Patent Application Titled “System And Method For Providing A Dynamic Medical Practice Queuing Platform” Published Online (USPTO 20240120089): Patent Application

2024 APR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx journalists, a patent application by the inventors Green, Jr., Erick Joseph (Clovis, CA, US); KHAN, HAIDER (Lahore, PK); Meeks, Steffen Michael (Clovis, CA, US); RAZA, ALI (Bahawalpur, PK), filed on April 28, 2023, was made available online on April 11, 2024.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Medical care facilities are often inundated with patients, especially those operating as urgent care (UC) facilities. Commonly, urgent care clinics have unpredictable patient flows and manage patients experiencing a wide range of symptoms and severity of injuries and illnesses. In many clinics, static waitlists, requiring an administrator to update the waitlist by hand, result in patients being treated in the order they arrive (i.e. first in first out) unless an exceptionally serious patient emergency exists. As can be expected, this archaic manual system results in long wait times for many patients.

“The most common method of queuing patients at UC facilities is according to static slotted appointments. Static slotted appointments are generally appointment blocks or timeslots of pre-defined length (e.g., fifteen or thirty minutes) in which patients are scheduled to be seen by healthcare providers. Under the static slotted appointment method, all appointments are estimated to require a similar amount of time. Of course, each patient’s needs are unique, and the static slotted appointment method is rigid and generally inflexible. Fixed timeslots fail to account for individual patient needs and thereby lead to inefficiencies in providing care. When patients require less time than the timeslots allow, time is wasted. When patients require more time than the timeslots allow, appointments may be rushed.

“Due to the fact that UC clinics have unpredictable patient flows, with walk-ins experiencing, for example, fractures, lacerations, and serious nose bleeds, needs exist at UC clinics that would provide queueing software with dynamic updates based on current, real-time patient volume and flows. Such systems could also beneficially dynamically communicate estimated time for patient visits based on current actual patient quantities measured in a queue.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent application, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent application: “This summary is provided to introduce a variety of concepts in a simplified form that is disclosed further in the detailed description of the embodiments. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential inventive concepts of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended for determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

“Typical static appointment slot software seen in ambulatory patient engagement solutions is nearly worthless in the hyper dynamic queuing ecosystem of existing urgent care facilities.

“The embodiments described herein remedy such situations and relate to a system for providing a dynamic medical practice queueing platform at least one user computing device in operable connection with a network. An application server is in operable communication with the network to host an application program for displaying, via a display module, a virtual patient waitlist. The application program includes a user interface module for providing access to virtual patient waitlist through the display module. A geofencing module determines the location of a user in reference to a geofenced location. A virtual patient waitlist module determines a time of arrival of a patient using the current location of the patient and to position the patient within a virtual waitlist queue.

“According to various embodiments, the systems and methods disclosed herein determine patient volume and patient flows at medical facilities, such as urgent care facilities, to dynamically communicate the estimated time for patient visits based on actual volumes of patients in a UC facility’s queue, patient location, and commute time, coupled to additional algorithms. These systems and method are implemented in some embodiments as smart phone applications, designed to provide UC customers/patients with a dynamic queuing ecosystem. They set forth algorithms for the management of a virtual waiting room and are capable of exponentially reducing UC wait room times in some instances. Such algorithms operate on a set of data parameters processed at the back end of wireless network connected applications run on smart mobile devices.

“In operation, the various embodiments provide for patient users to be placed in a virtual queue in a virtual waiting room upon the selection of desired urgent care facility that the user selects from a list of local UC facilities displayed in the application running on their mobile device. Such virtual queues are maintained by algorithms run as software process that determine estimated time for patient users to be seen at the urgent care facility based on the user/customers current location (e.g. as determined according to their mobile device) and is updated in real-time based on geo-fencing techniques as well as travel time and mapping systems.

“Back-office personal computers (PCs) located in the UC can be updated periodically (e.g. monthly) with data input including one or more of the percent of customers that received treatment and the mandatory sit-down time associated with the type of treatment provided in order to teach the system the treatment patterns by region. In embodiments where treatments are injections or shots, such data can drive the virtual waiting room exit data which may influence the geofence data (e.g. by modifying the distance and/or expected time when a patient user needs to leave or should arrive at the UC facility). The development of an injection data feature over time gives the systems and methods a dynamic algorithm by which machine learning and adjustments can become ever more precise and finely tuned to changing real-world conditions.

“In some aspects, patient users receive real-time notifications from the system and/or UC facility predicting optimal departure and receives map-based travel directions (e.g. driving, walking, bicycling, or public transportation directions) from a user’s current location to the selected UC facility.

“In some aspects, patient users/customers are prompted by the application to capture images of their health insurance card or other documents via a mobile device camera. These images and/or other files can be stored on their mobile device and/or uploaded via a network to one or more system servers.

“In some aspects, the application embodies machine learning algorithms that enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the application. The UC facility data can be periodically collected (e.g. on a monthly basis) to train the machine learning models and contribute to continuous improvement in application’s accuracy.

“In some aspects, greater flexibility is provided by the embodiments herein. Healthcare providers are able to tailor the length of appointments based on patient needs and healthcare provider availability. Rather than strict schedule adherence, real-time adjustments can be made with dynamic queuing and time can be adjusted to better accommodate individual patient needs.

“In some aspects, improved patient experience is provided by the embodiments described herein. Since dynamic appointment queuing can eliminate wait times and allow for more personalized care, patient satisfaction with UC facilities overall can be vastly improved. This can also reduce the number of walkouts, which may be potential patients who grow tired of waiting for their appointment and simply leave a UC facility without treatment or paying.

“In some aspects, dynamic appointments according to the embodiments herein allow for more patients to be seen effectively and this better use of time can lead to increased revenue for UC facilities.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for providing a real-time virtual medical facility queue on a mobile device via a network, comprising: instructions stored in memory of the mobile device that, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, cause the device to perform operations including: displaying, on a display of the mobile device, data corresponding to at least one local medical facility based on a location of the mobile device; displaying, on a display of the mobile device, a virtual queue of patients pending treatment at the medical facility; and updating the virtual queue based on geographic movement of the mobile device.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: scheduling an appointment based on user selection of an appointment confirmation button displayed on the mobile device.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: providing a mobile device notification indicating a departure time based on the location of the mobile device.

“4. The method of claim 3, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: updating the departure time based on geographic movement of the mobile device.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: transmitting insurance data for a user of the mobile device to the medical facility via the network.

“6. The method of claim 5, wherein the insurance data is captured using a camera of the mobile device.

“7. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: updating the virtual queue based on user selection of a mode of travel.

“8. The method of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed by a processor of the mobile device, further cause the device to perform operations including: offering, on a display of the mobile device, a list of local medical facilities for user selection.

“9. The method of claim 1, wherein updating the virtual queue based on geographic movement of the mobile device further comprises: determining a location of the mobile device with respect to the medical facility; and removing a user indicator associated with the mobile device from the virtual queue when the mobile device travels outside of a preset proximity distance from the medical facility.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein the present proximity distance from the medical facility is monitored via geofencing.

“11. An application server for providing a real-time virtual queue for a medical facility via a network, comprising: at least one processor of the server executing instructions stored in memory that cause the server to perform operations including: sending virtual queue data for the medical facility to a user mobile device via the network for display on the user mobile device.

“12. The application server of claim 11, wherein the medical facility is selected from a list of medical facilities by a user of the user mobile device.

“13. The application server of claim 12, wherein the list of medical facilities is populated according to a geographic location of the user mobile device.

“14. The application server of claim 11, wherein executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: sending updated virtual queue data based on a geographic location change of the user mobile device.

“15. The application server of claim 11, wherein executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: sending updated virtual queue data based on a geographic location change of a third-party user mobile device.

“16. The application server of claim 11, executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: sending updated virtual queue data based on a cancellation received from a third-party mobile device via the network.

“17. The application server of claim 11, executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: storing insurance data received from the user mobile device.

“18. The application server of claim 17, wherein the insurance data was captured using a camera of the user mobile device.

“19. The application server of claim 11, executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: sending updated virtual queue data based on selection of a mode of travel on the user mobile device.

“20. The application server of claim 11, executing the instructions causes the server to perform operations further comprising: updating virtual queue data based on an appointment cancellation received from the user mobile device.”

For more information, see this patent application: Green, Jr., Erick Joseph; KHAN, HAIDER; Meeks, Steffen Michael; RAZA, ALI. System And Method For Providing A Dynamic Medical Practice Queuing Platform. U.S. Patent Application Number 20240120089, filed April 28, 2023 and posted April 11, 2024. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20240120089)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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