# US 2021/0241894 A1 · Bed/room/patient association systems and methods

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 2021/0241894 A1
- Document ID: US20210241894A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 17/237,104
- Filed: 2021-04-22
- Published: 2021-08-05
- Earliest claimed: 2013-09-18
- Assignees: Hill-Rom Services, Inc.
- Applicants: Hill-Rom Services, Inc.
- Inventors: Steven Alan Dixon; Keith A. Huster; Michael S. Hood; James Maurice Allen; John D. Christie; Jack Barney Sing; Dan R. Tallent; Umesh Jairamdas Rajani; Clay Gerome Owsley; Thomas F. Heil; Richard Joseph Schuman, SR.; Timothy D. Wildman
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210241894A1

## CPC

- G16H 40/20: for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms
- A61G 7/05: Parts, details or accessories of beds (devices for prevention against falling out A47C21/08, A47D7/00 {; mattresses A47C27/00})
- G07C 9/00: Individual registration on entry or exit
- G16H 40/63: for local operation
- G16H 40/67: for remote operation
- H04W 4/029: Location-based management or tracking services
- H04W 4/33: for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
- H04W 4/80: Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
- H04W 12/55: involving three or more devices, e.g. group pairing
- G07C 9/28: the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
- G16H: HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING OR PROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA
- A61G: TRANSPORT, PERSONAL CONVEYANCES OR ACCOMMODATION SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR PATIENTS OR DISABLED PERSONS (appliances for aiding patients or disabled persons to walk A61H3/00); OPERATING TABLES OR CHAIRS; CHAIRS FOR DENTISTRY; FUNERAL DEVICES (embalming corpses A01N1/00)
- G07C: TIME OR ATTENDANCE REGISTERS; REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE WORKING OF MACHINES; GENERATING RANDOM NUMBERS; VOTING OR LOTTERY APPARATUS; ARRANGEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING NOT PROVIDED FOR ELSEWHERE
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

Systems and methods of associating beds and/or rooms and/or patients are provided. One system and method involves using a signature of emitted light to determine a location of a patient bed in a healthcare facility. Another system and method involves reading a bar code from an array of redundant bar codes. Still another system and method involves manually entering location information on a graphical user interface of a patient bed for subsequent transmission. A further system and method involves sending bed ID and location ID along parallel paths from two independent circuits on a patient bed for receipt by two different transceivers and ultimately by two different remote computers that cooperate to associate the bed ID with the location ID. Still a further system and method involves using circuitry on a bed to mutate a received location ID and a bed ID into a single unique mutated ID such as by adding the location ID and bed ID and then performing a hashing operation.

## Claims

### Claim at position 1

-16. (canceled)

### Claim 17

A system for use in a healthcare facility having a power receptacle, the system comprising
a bed having a bed Bluetooth (BT) module and a power cord,
a wall BT module spaced from the bed, and
a sensor to detect the power cord of the bed having been plugged in to the power receptacle, wherein in response to detection by the sensor that the power cord has been plugged into the power receptacle, the bed BT module and the wall BT module implement a wireless pairing operation to become wirelessly paired for wireless communications therebetween.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the bed is configured to transmit bed data from the bed BT module to the wall BT module.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The system of claim 18, wherein the bed data includes bed status data and bed identification (ID) data.

### Claim 20 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the wireless pairing operation includes transmission of bed BT module ID data.

### Claim 21 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the bed further includes a Wi-Fi communication module.

### Claim 22 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, further comprising a nurse call module that is communicatively coupled to the wall BT module and to a nurse call server.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The system of claim 22, further comprising a wall communication board that communicatively couples the nurse call module to the wall BT module.

### Claim 24 (depends on 23)

The system of claim 23, wherein the communication board communicates with the nurse call module via a wired connection.

### Claim 25 (depends on 24)

The system of claim 24, wherein the wired connection comprises a 37-pin connector cable.

### Claim 26 (depends on 23)

The system of claim 23, wherein the communication board is configured to convert wireless data received by wall BT module from the bed BT module into wired data that can be fed to the nurse call module.

### Claim 27 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein after the bed BT module and the wall BT module become wirelessly paired, wall BT module operates to accept wireless transmissions from only the bed BT module and to ignore all other wireless transmissions

### Claim 28 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein after the bed BT module and the wall BT module become wirelessly paired, the wireless communications between the bed BT module and the wall BT module include both audio and data packets.

### Claim 29 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein after the bed BT module and the wall BT module become wirelessly paired, the wall BT module breaks the wireless pairing with the bed BT module in response to the sensor detecting that the power cord of the bed has become unplugged.

### Claim 30 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, further comprising a remote server communicatively coupled to the wall BT module and configured to make a bed-to-room association based on data received from the wall BT module.

### Claim 31 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the bed includes an indicator that is operated to indicated a successful bed-to-room association has been made.

### Claim 32 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, wherein the bed includes a graphical user interface that is operated to indicated a successful bed-to-room association has been made.

### Claim 33 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, further comprising a second bed and association means for associating the second bed to a room of the healthcare facility.

### Claim 34 (depends on 33)

The system of claim 33, wherein the association means comprises at least one or more of the following:
(i) a light source that emits visible light having a signature that is unique to a location of the healthcare facility;
(ii) an array of redundant bar codes and a bar code reader that is coupled to the second bed and that reads at least one of the redundant bar codes in the array;
(iii) a graphical user interface that is coupled to the second bed and that displays at least one user interface screen that is used by a caregiver to manually enter location data indicative of a location in a healthcare facility occupied by the second bed;
(iv) third circuitry coupled to the second bed and having stored therein ID translation software, the third circuitry receiving a second room location ID in a first format and, in accordance with the ID translation software, converting the second room location ID to a modified ID having a second format different than the first format, the third circuitry transmitting the modified ID;
(v) fourth circuitry coupled to the second patient bed and having stored therein ID mutation software, the fourth circuitry receiving the second location ID and, in accordance with the ID mutation software, mutating the second location ID and a second bed ID of the second bed into a mutated ID, the mutated ID being a single unique ID, the fourth circuitry transmitting the mutated ID;
(vi) at least one bed Bluetooth (BT) module coupled to the second bed and in communication with a wall BT module for transmission of bed data after a BT pairing operation is conducted based on transmission of bed BT module ID data via a transponder carried by a plug of a power cord of the second bed;
(vii) a second power cord of the second bed carrying a first RFID component, and a receptacle module carrying a second RFID component, the receptacle module having a receptacle into which the second power cord plugs to receive power and to bring the first and second RFID components into communicative proximity, the receptacle module having an indicator that is activated in response to successful communication being established between the first and second RFID components.

### Claim 35 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, further comprising an apparatus for communicating with a nurse call system of the healthcare facility, the apparatus comprising a second bed configured for wireless communication of second bed identification (ID) data and second bed status data, and a handheld pillow speaker unit having a pillow speaker transceiver in wireless communication with the second patient bed, the pillow speaker unit being in hardwired communication with the nurse call system, wherein the pillow speaker unit serves as a communication intermediary between the second bed and the nurse call system.

### Claim 36 (depends on 17)

The system of claim 17, further comprising a pillow speaker unit to communicate with a nurse call system of the healthcare facility, the pillow speaker unit comprising a handheld housing, a set of manual buttons accessible on the housing, and a touchscreen graphical display that displays electronic buttons, at least one of the manual buttons and at least one of the electronic buttons being usable to send a respective signal to the nurse call system.