patient benefit, capacity utilization and medical costs are some indicators that can be used to measure and assess the effectiveness within the healthcare sector. Resources may include for example the number of hospital beds, surgery rooms, advanced medical equipment such as X- rays and magnetic resonance imaging, and medical professionals of various categories and specific skills, such as specialist nurses, anaesthetists, radiologists, cardiologists or surgeons. Resources may also include the costs of operation, general maintenance and non-medical staff, which are also necessary ingredients for any hospital or medical facility to operate. If the healthcare processes are poorly coordinated or incorrectly scheduled, already scarce resources could be underutilized, resulting in decreased productivity and at worst

compromising of the agreed quality, including patient safety. An example might be a surgery room standing empty because no surgical team is available a during certain time of day, even though the queue could be long and the demand for the surgeries could be significant. The real bottleneck in the operation may for instance be too few surgery rooms based on the actual need.

Another parameter can be used to measure efficiency and to make well-founded decisions in relation to a particular resource is the relationship between access to the resource, the agreed quality and the revenue generated by a given activity. Many techniques are currently used to optimize the efficiency of a hospital. For example, reports can be created with the help of medical information systems and various management systems, i.e. systems for planning and control of operations. In addition, the rules are established for workflow creation and various studies and surveys carried out aiming at realization of enhanced efficiency in healthcare sector. Current techniques and methods are often dependent on multiple sources of information and requires coordination and in this context great effort. Information about access to resources must often be compiled from different locations, departments, and support systems. Sometimes also compilation needs to take place between different regions or counties, which are largely autonomous, whereby the picture is even further complicated. Such a process of compilation is often costly, time consuming and practically impossible to automate, since too many different systems, variants and configurations are involved.

Current techniques and methods for planning, monitoring and control in the healthcare sector are often static in nature. In other words, these techniques and methods do not take all of the details in a specific situation into account. Instead, it is defined according to these methods, a fixed set of rules to be followed to try to improve utilization and performance in general. Another weakness associated with the current optimization systems and methods is that they are being made in retrospect. This means that they are based on earlier data in the quest to improve or optimize for future situations. Thus, the benefits can be realized first after an iteration of the optimization has taken place, whereby the cause and effects can be better monitored and activities adapted accordingly.

As mentioned above, the information in current systems for management and control exists in several different parallel systems, and the collection, compilation and processing of such data is complex and time-consuming. Because of the multitude of different ways and systems for reporting, the data collection becomes too difficult to automate without first being forced to develop tailored communication links and bridges between the different systems. Forecasts of for example future needs or consideration of notified deviations from planned resource requirements is often not allowed without conducting major system development. The current system therefore does not allow an administrator or healthcare professional to predict or model the effect of different forecast resource needs or factors that are important for efficiency in the healthcare field.

Thus there is a need for an improved decision support system for resource planning in the healthcare sector, which takes into account the actual need for care, the agreed medical quality and service levels at the planning and operational control of production and capacity utilization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a decision support system, method and computer readable medium for the healthcare sector, wherein system indicators from each of at least one production unit, a planning unit and a decision unit are coordinated, processed and allowed to influence each other, the system comprising:

multiple indicator sensors or gauges that each one generates resource information for a healthcare-related resource,

a receiving device, in which the resource information from several indicator sensors or gauges is received, collected and stored,

a processing device which processes the resource information from several indicator sensors or gauges, whereby the processing device is adapted to generate

performance information based at least partly on a created model and the collective resource information, which performance information reflects the efficiency of at least one of the production units, and

a user interface device, which is adapted to display the performance information.

By means of the present invention is made possible improvements in the planning,

monitoring, coordination and scheduling of healthcare processes. Existing resources can thus be better utilized and productivity can be increased in the healthcare sector. The decision support system gathers and models data with respect to supply and demand for various resources and therefore allows improvements relating to strategic planning.

In accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention the system is adapted to indicate, receive, collect, store, process, generate and deliver information in real time. The decision support system according to the invention takes several details in a specific situation into account. Efficiency and performance is therefore improved on the basis of a dynamic set of rules to be followed. The current system and its dynamic models are based on input data including deviations from a predetermined level, and hence improve and/or optimize without delay so that the benefits can be realized immediately. The benefits arise in terms of optimization of capacity, staffing and finances.

In accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention the system is adapted to receive input from any deviations of the production unit, the planning unit and the decision unit, wherein the processing device is configured to respond to this deviation and provide a recommendation based on the generated result information. A user of the system is also able to via a user interface to create and influence a model based on different types of information and rules.

In accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention, the processing device is adapted to generate a recommendation of a workflow that in some cases may contain an automatic identification of a bottleneck in a workflow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description of embodiments of the present invention will be better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to the elements shown in the drawings.

Figure 1 illustrates schematically some of the components of a decision support system in accordance with the present invention. Figure 2 shows in a flowchart the method of decision support system in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Figure 1 illustrates a network environment 100 in which a decision support system for the healthcare sector is implemented. The network environment 100 may be both public and private. The decision support system 102 can be in communication with at least one data storage medium and configured to archive data from the user and request to distribute data to different users. The system 102 can be implemented in a variety of ways, including hardware such as servers, desktops, laptops, network connected computers with cloud servers, tablets, mobile phones and smart phones.

The decision support system 102 is connected with a number of user devices 104-(l-n) via a network 106. The user units 104 may be used by users to interact with the system 102 in order to transmit data files for archiving or for accessing archived files. In an alternative

implementation, the system 102 may be a distributed or centralized network system where various computer devices can host one or more hardware or software components.

The user units 104 are communicatively coupled to system 102 via a network 106 via at least one communication link. Various communication links between user devices 104 and system 102 can be activated, such as dial-up modem connections, cable connections and digital subscriber lines (DSL), both wirelessly and via satellite links.

The network 106 may be wireless or wired, or a combination of both. The network 106 may also be a single network or a collection of many such individual networks interconnected with each other and functioning as a single large network, e.g. Internet or an intranet. The network 106 may also include various types of networks, such as intranets, local area networks (LANs), wide area network (WAN), the Internet and the like. The network 106 can further utilize a variety of protocols, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), to communicate with each other. The network 106 may also comprise individual networks, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE). The network 106 consists of equipment such as base stations or gateways to the routers.

In one embodiment of the present invention, decision support system 102 coupled to a data repository. This space can contain data archives of different users for personal and private use. According to one implementation, a user who intends to store data can send an original data file containing the data to the system 102 through the user device 104. Upon receipt of the original data file, archive system 102 the original data file in the data storage space.

Furthermore, the system 102 is configured to distribute information following a request from the same or another user. Referring to Figure 2, one implementation of system 102, comprising at least one processor 108, an I/O interface 110 and a memory 112 coupled to processor 108. I/O interface 110 may include a variety of programs and interfaces, e.g. interfaces for peripheral devices as a keyboard, a mouse, an external memory and a printer. Furthermore, the I/O interface 110 enables the system 102 to communicate with other devices, such as Web servers and external databases. The I/O interface 110 can facilitate communications across a variety of network and protocol types, including wired networks such as local area networks (LANs), cable and wireless networks such as wireless LAN (WLAN), both cellular and satellite-based. For the purpose, the I/O interface 110 may include one or more ports for connection to a number of computer system or a server computer. The processor 108 may be a single processing device or a number of units, all of which may include multiple computing devices. The processor 108 may be implemented as one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, data processing devices, logic circuits, or other entities that process signals based on operational instructions. As a function of among several, the processor 108 is configured to retrieve and execute computer-readable instructions and data stored in the memory 112.

The memory 112 may include any sustained computer readable medium such as volatile memory, static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), or non-volatile memory such as read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM, flash memory, hard disks and optical disks. One or more modules 114 can also be arranged, including routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform particular tasks. The module 114 may also be implemented as a signal processor, logic circuit, or other device or component that can process signals based on operational instructions. The processing unit of the system may comprise a computer, a processor, such as the processor 108, a logic circuit or matrix capable of processing data as a result of specific instructions. The processing unit may be a general processor executing instructions to perform specific tasks.

Resources may relate to resource information for one resource. Alternatively, they may include parts of, a lot or more devices within a healthcare environment. A unit may therefore vary between being for example an administrative department of a hospital, a laboratory, a particular clinic or an entire hospital. The invention is not limited to a clinic or a hospital, but the data can be aggregated at any level and thus provide decision even higher level, for example at the regional level. With the regional level in this context refers to several hospitals alternatively several administrations, which according to a relevant example can mean a hospital containing medical specialist care, primary care management, psychiatry

management and/or other medical specialties.

Resource information can, for example, represent different kinds of patient-related information, waiting times, capacity, ability, commissioned studies and dissemination of information. In this example, the capacity of a number of available resources for a specific labour resource element which can process during a given time period. The resource information can also relate reception, patient-related qualitative methods, distance and computers. A source of information for a particular resource can include parameters such as the average waiting time for a patient awaiting surgery, operative time or recovery time as a patient on average need to spend in a room after undergoing a specific surgery.

In one embodiment of the invention, the source of information of a database, a collection of databases or other information store. The information source can function as a single interface to multiple information. The information source can allow access to multiple systems from a single interface and can contain links, connections, or content for a variety of medical information. The resources included in the information source can include systems from multiple devices. One source of information to receive resource information following the processing device resource requested information from an information ("pull notifications"). Conversely, the information source sending new modified resource information processing device as a result of a specific event ("push notifications"). The processing means is, as earlier adapted to communicate with information sources of many different kinds. The processing apparatus may in one embodiment generate the result information in real time or substantially in real time. By that is meant that performance information is generated directly, or after a certain delay partly due to the system delay. In some embodiments, the generated result information at the request of a user. For example, a user may request that the performance information to be updated. Some models also allow real-time monitoring and improving workflow.

In one embodiment, the processing device creates a model that reproduces the efficiency of one or more resources in the healthcare environment. The model can be based on the resource information received from one or more sources of information or the previous resource information. The processing device can keep historical performance information for one or more resources. In one embodiment, the model is based on the resource information provided by a user.

A user who is interested in including in the model a resource assessment that is not in connection with the processing device, for example due to its physical location. In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is a model based on hypothetical resource information. The hypothetical resource information can be added, for example to reflect additional medical equipment that could be bought or borrowed.

In one embodiment, the model may be based on current workflow patterns. The model can be used to predict performance information. For example, the model can be used to streamline production of a radiology department at various patient utilisation rates or tested for various types of loads or staffing. In another example, the model can be used as mentioned above for forecasting a hypothetical acquisition of new equipment.

The processing means may generate a recommendation. The recommendation may be a workflow that is, a proposal for the use of resources to achieve an increase or improvement of resource use. For example, the processing device to identify a particular device is understaffed as indicated by, for example, relatively high-performance information for personal ales effort but despite the poor efficiency of the department. In one embodiment, a so-called bottleneck indicated in a workflow. Processing device communicates recommendation via an interface with a display to users of the system. The display can be a computer monitor, a laptop, a tablet, mobile phone, or so- called smart phone. The interface may include an input device such as a keyboard, a touchscreen, a joystick, a mouse, a touchpad or a microphone. The input device can use a microphone with voice recognition software. Filters can control the information presented in the interface. For example, a user may select the filter in the interface to restrict the transmission of information. The interface can then view performance information that is specific to the filter conditions. The interface is also configurable. Users can configure which performance information is displayed and how performance information to be visualized. While the invention has been described with reference to certain embodiments, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the invention. Furthermore, modifications can be made to adapt a particular situation to the invention without departing. The invention is thus not restricted to the particular embodiment described, but includes all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A decision support system for the healthcare sector, wherein system indicators from each of at least one production unit, a planning unit and a decision unit are coordinated, processed and allowed to influence each other, the system comprising:

a processing device which processes the resource information from several indicator sensors or gauges, whereby the processing device is adapted to generate performance information based at least partly on a created model and the collective resource information, which performance information reflects the efficiency of at least one of the production units, and

2. A decision support system of claim 1, wherein the system is adapted to indicate, receive, collect, store, process, generate and deliver information in real time.

3. A decision support system according to claim 1, wherein the healthcare-related resources refer to resource types such as capacity, staffing, quality and/or financial data.

4. A decision support system of claim 1, wherein the at least one indicator is a sensor input unit, a database or a medical information.

5. A decision support system of claim 1, wherein the system is adapted to receive input relating to any deviations of the production unit, the planning unit and the decision unit, wherein the processing device is configured to respond to this deviation and provide a recommendation based on the generated performance information.

6. A decision support system of claim 1, wherein the created model is based on rules and information inputted by a user.

7. A decision support system according to claim 6, wherein the processing device is adapted to generate a recommendation of a workflow. A decision support system according to claim 7, wherein the recommendation includes automatic identification of a bottleneck in the workflow.

A method for generating decision support within the healthcare sector, the indicators from each of the at least one production unit, a planning unit and a decision unit are coordinated, processed and allowed to influence each other, the method comprising the steps of:

generating resource information for a healthca re-related resource by means of several indicator sensors or gauges,

receiving, collecting and storing the resource information in a receiver, process resource information from the plurality of indicator sensors or gauges in a processing device, the processing device generating performance information, at least partly on a created model and the collective resource information, which performance information reflects the efficiency of at least one of the plurality of production units, and displaying performance information by means of a user interface device.

A computer readable medium having a set of instructions for execution on a computer, wherein the set of instructions generates decision support within the healthcare sector, the indicators from each of the at least one production unit, a planning unit and a decision unit are coordinated, processed and allowed to influence each other, the method comprising the steps of:

generating resource information for a healthcare-related resource by several indicator sensors or gauges,

receiving, collecting and storing the resource information in a receiver, process resource information from the plurality indicator sensors or gauges in a processing device, the processing device generating performance information, at least partly on a created model and the collective resource information, which performance information reflects the efficiency of at least one of the plurality of production units, and displaying performance information by means of a user interface device.