Assistive technology for operating nursing homes and other health care facilities

A method in a computing system for coordinating the safety care of a person, comprising:

• receiving sensor output indicating, based at least in part on one or more inference rules, that the person has departed a place of repose;
• in response to the receiving, establishing an alarm identifying the person;
• accessing a set of on-duty caregivers;
• applying one or more precedence rules to establish a precedence among at least a portion of the set of on-duty caregivers;
• until a caregiver has accepted the alarm:
• for each caregiver in the established precedence:
• causing a mobile device carried by the caregiver to render a message notifying the caregiver of the alarm and soliciting the caregiver's acceptance of the alarm;
• allowing the caregiver an interval of time of a first predetermined length in which to accept the alarm before proceeding to the next caregiver in the established precedence;
• determining that an interval of time of a second predetermined length has passed since the alarm was established without a caregiver notified of the alarm accepting the alarm, the second predetermined length being greater than the first predetermined length;
• and
• in response to the determining, triggering an audible alarm near the place of repose.

A computer-readable medium not constituting a signal per se, the computer-readable medium storing contents that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform actions comprising:

• receiving sensor output indicating, based at least in part on one or more inference rules, that a person has departed a place of repose;
• in response to the receiving, establishing an alarm identifying the person;
• accessing a set of on-duty caregivers;
• applying one or more precedence rules to establish a precedence among at least a portion of the set of on-duty caregivers;
• until a caregiver has accepted the alarm:
• for each caregiver in the established precedence:
• causing a mobile device carried by the caregiver to render a message notifying the caregiver of the alarm and soliciting the caregiver's acceptance of the alarm;
• allowing the caregiver an interval of time of a first predetermined length in which to accept the alarm before proceeding to the next caregiver in the established precedence;
• determining that a distinguished caregiver declined an earlier alarm less than a threshold period of time ago;
• and
• in response to the determining, omitting the distinguished caregiver from the portion of the set of on-duty caregivers among which the precedence is established.

A system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing contents that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the system to:
• receive sensor output indicating, based at least in part on one or more inference rules, that a person has departed a place of repose;
• in response to the receiving, establish an alarm identifying the person;
• access a set of on-duty caregivers;
• apply one or more precedence rules to establish a precedence among at least a portion of the set of on-duty caregivers;
• until a caregiver has accepted the alarm:
• for each caregiver in the established precedence:
• cause a mobile device carried by the caregiver to render a message notifying the caregiver of the alarm and soliciting the caregiver's acceptance of the alarm;
• allow the caregiver an interval of time of a first predetermined length in which to accept the alarm before proceeding to the next caregiver in the established precedence;
• determine that a distinguished caregiver accepted an earlier alarm that has not yet been resolved;
• and
• in response to the determining, omit the distinguished caregiver from the portion of the set of on-duty caregivers among which the precedence is established.