AU2018102057A4 - Task scheduling system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

A task scheduling system comprises an establishment server storing therein a plurality of task subjects, an electronic device operable to connect to the establishment server over a network and authenticate therewith so as to receive 5 from the establishment server one or more of the task subjects, and a scheduling application configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more task subjects in a prescribed order.

Description

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method for scheduling tasks.

In particular, the present invention relates to a system and method for scheduling a doctor’s hospital ward rounds. The present invention has particular but not exclusive application to health services.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Hospital doctors typically rely on printed hard copy lists of their current inpatients to conduct their hospital ward rounds. As used herein, a hospital ward round is a review of all patients admitted in the hospital under a particular doctor. In practice, the actual list of inpatients that a doctor should include in a ward round changes daily, and indeed can often change throughout the day.

For example, it is common for doctors to submit requests (hereinafter referred to as a consultation request) to other doctors to attend to their inpatients, or to accept consultation requests from other doctors to attend to the other doctors’ inpatients. It is also common for doctors to have to review patients in the emergency department for potential admission, or to review other pertinent information when conducting their round. All such ad hoc new and additional tasks can significantly impact and change a doctor’s ward round. These changes are typically recorded as scribbled notes on the original printed hard copy inpatient list. Ultimately, the printed hard copy list becomes a quasi ward round schedule for the doctors’ ward rounds, and in the case of physicians, this list can comprise their entire day’s work.

In addition to the above, consultation requests from one doctor to another often get requested later in the day. This typically results in the doctor receiving the consultation request not knowing of or otherwise being able to act upon the request until the following day, that is despite the fact that the doctor may have been in the middle of a ward round when the consultation request was made, and may therefore have been able to include the consultation request into their current ward round. This increases a patient’s length of stay unnecessarily.

While information technology systems that maintain digitised patient notes for administrative and security reasons are available within hospitals in the form of electronic medical records, these medical records systems do little to increase the

-22018102057 12 Dec 2018 efficiency of a doctor’s ward round. Indeed, in many cases, such systems work to decrease the efficiency of the doctors’ round. Many doctors end up having to spend time during the round entering data on a computer to record notes for the medical records. Some doctors may take notes on mobile devices such as mobile 5 touchscreen devices, but this provides no great efficiency compared to writing on a piece of paper.

There are further applications available on smart phones to assist in prescribing drugs, referencing medical reference texts, and accessing hospital patient lists to assist doctors in conducting their business, and provide on-hand 0 information that may have previously not been as accessible during ward rounds. However, the access to this information does not reduce the time spent on the actual conduct of a ward round, and in many cases can slow the ward round as doctors consult their mobile phones for duties (such as prescribing information and blood test results) that used to be conducted after the round.

Further, there are smart phone and internet applications which provide patient lists to a doctor after logging in with a password. However, the uptake of these programs has not been widespread. The principal reason for the limited uptake is that the use of these systems is time-consuming and slower than using a piece of paper.

A slow ward round results in many inpatients not being seen in a timely manner and often not until the next day in the case of consultation requests. Time is wasted making phone calls, receiving phone calls, leaving the hospital, and returning to hospitals to visit patients after a consultation request is made later rather than earlier in the day. These time inefficiencies can compound each other.

Increased lengths of stay for patients increases the cost burden for health funds, hospitals, and the entire health system in general, and increases the time burden and effort load of doctors. This also results in lost opportunities for clinicians to perform non-clinical tasks such as research and administrative work, and loss of much needed non clinical that that many doctors require.

A further problem is that the communication between doctors using typical

SMS (short messaging service) and emailing has blurred the boundary between personal life and work life. Mobile phones have extended doctors’ working week into what is effectively a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week work-week where they can be contacted on their personal device regarding clinical issues at any time.

2018102057 12 Dec 2018

-3 Additionally, current methods of recording patient consults in the hospital for private billing such as taking photos of referrals and x-rays and emailing them back to a practice or central area/data base is time consuming and slow. There are mobile phone applications that compartmentalise photos and messages onto apps 5 for doctors for security reasons, but again the uptake for using these technologies has been poor principally because of the decrease in efficiency and speed.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

It is one object of the present invention to provide a task scheduling system 0 and method that provides doctors with an automatically and dynamically updatable task schedule, such as a ward round or procedure schedule, so as to increase the speed and efficiency at which doctors can conduct their duties, such as ward rounds.

Additionally, it is a further object of the present invention to provide a system and method that allows doctor-to-doctor communication that is at least as fast as the 5 current phone call, emailing and SMS techniques and other “medically secure apps”, and which is medically secure, and which further forms clear boundaries between boundaries between the personal and work spaces and time on the doctor’s phone, mobile or tablet device or ecosystem.

It is still a further an object of the present invention to provide a system and 0 method that contributes to decreasing patients’ length of stay in hospitals, decreasing hospital operating costs, and decreasing overall costs to the, health system, health funds and community as a whole.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a task scheduling system comprises an establishment server storing therein a plurality of task subjects, an electronic device operable to connect to the establishment server over a network and authenticate therewith so as to receive from the establishment server one or more of the task subjects, and a scheduling application configured to cause the electronic 30 device to organize the one or more task subjects in a prescribed order.

In one form, the prescribed order is prescribed by a rules package.

In one form, the task scheduling system further includes a system server, the system server storing therein one or more rules package, and wherein the electronic

2018102057 12 Dec 2018

-4 device is operable to connect to the system server and download one or more of the rules packages.

In one form, the rules package is installable by the scheduling application, and executable thereby.

In one form, the rules package contains rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects in an order that minimizes a travel distance.

In one form, the rules package contains rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of 0 task subjects in an order that minimizes a travel time.

In one form, the electronic devices further receives from the establishment server a floor plan of an establishment within which one or more of the task subjects are located, and the rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics of the rules package refer to the floor plan to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects into the order that 5 minimizes a travel time.

In one form, the scheduling application is configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more task subjects into a hospital ward round schedule having the prescribed order.

In one form, the task subjects are patients.

In one form, the establishment is a hospital.

In one form, the scheduling application is further configured to cause the electronic device to receive from the establishment server a list of one or more professionals servicing the establishment, select a task subject located at the establishment, and create a consultation request requesting one of the one or more 25 professionals to attend to the selected task subject.

Preferably, the consultation request is sent to the system server, and the system server sends the consultation request to the one or more other users.

Preferably, upon receipt of a consultation request, the electronic device prompts a user of the electronic device to accept or decline the consultation request.

Preferably, upon the user of the electronic device accepting the consultation request, the subject of the consultation request is added as a new task subject to an existing list of task subjects associated with the user to create a new list of task subjects, and the scheduling application executes the rules package to organize the new list of task subjects into the prescribed order.

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- 5 According to a second aspect of the present invention, a task scheduling method comprises storing, in an establishment server, a plurality of task subjects, connecting an electronic device to the establishment server over a network and authenticating therewith to receive from the establishment server one or more of the 5 task subjects, and executing a scheduling application configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more task subjects in a prescribed order.

In one form, the prescribed order is prescribed by a rules package.

In one form, the task scheduling method further includes storing in a system server one or more rules package, and downloading to the electronic device one or 0 more of the rules packages.

In one form, the task scheduling method further includes installing a rules package, and executing the rules package to organize the one or more task subjects in an order prescribed by the rules package.

In one form, the rules package contains rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics 5 configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects in an order that minimizes a travel distance.

In one form, the rules package contains rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects in an order that minimizes a travel time.

In one form, the task scheduling methods further includes receiving from the establishment server to the electronic devices a floor plan of an establishment within which one or more of the task subjects are located, and the rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics of the rules package refer to the floor plan to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects into the order that minimizes a travel time.

In one form, the scheduling application is configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more task subjects into a hospital ward round schedule having the prescribed order.

In one form, the task subjects are patients.

In one form, the establishment is a hospital.

In one form, the task scheduling method includes receiving from the establishment server to the electronic device a list of one or more professionals servicing an establishment, selecting a task subject located at the establishment, and creating a consultation request requesting one of the one or more professionals to attend to the selected task subject.

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Preferably, the consultation request is sent to the system server, and the system server sends the consultation request to the one or more other users.

Preferably, upon receipt of a consultation request, the electronic device prompts a user of the electronic device to accept or decline the consultation request.

Preferably, upon the user of the electronic device accepting the consultation request, the task scheduling methods includes adding the subject of the consultation request as a new task subject to an existing list of task subjects associated with the user to create a new list of task subjects, and executing the rules package to organize the new list of task subjects into the prescribed order.

The above aspects, variations, and options are to be understood as comprisable within the invention singly, or in combination with each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order that the present invention can be more readily understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the invention and wherein:

Figure 1 illustrates a task scheduling system according to a first aspect of the present invention;

Figure 2 illustrates a task scheduling method according to a second aspect of 0 the present invention;

Figures 3A to 3C illustrates a task scheduling application 3000 for scheduling task subjects, according to a third aspect of the present invention;

Figures 4A to 4C illustrates a task scheduling application 3000 for requesting a test for task subjects, according to a third aspect of the present invention;

Figures 5A to 5B illustrates a task scheduling application 3000 for receiving a consultation request, according to a third aspect of the present invention;

Figures 6A to 6C illustrates a task scheduling application 3000 for submitting a consultation request, according to a third aspect of the present invention; and

Figures 7A to 7C illustrates a task scheduling application 3000 for generating 30 and displaying a notification dashboard, according to a third aspect of the present invention;

2018102057 12 Dec 2018

-7 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As will be hereinafter described, the present invention is designed to facilitate and make more efficient a professional’s personal work tasks, responsibilities, and operation of a private practice. Distinct from similar systems and methods known to5 date, the present invention does not have as its primary goal to facilitate efficiency gains for an establishment at which the professional works, though such efficiency gains are a likely secondary or follow-on effect.

For avoidance of doubt, it is to be understood that the term ‘professional’ as used herein is intended to cover any person employed in a profession, including but 0 not limited to tradesmen, craftsmen, interpreters, translators, drivers, construction workers, policemen, firemen, gardeners, cleaners, butchers, fishmongers, grocers, labourers, and, indeed, any person with a definable employment. The term ‘professional’ as used herein should not be understood as limited only to doctors, accountants, lawyers, patent attorneys, and other ‘learned’ professions.

The present invention, will hereinafter be described by way of an exemplary application to a healthcare environment, and use by a healthcare professional such as a doctor. However, it is to be understood that the present invention is not so limited. The present invention is applicable to any industry, and usable by, any professional.

With reference to Figure 1, a task scheduling system 1000 according to a first embodiment of the present invention, exemplarily applied to a healthcare environment, is described.

The task scheduling system 1000 can be logically and broadly grouped into a number of entity types, namely, professional entities, establishment entities, and 25 system entities.

Professional entities are entities within the system 1000 that are operated/managed by, or who are themselves, users of the systems. In the embodiment illustrated by Fig. 1, the professional entities include doctors 130, 140, the doctors’ mobile electronic devices 133, 143, and at least one private practice 120 30 operated or managed by a doctor 130, 140.

Establishment entities are entities at which a user of the system 1000, for example the doctors 130, 140, work, or provide a service to. In the presently described exemplary embodiment, the establishment entities include hospitals 100, 110. Establishment entitles further include the systems and infrastructure managed

2018102057 12 Dec 2018 and operated by the hospitals 100, 110, such as hospital servers 103, 113 and hospital databases 105, 115. Whilst not illustrated, other establishment entities can include pathology laboratories, medical imaging laboratories, other allied health entities, and the like.

System entities are entities, such as infrastructure, that realize the system

1000 and/or operated/managed by providers of the system 1000. System entities include a system server 150 and system database 153 connected to the system server 150, and a system network 160 interconnecting elements of the professional entities, establishment entities, and system entities. A task scheduling application 0 3000 (shown in Fig. 3) for connecting the electronic devices 133, 143 to the system

1000, while potentially stored and executed on the electronic devices 133, 143, may also be considered a system entity.

An interrelationship and function of each element of the task scheduling system 1000 will now be described.

The user electronic devices 133, 143, in a preferred embodiment, are mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets, or laptop. The task scheduling application 3000 is installed in the user electronic devices 133, 143, which task scheduling application 3000 connects the user electronic device 133, 143, and thereby the doctors 130, 140 to the task scheduling system 1000. In an alternative embodiment, the user electronic devices 133, 143 provide the doctors 130, 140 access to the task scheduling system 1000 by way of a web browser executing therein, rather than by the task scheduling application 3000.

In the preferred embodiment, the electronic devices 133, 143 receive select patient information from the hospitals 100, 110. Specifically, the task scheduling 25 applications 3000 executing on the electronic devices 133, 143 receive from the hospital servers 103, 133 and hospital database 105, 115 patient information for inpatients (i.e. task subjects) that are under the care of each doctor 130, 140 (hereinafter referred to as associated patients). An associated patient is, for example, the doctor’s patient, or a patient belonging to another doctor but whom the 30 doctor 130 has agreed to consult on. The patient information received by the electronic devices 133, 143 includes, but is not limited to, one or more of:

• Patient name • Patient age • Hospital

-92018102057 12 Dec 2018 • Room I Ward number • Pending tests and test results • Pending operations, treatments, and other appointments • Admission information • Patient history • Doctors’ notes

The patient information, in one embodiment, is received from the hospital servers 103, 133 and hospital databases 105, 115 through the network 160 to the electronic devices 133, 143. In another embodiment, this information is received from the hospital servers 103, 133 and hospital databases 105, 115 through the network 160 to the system server 150 and system database 153, and then from the system server 150 and system database 153 through the network 160 to the electronic devices 133, 134.

In the preferred embodiment, additional patient information may also be 5 received by the electronic devices 133, 143 from the doctor’s private practice 120. Specifically, detailed or personal notes, detailed and long term patient history, and other related information created by the doctors 130, 140 and stored in a practice server 123 and practice database 125 may be received through the network 160 to the electronic devices 133, 143.

With the information received by the electronic devices 133, 143 from the hospitals 100, 110, the task scheduling application 3000 executing on the electronic devices 133, 143 is configured to generate a task schedule, for example a ward round, for the doctors 130, 140. The task schedule in a preferred embodiment is generated based on one or more preferences set by each doctor 130, 140.

In one form, a hospital ward round is generated for the doctor 130 based on a preference to minimize time and/or distance to be travelled, and therefore takes into consideration the ward, floor, and room that each associated patient is in, and organizing the order in which patients are visited such that the doctor’s ward round involves the least amount of travel time and/or travel distance within the hospital.

Alternatively, a hospital ward round may be generated for the doctor 140 based on a preference to see patients who have the least number of issues/complications first and patients with the greatest number of issues/complications last. This can, for

- 102018102057 12 Dec 2018 example, allow the doctor 140 to approve the discharge of patients earlier in the day, thereby freeing up beds and rooms in the hospital for new patients.

In the preferred embodiment, the information received to the electronic devices 133, 143 is ‘pushed’ from the various databases 105, 115, 153 and servers 5 103, 113, 150 such that any changes to the information can be immediately processed by the task scheduling application 3000 on the electronic devices 133, 143. This allows the task schedule, for example the ward round, to be dynamically revised/updated to maintain optimal adherence to the doctors’ preferences for organizing ward rounds. For example, if an associated patient is moved to a 0 different ward/room, the doctor’s ward round can be immediately updated and reorganized so as to still be organized in an order that minimizes travel time. Alternative, if a consultation request is received by the first doctor 130 from the second doctor 140 to see one of the second doctor’s associated patients, and the first doctor 130 accepts the consultation request, the first doctor’s ward round can be 5 immediately updated and reorganize to slot in the second doctor’s patient at the most optimal position dependent on the first doctor’s preference for ward rounds. Other examples of events that would trigger an update and reorganization of the task schedule include when a patient is newly admitted, when a patient is discharged, emergencies or other sudden changes in a patient’s status, and the like.

In order to receive information from the hospitals 100, 110, the doctors 130,

140 enter a username and password to authenticate themselves with respective hospital servers 103, 113. The use of a username allows the hospital servers 103, 113 to identify patients associated with respective doctors 130, 140.

In the preferred embodiment, the task scheduling application 3000 executing on the electronic devices 133, 143 have, or download from the hospital servers 103, 113, a floor plan/map of the hospitals 100, 110. This allows the task scheduling application 3000 to calculate distances between wards and rooms, and thereby organize tasks and ward rounds by shortest distance travelled if that is a preference of the doctors 130, 140.

In the preferred embodiment, the task scheduling application 3000 executing on the electronic devices 133, 143 includes, and/or is adapted to install, one or more rules packages for generating and reorganizing task lists. Preferably, the rules packages are downloadable from the system server 150, whereby updated rules and new rules can be periodically made available to the users 130, 140. The rules

- 11 2018102057 12 Dec 2018 packages include rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics that allow the task scheduling application 3000 to organize a task list based on various criteria. For example, a first rules package may be configured to allow for organization of the task list based on distance to be travelled by the doctor during a ward round. A second rules package 5 may be configured to allow for organization of the task list based on length of stay of the patients.

With reference to Fig. 2, a task scheduling method 2000 for generating a ward round task schedule is described. The task scheduling method 2000 is described with reference also to Figs. 3A to 3C, 4A to 4C, 5A to 5B, and 6A to 6C, which 0 illustrate the task scheduling application 3000 in operation.

The task scheduling method 2000 is described using, as an example, the doctor 130 as a user, and where the doctor 130 relies on the task scheduling method 2000 and task scheduling system 1000 to schedule a ward round for the current day.

Commencing at 2-5 of the task scheduling method 2000, the doctor 130 5 operates the electronic device 133 to execute the task scheduling application 3000.

Upon execution, the task scheduling application 3000 connects the electronic device 133 to the hospital servers 103, 113 and prompts the doctor 130 to authenticate him/herself with the hospital servers 103, 113. In an alternative embodiment, the task scheduling application 3000 connects the electronic device 133 to the system 0 server 150, and prompts the doctors 130 to authenticate him/herself therewith. In turn, the system server 150 authenticates itself with the hospital servers 103, 113.

At 2-10, the hospital servers 103, 113 identify the doctor 130 as a consulting doctor at respective hospitals 100, 110 and retrieves from the hospital databases 105, 115 a list of inpatients associated with the doctor 130 and relevant information 25 associated with each inpatient. As previously mentioned, the relevant information can include:

Patient name

Patient age

Hospital

Room / Ward number • Pending tests and test results • Pending operations, treatments, and other appointments • Admission information ·

2018102057 12 Dec 2018 • Patient history • Doctors’ notes

The list of patients and the relevant information for each patient is communicated to the electronic device 133. In one embodiment, the list of patients and relevant information is communicated directly to the electronic device 133 via the network 160. In an alternative embodiment, the list of patients and the relevant information is communicated to the system server 150 via the network 160, and then from the system server 150 to the electronic device 133, also via the network 160.

At 2-15, upon receipt of the list of patients and the relevant information, the task scheduling application 3000 applies a rule package selected by the doctor 130. For the purposes of this example, it is assumed that the doctor 130 has selected a “Shortest Travel Distance” rules package which generates a ward round schedule to minimize the distance the doctor 130 has to travel in order to see all the patients on the list.

The “Shortest Travel Distance”, in one embodiment, is calculated using information received from the hospital servers 103, 113 and hospital database 105, 115 that provides an indication of where each patient is likely to be located within each hospital 100, 110 at a given time. Such information includes, for example, the room number and ward that the patient is in, but can also include other information such as various appointments that have already been scheduled for a patient (e.g. physiotherapy appointments, antenatal classes, etc.) and/or other miscellaneous events (e.g. visitation times, breast feeding times, etc.). In variations to this embodiment, the “Shortest Travel Distance” can additionally take into account how many hospitals 100, 110 the doctor 130 has to conduct ward rounds at, a current 25 location of the doctor 130, and the location of each hospital 100, 110 so as to generate not just separate ward round schedules for each hospital 100, 110 but an overarching ward round schedule for the doctor 130 for all hospitals 100, 110 and all patients at each hospital 100, 110 associated with the doctor 130.

At 2-20, the generated ward round schedule is displayed on the electronic 30 device 133. Figs. 3A to 3C illustrate the task scheduling application 3000 displaying the generated ward round. As illustrated, the doctor’s inpatients are organized by ward, and while not shown in Figs. 3A to 3C, each patient in a ward is organized to minimize a distance required to be travelled by the doctor 130 to visit each patient.

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At 2-25, manual rearrangement of the ward round schedule is made available to the doctor 130. Manual rearrangement allows the doctor 130 to fine tune the ward round schedule. Additionally, manual rearrangement allows the doctor 130 to fix one or more patients into a specified time slot and re-run the rules package to re-optimize 5 the doctor’s 130 ward round schedule given that the fixed patients cannot be moved from their specified time slot.

At 2-30, the doctor 130 commences his/her ward round. As the doctor 130 progresses through the ward round, the ward round schedule can be updated by the doctor 130 on the electronic device 133 to cross off visited patients, add or revise 0 patient notes, and the like.

For each patient, and as illustrated in Figs. 4A to 4C, the doctor 130 can request through the task scheduling application 3000 one or more tests, for example pathology and radiology tests, to be performed for the patient. In the example illustrated in Figs. 4A to 4C, the doctor 130 requests an MRI scan for patient “Roger 5 Davies”. Details of the MRI scan to be conducted can be included with the request, as shown in Fig. 4C.

In the above manner, the method 2000 and system 1000 optimizes a ward round, or other task schedule, for the doctor 130 allowing the doctor 130 to conduct his/her ward round as close to the doctor’s preferred order as possible.

In another embodiment of the method 2000, additional steps 2-35a to 2-40a and 2-35b to 2-40b are provided, allowing for consultation requests to be requested and accepted between doctors 130, 140. Additional steps 2-35a to 2-40a and 2-35b to 2-40b are described hereinbelow.

Steps 2-35a and 2-40a realize a function for the doctor 130 to accept a 25 consultation request from another doctor 140 and schedule an associated patient of the other doctor 140 into the current ward round.

At 2-35a, the doctor 130 receives a consultation request from another doctor (for example, doctor 140) at the same hospital 100 via the system server 150. A consultation request, as used herein, is a request from a first doctor to a second 30 doctor to request the second doctor to see a patient (hereinafter referred to as a consultation patient) that is associated with the first doctor. Consultation requests are a common occurrence, and typically arise from unexpected changes in the first doctor’s schedule, unforseen emergencies, and the like. Upon receipt of the

- 142018102057 12 Dec 2018 consultation request, the doctor 130 can accept the consultation request, or conversely decline the consultation request.

The receipt of a consultation request preferably results in a notification such as a ring tone and/or vibration playing on the electronic device 133. To avoid a blurring of the boundary between personal and work life, however, the task scheduling application 3000 can be configured to play the notification only within prescribed hours, or automatically rejecting all consultation requests if received outside prescribed hours. Indeed, the task scheduling application 3000 can be operated to identify the doctor 130 as being unavailable for consultation requests at 0 prescribed times.

At 2-40a, if the consultation request is accepted, details of the consultation patient are received by the electronic device 130 from the hospital server 103 and hospital database 105, together with any brief message or note from the other doctor 140. Figs. 5A and 5B illustrate a received consultation request. As shown, the ward and room in which the consultation patient is in is provided, together with a brief note of “Presented with a NSTEMi” from the doctor 140 requesting the consult. Also included in this case with the consultation request is an attached X-ray film of the patient’s wrist with the comment “wrist post fall last night”.

Upon receipt of the consultation patient’s details, the rules package is run (or re-run, if already previously run) to schedule the consultation patient into the doctor’s current ward round. As best illustrated in Fig. 3C, the consultation patient is (re)scheduled in the doctor’s ward round in a manner dependent on the rules package selected by the doctor 130 for organizing the doctor’s ward rounds. In the particular example illustrated in Fig. 3C, the rules package selected by the doctor 25 130 organizes the doctor’s own inpatients first by “Shortest Travel Distance”, and organizes consultation patients separately from the doctor’s own inpatients, but also by “Shortest Travel Distance”. Accordingly, the doctor 130 will visit all of his/her own inpatients first in an order that minimizes travel distance, and then visit any consultation patients, which have also been ordered to minimize travel distance.

The advantage of being able to receive and accept consultations requests in this manner is that it becomes far more likely for the doctor 130 to be able to schedule the consultation patient into the doctor’s current ward round. This is in contrast to conventional methods, where the doctor 130 is typically not informed nor aware of new consultation requests until the end of the doctor’s current ward round.

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If informed of a consultation request only at the end of the ward round, the doctor 130 is more likely to add the consultation patient to the next day’s ward round, rather than to make a special visit to the consultation patient. Even if the doctor 130 were to make a special visit to the consultation patient, such a visit could be an inefficient use of time and resources, and likely significantly add to the time and energy spent by the doctor in a day. The task scheduling method 2000, in particular steps 2-35a and 2-40a, allow consultation requests to be received and accepted in near realtime, and for consultation patients to be scheduled into the current day’s ward round without significant impact to the optimality of the doctor’s ward round schedule.

Steps 2-35b and 2-40b realize a function for the doctor 130 to create and send out consultation requests to another doctor 140. Steps 2-35b, 2-40b are described with further reference to Figs. 6A to 6C.

At 2-35b, the doctor 130 operates the electronic device 133, and in particular the task scheduling application 3000 executing thereon, to select a patient 5 (consultation patient) to be the subject of a consultation request, and to further select one or more doctors to whom the consultation request will be sent. In a preferred embodiment, and as illustrated in Fig. 6A the patient can be selected directly from the current ward round schedule displayed on the electronic device 133, and a consultation request for the patient requested in a similar way to requesting a test for 0 the patient.

Upon a consultation request being selected for the patient, a list of applicable doctors is displayed, as illustrated in Fig. 6B. The list is pre-populated from the hospital servers 103, 113, and hospital databases 105, 115, and in one embodiment, only doctors who consult at the same hospital 100, 110 at which the consultation 25 patient is admitted are available for selection. In the preferred embodiment, the list of doctors is displayed to indicate which doctors are and are not currently accepting consultation request. In the list of Fig. 6A, doctors whose names are greyed-out are doctors who are currently unable or otherwise unwilling to accept consultation requests, while doctors whose names are in white are able and/or willing to do so.

At 2-40b, a consultation request comprising of the consultation patient’s details (or a network link to such information), including scans and any other images or documents of relevance, along with a short message from the requesting doctor 130 is sent to the system server 150. Fig. 6C illustrates a form generated and displayed by the electronic device 133 of the doctor 130 for allowing the doctor 130

- 162018102057 12 Dec 2018 to enter the consultation patient’s details and a short message. The system server 150, upon receipt of the consultation request, then sends the consultation request to the electronic devices of the one or more selected doctors. Upon acceptance of the consultation request by one of the one or more selected doctors, the requesting 5 doctor’s ward round schedule is updated to reflect the fact that the consultation patient is no longer part of the current day’s ward round for the requesting doctor 130.

In a further embodiment of the method 2000, additional steps 2-45 to 2-50 are provided, allowing for the doctor 130 to update his/her personal records at the 0 private practice 120.

At 2-45, the electronic device 133 authenticates itself with the practice server 123.

At 2-50, upon successful authentication, one or more pieces of information are uploaded from the electronic device 133 to the practice server 123. The one or more 5 pieces of information include, but are not limited to:

• The current day’s ward round schedule • Patient notes taken by the doctors during the ward round • Patient notes and details obtained from the hospital servers 103, 113 and hospital database 105, 115 • Patient test results • Voice recordings • Images

In an alternative embodiment, the electronic device 133 uploads the one or more pieces of information to the system server 150 and system database 153, which in turn uploads the same to the practice server 123 and practice database

125.

Steps 2-45 to 2-50 may be performed in a live manner, where any new or updated information is uploaded to the practice server 123 and practice database 125 as the information is recorded and/or changed. Alternatively, this information 30 can be uploaded as a batch at the end of each ward round, or at a specified time of day.

- 172018102057 12 Dec 2018

The one or more pieces of information uploaded may be pre-specified by the doctor 130, such that consistent packages of information can be uploaded to the practice server 123 and practice database 125 regularly and easily.

The system 1000 and method 2000 of the present invention is centred squarely around optimizing a doctor’s schedule, as opposed to advantaging the hospitals 100, 110. Information obtained from the hospital servers 103, 113 and hospital database 113, 115 are processed by the electronic devices 133, 143 and task scheduling application 3000 executing thereon to generate a task schedule, for example a ward round schedule, that seeks to advantage the doctors 130, 140, such 0 as by reducing the amount of time spent on ward rounds, and reducing the administrative burden required to run the doctors’ private practices 120.

In a further embodiment of the present invent, the electronic devices 133, 143 are configured by the task scheduling application 3000 to receive push notifications from one or more of the hospital servers 103, 113, practice server 125, and 3^rd party 5 servers such as those belonging to test laboratories. The push notifications are preferably managed and coordinated by the system server 150, which decides what information to obtain or receive the hospital various servers 103, 113, 125, and what notifications to push to the electronic devices 133, 143.

Figs. 7A to 7C illustrate a notification dashboard generated by the task 0 scheduling application based on the push notifications received from the system server 150. As illustrated, the push notifications can include notifications of new laboratory test results and reports, and messages from other users of the task scheduling system 1000.

The notification dashboard provides a concise overview of relevant 25 information for the doctors 130, 140.

ADVANTAGES

The system 1000 and method 2000 of the present invention allows doctors 130, 140 to more optimally utilize the limited time they have available to discharge 30 their responsibilities, such as conducting hospital ward rounds. In one form, the system 1000 and method 2000 of the present invention allows doctors 130, 140 to conduct ward rounds more quickly. In being able to conduct ward rounds more quickly, patients are more likely to be visited, and visited more often. In being able to

- 18 2018102057 12 Dec 2018 visit more patients, and/or visiting patients more often, patients are more likely to be discharged from the hospitals 100, 110 on time, or at least with smaller delays.

The system 1000 and method 2000 of the present invention further allows doctors 130, 140 to request and accept consultation requests in near real-time. In 5 being able to request and accept consultation requests in near real-time, a doctor’s ward round schedule can be reorganized dynamically to more optimally fit the consultation patient into a doctor’s current ward round schedule. Accordingly, consultation patients are more likely to be visited on the same day, which in turn again reduces the patient’s length of stay in the hospitals 100, 110.

Additional advantages include being able to optimize a ward round based on whether patient test results are pending or completed, whereby situations where a doctor superfluous visits a patient prior to the patient’s test results being available for the doctor’s review are avoided.

VARIATIONS

It will of course be realised that while the foregoing has been given by way of illustrative example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is herein set forth.

Throughout the description and claims of this specification the word “comprise” and variations of that word such as “comprises” and “comprising”, are not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers or steps.

Claims (5)

1. A task scheduling system comprising:

an establishment server storing therein a plurality of task subjects, each of

5 the plurality of task subjects associated with a location;

an electronic device operable to connect to the establishment server over a network and authenticate therewith so as to receive from the establishment server one or more of the task subjects; and a scheduling application configured to cause the electronic device to organize 0 the one or more task subjects, based on each location, into a hospital ward round schedule in a prescribed order, wherein the prescribed order is prescribed by a rules package containing rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects in the prescribed order, the prescribed 5 order of the one or more plurality of task subjects minimizes a travel distance of the ward round, and wherein the prescribed order is displayed on a screen of the electronic device.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the scheduling application is further 0 configured to cause the electronic device to receive from the establishment server a list of one or more professionals servicing the establishment, select a task subject located at the establishment, and create a consultation request requesting one of the one or more professionals to attend to the selected task subject.

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3. The system according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising a system server, the system server storing therein a plurality of rules packages, each rules package containing one or more rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics configured to cause the electronic device to organize the one or more plurality of task subjects in a prescribed order, wherein the electronic device is operable to connect to the system 30 server and download one or more of the rules packages.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein upon receipt of a consultation request, the electronic device prompts a user of the electronic device to accept or decline the consultation request, and upon the user of the electronic device

-202018102057 12 Dec 2018 accepting the consultation request, the scheduling application adds the subject of the consultation request as a new task subject to the one or more task subjects associated with the user to create a new list of one or more task subjects, and executes the rules package to organize the new list of one or more task subjects into 5 the prescribed order.

5. The system according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the electronic devices further receives from the establishment server a floor plan of an establishment within which one or more of the task subjects are located, and the 0 rules, algorithms, and/or heuristics of the rules package refer to the floor plan and the location of each of the one or more task subjects to organize the one or more task subjects into the prescribed order that minimizes a travel distance.