Conventional patient bedside monitors are connected to various vital statistics measuring/monitoring devices and display the real time patient vital statistics, such as pulse rate and blood pressure, among other variables, continuously. Usually, the displayed vital statistics are not recorded in the monitor, and hence, once they disappear from a display, the information is not further cached, buffered, or otherwise stored, and therefore lost. In cases where the monitor records displayed information and presents it in the form of patient health trends, the display of real time vital statistics is obscured.
In a hospital environment, patient specific information such as blood test reports and X-ray reports, among other data, are generated at sites remote to the patient bedside. Such information is usually stored in the hospital information system and may be accessed by caregivers as and when required from a central server. The caregivers may be required to carry the information in paper form in order to study/compare it in context with the real time patient vital statistics. As the volume of paper being carried by the caregiver increases, the chances of delay in diagnosis/treatment due to delay in finding a relevant piece of information, increase as well. Also, some piece of patient information may not be available with the caregiver at any given time and may cause a delay or an error in diagnosis and treatment.
Hence, there is need for a patient bedside monitor which is capable of connecting with the hospital information system and displaying all the information related to a specific patient. There is need for a bedside monitor which can display all the patient related information available with the hospital at the same time and without obscuring the real time display of the patient's vital statistics. There is need for a smart bedside monitor that can provide analyses of the patient's health information over a specified period of time corresponding to any pre-defined criteria set by a caregiver.
Furthermore, there is a need for a multi-purpose display that can be partially under a user's control but not supersede or compromise critical functions, such as the display of key monitored physiological parameters or issuance of alarms in relation to monitored events. The multi-purpose display enables a single physical display unit to perform multiple functions, thereby avoiding taking up excessive hospital room space by additional display units, while not undermining, sacrificing, or compromising the core function of a physiological display.