Mobile medical workstation

Abstract

A medical workstation is defined by a supporting structure having at least one medical diagnostic instrument disposed thereupon. A first display is further disposed on a first side of the supporting structure and a second display is disposed on a second side of the supporting structure in a manner substantially opposite from the first display. Each of the first and second displays are interconnected to the at least one medical diagnostic instrument to permit at least one of the displays in order to display diagnostic results and are tandemly or independently controllable.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority based upon U.S. Ser. No. 60 / 658,626, entitled: MOBILE MEDICAL WORKSTATION, filed Mar. 4, 2005, and U.S. Ser. No. 60 / 601,450, entitled: MOBILE MEDICAL WORKSTATION, filed Aug. 13, 2004, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety. This application is also a continuation-in-part application of U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 643,487, entitled: DIAGNOSTIC INSTRUMENT WORKSTATION, filed Aug. 19, 2003, which is based upon Ser. No. 60 / 404,601, filed Aug. 20, 2002, the entire contents of each being herein incorporated by reference. This patent application further incorporates by reference the entirety of commonly owned and currently pending U.S. Ser. No. 11 / 032,625, entitled “A PORTABLE VITAL SIGNS MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENT AND METHOD OF USE THEREOF”, filed Jan. 10, 2005, and U.S. Ser. No. 10 / 619,380, filed Jul. 14, 2003 and entitled: MOTION MANAGEMENT IN A BLOOD PRESSURE MEASUREMENT DEVICE”...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0040] An advantage of the present invention in providing dual displays on the workstation is that displayed results can be presented simultaneously to both the patient and to the user, providing redundancy for example, in the event one of the displays is not visible from the caretaker's current location.

[0041] Another advantage provided is that the herein described mobile workstation improves response time and provides ease of use for all users, whether PCTs, RNs, doctors, clinicians or others.

[0042] Still another advantage provided by the present invention is that the at least one medical diagnostic instrument can be controlled for either automated and / or manual taking of patient vitals wherein the results can be automatically logged without requiring transcription, thereby improving time, efficiency and accuracy. Moreover, the data can be stored for trend analysis and alerts can be created automatically to permit additional readings to be taken if a patient's condition changes significantly.

[0043] Yet another advantage is that each of the displays can be separately controlled in order to select which information is shown on each display for ease of use and for security / privacy (HIPAA) concerns. For example, the user could utilize the controls of the medical diagnostic instrument when the user is on that side of the workstation, and disable the computer display. When the user is on the computer side of the workstation, the display of the at least one medical diagnostic instrument can be caused to dim or turned off to protect patient confidential information. In fact, the user could operate the at least one medical device from the computer without requiring the instrument display, selectively.

[0044] Another advantage of the present workstation is the utilization of a docking station for the computer and / or at least one medical diagnostic instrument, permitting the devices to be utilized separate from the workstation. For example, some patients are isolated for contagious diseases—a dockable vitals device allows them to bring only the device into the patient's room, to simplify decontamination later. Further, nurses may want to remove the computer to complete documentation in areas where a wheeled cart may not be optimal, such as, for example, a breakroom.

Problems solved by technology

The staff of a medical / surgical floor of a typical hospital is under an increasing amount of pressure.

Contributing to these pressures is the pervasive nursing shortage that has translated into a lower nurse to patient ratio, with longer hours and increased overtime.

As a result, errors due to oversight and the like are likely to increase.

As a result, users of the monitoring equipment are transitory and must learn new internal procedures very quickly, exacerbating the above problems.

In the meantime, even if a significant change in the patient's vitals has been detected, time has been wasted and therefore lost.

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