JP7445451B2 - Hospital amenity service system and patient terminal - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a system and a patient terminal used when providing amenity services to patients in a hospital.

BACKGROUND ART Conventionally, a system has been known in which a patient calls a nurse using a nurse call button installed in a hospital room or hospital bed (Patent Document 1). The nurse call system described in Patent Document 1 includes a nurse call handset for a patient to call a nurse, a nurse call main unit that notifies a nurse station of a call from the nurse call handset, and a call from the nurse call handset. The system is equipped with multiple mobile terminals that nurses carry with them in order to respond to calls, and a controller that controls calls and responses. In addition, this controller acquires a call information table from an external device, and when receiving a call signal associated with a call from a nurse call slave device, selects one of the multiple mobile terminals associated with the call information table. The call signal is configured to be sent to a particular mobile terminal associated with a particular nurse.

JP2020-005011A

By the way, currently, medical staff at hospitals are busy with main medical duties, so measures to improve patient satisfaction with amenities are limited to just improving the hardware aspects, and soft services are insufficient. It's not the situation. In other words, the current situation is that the manpower of medical professionals alone is not enough to cover soft services. Furthermore, if medical professionals are responsible for providing soft services, not only will the burden of accepting, providing, and collecting fees for soft services increase, but medical professionals will also have to deal with complaints from patients. Therefore, it is difficult to provide soft services in parallel with the main medical operations. Considering this situation, it can be said that even if hospitals try to provide new software services, there is an overwhelming lack of human resources. In addition, the introduction of new software services is also due to the fact that it becomes difficult to manage patients who frequently move within the hospital, and that it is virtually difficult for the hospital itself to bear the risk of collecting service fees. This has become a major obstacle.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a new system useful for providing amenity services within a hospital.

A first aspect of the present invention relates to a system for providing amenity services within a hospital (amenity service system). This amenity service system will basically be constructed separately from the existing nurse call system. The system according to the present invention includes a patient terminal, a management server, and a staff terminal. The management server is connected to patient terminals and staff terminals through a network such as the Internet. The patient terminal has an application button for applying for amenity services, a call button for calling staff, and a payment button for paying for the amenity services. Sends the signal to the management server. Note that each button is not limited to a physical button, and may be an electronic button displayed on a touch panel display, for example. Furthermore, when the management server receives various signals from the patient terminal, it transmits notifications for each button to the staff terminal.

In the present invention, it is assumed that the staff terminal is used not by medical personnel but by professional staff of amenity services. In this way, by building an amenity service system separately from the existing nurse call system and having specialized staff respond to requests for amenity service, it is possible to increase the burden on medical professionals. This makes it possible to provide generous amenity services to patients. Furthermore, by providing an application button, a call button, and a payment button on the patient terminal, the patient's requests can be communicated to the specialized staff in advance, allowing efficient service response. Further, although a nurse call system is generally constructed using an intranet (local network) within a hospital, it is preferable that the amenity service system according to the present invention is constructed as a cloud system via the Internet. This eliminates the need to build a new network within the hospital, making it easier to introduce an amenity service system.

In the system according to the present invention, it is preferable that the patient terminal transmits its own terminal identification information to the management server together with a signal for each button. In this case, the management server has a database that stores patient-related information about the patient who operates the patient terminal, or the hospital room or hospital bed in which the patient terminal is installed, in association with the identification information of the patient terminal. Then, when the management server receives a signal from the patient terminal, it transmits patient-related information to the staff terminal along with a notification for each button. With this configuration, professional staff can quickly grasp the whereabouts of patients requesting amenity services using staff terminals.

In the system according to the present invention, the staff terminals include a first staff terminal for responding to applications for amenity services, a second staff terminal for responding to staff calls, and a second staff terminal for responding to payments. A third staff terminal may also be included. In this case, the management server sends a notification to the first staff terminal when it receives an application button signal, and sends a notification to the second staff terminal when it receives a call button signal. , it is preferable to send a notification to the third staff terminal when the payment button signal is received. This facilitates the division of duties among specialized staff. For example, operational efficiency can be improved by preparing specialized staff for handling applications for amenity services, specialized staff for responding to calls, and specialized staff for handling payments.

In the system according to the present invention, it is preferable that the patient terminal further includes a reception display section for displaying a notification when each button is pressed. This allows the patient to confirm whether or not a button has been pressed by the patient himself/herself, so that, for example, a situation in which a service application button is repeatedly pressed can be suppressed.

A second aspect of the present invention relates to a patient terminal connectable to a management server through a network. The patient terminal according to the present invention has an application button for applying for an amenity service, a call button for calling a staff member, a payment button for paying a fee for the amenity service, and each button when each button is pressed. and a communication section that transmits another signal to the management server.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a novel system useful for providing amenity services within a hospital.

FIG. 1 schematically shows an overview of the amenity service system. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of a patient terminal, a management server, and a staff terminal.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the form for implementing this invention is demonstrated using drawings. The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, but also includes modifications from the following embodiments as appropriate within the range obvious to those skilled in the art.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the amenity service system 100 includes a patient terminal 10, a management server 20, and a staff terminal 30. The patient terminal 10 is held by the patient himself or installed in the patient's hospital room or hospital bed. The management server 20 is connected to the patient terminal 10 and the staff terminal 30 via the Internet. The management server 20 is operated by a business operator that operates an amenity service business. The staff terminal 30 is used by professional staff who actually provide amenity services. The staff terminal 30 may be the same terminal that receives application notices, call notices, and payment notices, or the first terminal 30(a) for receiving application notices for amenity services and the first terminal 30(a) for receiving call notices. A second terminal 30(b) and a third terminal (b) for receiving payment notices may be provided separately.

The patient terminal 10 has an application button 11 for applying for amenity services, a call button 12 for calling professional staff, and a payment button 13 for paying for the amenity services. In the example shown in FIG. 1, each of the buttons 11 to 13 is composed of physical buttons so that even a patient with a disability can easily handle them. When each of the buttons 11 to 13 is pressed, the control unit 14 of the patient terminal 10 generates a control signal corresponding to each button, and the communication unit 15 transmits the control signal to the management server 20 via the Internet. The control unit 14 may be a control circuit for signal generation, or may be a general processor such as a CPU. In addition, the control unit 14 stores unique identification information (terminal ID) set for each patient terminal 10 in a storage unit such as a memory, and reads out its own identification information when each button is pressed. Then, the communication unit 15 transmits the identification information along with the control signal corresponding to the button to the management server 20 . The communication unit 15 may include a SIM card, etc., and may have a configuration that can be connected to a cellular line such as 3G or 4G, or a configuration that can be connected to a wireless LAN such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark). You can leave it there.

The patient terminal 10 is also provided with a reception display section 16, and when each of the buttons 11 to 13 is pressed, a notification to that effect is displayed on the terminal in a manner visible to the patient. For example, in the reception display section 16 shown in FIG. 1, a light source such as an LED emits light in conjunction with the press of a button, and characters such as "Please come to visit/please wait a moment" light up. The patient terminal 10 is also provided with an error display section 17, and when the control section 14 determines that some problem has occurred in the transmission of the control signal, a message to that effect is displayed on the terminal. . In the error display section 17 of the example shown in FIG. 1, a light source such as an LED emits light when some kind of problem occurs, and the text "Error" lights up.

Further, the housing of the patient terminal 10 is provided with a code section 18 on which a two-dimensional code such as a QR code (registered trademark) or another one-dimensional code such as a bar code is printed. The same information as the identification information stored in the control section 14 is embedded in the one-dimensional code or two-dimensional code provided in the code section 18 as a parameter. The information embedded in the code section 18 is used when associating the identification information of the patient terminal 10 with information for specifying a patient, a hospital room, a hospital bed, etc. (hereinafter referred to as "patient-related information"). That is, after reading the code part 18 with a staff terminal or other mobile terminal (such as a smartphone) and extracting the identification information of the patient terminal 10 embedded therein, this identification information and patient-related information are associated and managed. It can be registered in the server 20. Examples of patient-related information include an ID unique to a patient, a hospital room, or a hospital bed (patient ID, hospital room ID, hospital bed ID), a patient's name, a patient number, a hospital room number, or a hospital bed number.

The management server 20 receives control signals for each button and terminal-specific identification information (terminal ID) from the patient terminal 10 through the communication unit 21 . The control unit 22 of the management server 20 generates notification information to be transmitted to the staff terminal 30 based on the control signal for each button. Specifically, the control unit 22 sends an application notification when the application button 11 is pressed, a call notification when the call button 12 is pressed, and a payment notification when the payment button 13 is pressed. Just generate a notification. Further, the above-mentioned patient-related information is registered in the database 23 using the terminal ID of the patient terminal 10 as a main key item. The control unit 22 refers to the terminal ID of the patient terminal 10 whose button was pressed and reads patient-related information associated with the terminal ID from the database 23. Then, the control unit 23 causes the communication unit 21 to transmit the notification information generated as described above and the patient-related information read from the database 23 to the staff terminal 30 via the Internet.

Further, as described above, the first terminal 30(a) is used to receive an amenity service application notification, the second terminal 30(b) is used to receive a call notification, and the third terminal (b) is used to receive a payment notification. It is also possible to provide each separately. In this case, the control unit 23 of the management server 20 separately transmits notification information corresponding to each button 13 to the first terminal 30 (a), the second terminal 30 (b), and the third terminal (b). . That is, when the management server 20 receives the signal from the application button 11, it transmits notification information regarding the application for the amenity service to the first terminal 30(a), and when it receives the signal from the call button 12, it sends the notification information to the first terminal 30(a). Sending notification information regarding the call to the second terminal 30(b), and transmitting notification information regarding the payment of the consideration for the amenity service to the third terminal 30(c) when a signal from the payment button 13 is received. Become.

As the staff terminal 30, a portable information terminal such as a general smartphone or a tablet terminal can be used. The staff terminal 30 receives notification information and patient-related information corresponding to each button from the management server 20 through the communication unit 31 . The control unit 32 of the staff terminal 30 displays notification information and patient-related information on the display unit 33. An example of the display section 33 is a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display. The staff terminal 30 also includes an operation section 34, through which operations such as confirmation of receipt of notification information can be input. Note that an example of the operation unit 34 is a touch panel, and may constitute a touch panel display together with the display unit 33.

As described above, by constructing the amenity service system 100 according to the present invention separately from the existing nurse call system, it becomes easier for specialized staff to respond when an application for amenity service is received. This makes it possible to provide generous amenity services to patients without increasing the burden on medical personnel.

As mentioned above, in this specification, in order to express the content of the present invention, embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and includes modifications and improvements that are obvious to those skilled in the art based on the matters described in this specification.

The present invention relates to a system and a patient terminal used when providing amenity services to patients in a hospital. Therefore, the present invention can be suitably used in the medical industry.

10... Patient terminal 11... Application button 12... Call button 13... Payment button 14... Control section 15... Communication section 16... Reception display section 17... Error display section 18... Code section 20... Management server 21... Communication section 22... Control Section 23...Database 30...Staff terminal 31...Communication section 32...Control section 33...Display section 34...Operation section

Claims (3)

An in-hospital amenity service system comprising a patient terminal, a management server, and a staff terminal, the management server being connected to the patient terminal and staff terminal through a network,
The patient terminal has an application button for applying for an amenity service, a call button for calling a staff member, and a payment button for paying for the amenity service. It transmits a signal to the management server,
The management server, when receiving the signal from the patient terminal, transmits a notification for each button to the staff terminal. The patient terminal transmits identification information of its own terminal to the management server along with signals for each button,
The management server has a database that stores patient-related information related to the patient who operates the patient terminal, or a hospital room or hospital bed in which the patient terminal is installed, in association with the identification information of the patient terminal, The system according to claim 1, wherein when the signal is received from the patient terminal, the patient-related information is transmitted to the staff terminal together with a notification for each button. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the patient terminal further includes a reception display section for displaying a notification when each button is pressed.

Images