Researchers Submit Patent Application, “System For Tracking Patient Referrals”, for Approval (USPTO 20230050346): Patent Application

2023 MAR 08 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Patel, Jigneshkumar (Trinity, FL, US), filed on August 10, 2022, was made available online on February 16, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “

“1 Field of the Invention

“The instant invention relates to a referral system structured to allow providers, patients and users to create patient profiles that enable providers to participate in patient tracking for healthcare related referrals to other physicians or providers within the instant invention network.

“2 Description of Related Art

“This disclosure relates to creating and managing complete patient profiles for healthcare treatment by various healthcare providers (HCPs), to bridge the gap between patients and providers, in order to ensure timely and effective patient care.

“Therefore, what is needed in the art is a secured method of tracking a patient’s healthcare treatment plan and healthcare referrals, updating the originating HCP’s records and ensuring that there are no gaps in terms of patient treatment.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “Embodiments of the instant invention can include mobile applications configured to interface with, but not limited to, smart phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, and/or mobile devices to allow users to interact with each other.

“In one form the instant invention allows Health Care Providers (HCPs) the ability to seamlessly communicate among themselves using trackers for patient treatment and management. The system also facilities communication by providing a portal for secure messaging such as exchanging texts, images, videos and audio. The system provides a portal that facilitates notifications to patients and providers to improve patient follow-up and adherence to treatment. This eliminates the problem of keeping track of patients and the status of their follow-up treatment. The instant invention solves the problem of tracking a patient’s follow-up care, by creating HIPAA compliant communication between provider-to-owner, provider-to-provider, provider-to-ER and provider-to-lab/imaging and ensures that there is no communication gap between providers and physicians.

“The instant invention in another form is a referral system structured to allow providers, patients and users to create patient profiles, for providers to participate in patient tracking for healthcare related referrals to other physicians/providers within the instant invention network. The system allows providers to invite other providers/physicians to participate in tracking patient referrals, update the status of patient procedures, and thereby notify the originating provider of the follow-up and discharge information for each patient. If a patient does not agree to be signed up for the HCP referral tracking, then they will not be allowed to participate thereby foregoing enhanced healthcare tracking. In at least one embodiment, a provider is required to be a member of the HCP network, but that may not be a requirement of all embodiments. The system is structured such that a provider will have a patient’s consent to sign them up on the instant invention, the provider will refer the patient to a member HCP, and the patient’s health history will be tracked using referrals until they are successfully discharged. The instant invention also uses different embodiments to track patient referrals and provider referrals. The instant invention is a mechanism to provide enhanced communications between various Healthcare Providers (HCPs) concerning a patient’s healthcare treatment, by allowing HCPs to create and manage a patient tracking system.

“The instant invention in another form is a tracking system for use in patient healthcare between providers and physicians. It utilizes patient trackers to monitor important health information about patients. The instant invention also uses a HIPAA compliant text feature to communicate text, video, audio, and images between providers and physicians, to obtain updates on patient’s appointments, procedures, follow-ups and discharge dates. The inability to communicate a patient’s treatment plan and allow healthcare providers and physicians the ability to monitor their follow-up care, in real time, is an issue many healthcare providers currently face. The instant invention patient tracker system is structured to allow healthcare providers to bridge the gap in terms of patient treatment follow-up.

“The instant invention has the advantage of bridging the gap between providers and physicians in order to ensure timely and effective patient care.

“In a preferred embodiment the instant invention provides a secure method for patients and providers to provide information and share information. The most preferred embodiment is a platform that provides a common place to communicate ongoing care about an individual in a simplified way. The instant invention is divided into a Provider-to-Office (P20) module, a Provider-to-Provider (P2P) module, a Provider-to-Provider Office (P2P(O)) module and Provider-to-Provider Hospital (P2P(H)) module.

“The system uses a security system to ensure that only authorized equipment can be connected to the system to provide the high level of security required by Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.

“Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. The exemplifications set out herein illustrate embodiments of the invention and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in any manner.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A HIPPA compliant tracking system for a patient’s follow-up healthcare services and monitoring system comprising: a. a provider sign up module wherein said provider sign up module collects the provider login and security information; b. a patient sign up module wherein said patient sign up module collects the patient login and security information; c. a patient login module wherein said provider signs in to said login module using said patient login and security information; d. a provider login module wherein said provider signs in to said login module using said provider login and security information; e. said HIPPA compliant tracking system collecting procedure information for at least one patient; f. said HIPPA compliant tracking system collecting plan information for said at least one patient; g. said HIPPA compliant tracking system displaying said procedure information for said at least one patient to at least one provider; and h. said HIPPA compliant tracking system displaying said plan information for said at least one patient to at least one provider.

“2. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 1 wherein said provider sign up module stores said provider login and security information in an authorized username, password, NPI number file.

“3. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 2 wherein said provider login and security information comprises a username, password, an NPI number and an IP address of the computing device the provider is using.

“4. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 2 wherein said patient sign up module stores said patient login and security information in an authorized username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number file.

“5. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 4 wherein said provider login module compares said username, password, NPI number, to said authorized username, password, NPI number in said authorized username, password, NPI number file and said provider login module stores said IP address in a sanction IP address file if said login is a first time log in for said IP address and if said username, password, NPI number are in said authorized username, password, NPI number file.

“6. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 1 wherein said patient login and security information comprises of said username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number and an IP address of the computing device the patient is using.

“7. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 6 wherein said patient login and security information comprises of said username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number and an IP address of the computing device the provider is using.

“8. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 7 wherein said patient sign up module stores said patient login and security information in said authorized username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number file.

“9. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 6 wherein said patient login module compares said username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number to said authorized username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number in said authorized username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number file and said patient login module stores said IP address in a sanction IP address file if said login is a first time log in for said IP address and if said username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number are in said authorized username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric account number file.

“10. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 2 wherein said provider login module verifies said username, password, an NPI number and said IP address of the computing device and verifies that said IP address is in said sanctioned IP addresses and if said username, password, an NPI number is verified by the provider tracking system login verification system and said IP address is in said sanctioned IP addresses said provider tracking system login verification system allowing access to said provider tracking system.

“11. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 6 wherein said patient login module verifies said username, password, 10-digit alphanumeric and said IP address of the computing device and verifies that said IP address is in said sanctioned IP addresses and if said username, password, an NPI number is verified by the provider tracking system login verification system and said IP address is in said sanctioned IP addresses said provider tracking system login verification system allowing access to said provider tracking system.

“12. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 1 wherein said procedure information for said at least one patient comprises a medical procedure, a provider, a facility and a date of service.

“13. The HIPPA compliant tracking system of claim 1 wherein said plan information for said at least one patient comprises a medical procedure, a provider, a facility and a date of service.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Patel, Jigneshkumar. System For Tracking Patient Referrals. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230050346, filed August 10, 2022 and posted February 16, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230050346)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)