JP7516481B2 - Nurse Call System - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a nurse call system that is equipped with a camera that captures an image of a patient in bed and has the function of checking the patient's posture.

There are nurse call systems that install cameras in hospital rooms and detect whether a patient falls out of bed or gets out of bed from the images captured by the cameras. For example, in Patent Document 1, the system detects the patient getting up from the images captured by the camera, and if the patient then leaves the bed, it is determined that the patient has left the bed or fallen, and a notification is sent.

JP 2016-59704 A

The bed exit detection in Patent Document 1 requires detection of the patient getting up first, which reduces the problem of false detection where a nurse misjudging an action such as leaving the bed as the patient getting up. However, if the purpose is to prevent accidents involving patients, it is desirable to take some kind of measure at the stage when the patient gets up before getting up.
For this reason, a configuration that notifies the patient when it detects the patient getting up is conceivable, but even if a notification is made when the patient gets up, there are cases where the patient has left the bed before the nurse arrives, or the patient gets up for another reason that does not involve leaving the bed. Therefore, if a notification is made to have a nurse rush to the scene when the patient gets up, it would be a burden on the nurse.

In view of these problems, the present invention aims to provide a nurse call system that notifies a nurse when a patient begins an action that requires monitoring, such as getting out of bed, while also sending the patient a message to discourage them from getting out of bed, thereby preventing falls, etc.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 provides a nurse call system having a nurse call handset for a patient to call a nurse and talk to, a corridor light to notify the occurrence of a call by the nurse call handset, a nurse call master for answering the call, and a controller for controlling the call/talk, the system including a camera for capturing an image of the patient, a specific posture detection unit for detecting when the patient on the bed assumes a specific posture from the image captured by the camera, a message control unit for sounding a predetermined message from a speaker provided in the nurse call handset associated with the camera when the specific posture detection unit detects the specific posture, and a nurse call control unit for controlling the call/talk to the patient. The device has a signal generating unit that outputs a specific posture detection signal to cause the call parent unit to make a call, and a portable terminal that the nurse carries to answer the call, and the control unit receives the specific posture detection signal and sends a call signal to the nurse call parent unit and the portable terminal, and when the nurse call parent unit or the portable terminal that received the call signal is answered, it forms a talk path from the device that answered to the nurse call handset that is paired with the camera that captured the specific posture, while the message control unit, upon the formation of the talk path, stops message notification and enables the nurse's voice to be heard from the speaker of the nurse call handset .
According to this configuration, when a patient is found in a specific posture, a notification is sent to the nurse, and a message is sent to the patient. For example, if a message such as "Please do not stand up and wait in that posture" is sent to a patient who is about to get out of bed, the patient can be prevented from getting out of bed. This allows the nurse to deal with the situation without panicking.
In addition, because nurses can talk to patients who are in a specific posture, patients can feel at ease and remain in the same place, preventing falls, etc. Therefore, nurses who receive the notification can take action without panicking.

The invention of claim 2 is a nurse call system having a nurse call handset that allows a patient to call and talk to a nurse, a corridor light that notifies the patient when a call is made by the nurse call handset, a nurse call master unit for answering the call, and a controller that controls the calls/communications, and has a camera that images the patient, a specific posture detection unit that detects when the patient on the bed assumes a specific posture from the image captured by the camera, a message control unit that causes a speaker provided in the nurse call handset associated with the camera to sound a predetermined message when the specific posture detection unit detects the specific posture, a signal generation unit that outputs a specific posture detection signal for causing the nurse call master unit to perform a call operation, and a portable terminal that the nurse carries to answer the call, and the controller receives the specific posture detection signal and transmits a call signal to the portable terminal in addition to the nurse call master unit, and when the nurse call master unit or the portable terminal that received the call signal is operated to answer the call, the message control unit switches the message it was notifying to a message notifying that a nurse will respond, and continues sounding the alarm.
According to this configuration, when a patient is found in a specific posture, a notification is sent to the nurse, and a message is sent to the patient. For example, if a message such as "Please do not stand up and wait in that posture" is sent to a patient who is about to get out of bed, the patient can be prevented from getting out of bed. This allows the nurse to deal with the situation without panicking.
In addition, when a nurse receives a notification that a specific posture has been detected and responds, the message sent to the patient will change to one that the nurse will respond to, allowing the patient to wait with peace of mind.

The invention of claim 3 is characterized in that, in the configuration described in claim 2 , it has a nursing system information storage unit that stores associations between nurses and mobile terminals, and associations between nurses and patients, and a voice conversion unit that converts the nurse's name into voice information, and when a response operation is performed on the mobile terminal, the control device reads the nurse name associated with the mobile terminal from the nursing system information storage unit and converts the read nurse name into voice and sends it to the message control unit, and the message control unit receives the voice-converted nurse name and changes the message being notified to a message that includes the nurse's name, and continues the notification.
With this configuration, when the nurse responds from the mobile device, the message content changes to the nurse's response and the patient is notified of the nurse's name, which provides further peace of mind to the patient.

According to the present invention, when a patient is found in a specific posture, a notification is sent to the nurse and a message is sent to the patient. For example, if a patient who is about to get out of bed is notified with a message such as "Please do not stand up and wait in that posture," it is possible to stop the patient from getting out of bed. This allows the nurse to deal with the situation without panicking.

1 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a nurse call system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a corridor light. FIG.

The following describes in detail an embodiment of the present invention with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a nurse call system according to the present invention, in which 1 is a nurse call handset installed at each bed so that a patient can call a nurse, 2 is a corridor light installed in front of a patient's room to notify the patient of a call and display information about the patient in the room, 3 is a nurse call master unit at a nurse's station to notify and respond to calls from patients, 4 is a mobile terminal such as a smartphone carried by a nurse to respond to calls from patients, 5 is a base station such as an access point that communicates with the mobile terminal 4, 6 is a switchboard that manages communication via the base station 5, 7 is a controller that controls calls/communications, and 8 is a camera installed on a wall or ceiling of a patient's room to capture an image of the patient.

The corridor light 2, nurse call base unit 3, and switchboard 6 are connected to the control unit 7 via LAN line L1. The nurse call handset 1 is connected to the corridor light 2 in each patient room via transmission line L2. The camera 8 is connected to the corridor light 2 in the patient room via transmission line L3.

The nurse call handset 1 (hereafter simply referred to as the "handset") is equipped with a call button 1a and a plate handset 1b that is installed on the wall near the bed and has a microphone 11 and speaker 12 for communicating with a nurse. The call button 1a is connected to this plate handset 1b.

The corridor light 2 has an indicator light 21 that flashes when a patient in the hospital room operates the handset 1 to make a call, and a patient information display unit 22 that displays the name of the patient in the hospital room, etc. As shown in the block diagram of Figure 2, the corridor light 2 is equipped with a specific posture detection unit 23 that analyzes the image captured by the connected camera 8 to detect a specific posture of the patient, a message storage unit 24 that stores a message to be notified to the patient, a corridor light CPU 26 that controls the corridor light 2, a corridor light communication IF 27 that communicates with the controller 7, the camera 8, and the handset 1, etc.
Incidentally, the corridor light 2 in FIG. 1 shows a corridor light 2 in a four-person hospital room and is capable of displaying information on four patients, but the camera 8 is set to capture an image of one specific patient among them.

The specific posture detection unit 23 detects a plurality of postures of the patient from the image captured by the camera 8. For example, a posture with the upper body raised, a sitting position on the edge of the bed, a standing position beside the bed, etc. are detected.
The message storage unit 24 stores a number of different messages that correspond to the detected posture. For example, if an upright posture is detected, a message such as "Has a problem occurred? Please wait as is" is selected from the message storage unit 24 and sounded, and if a sitting-on-the-edge posture is detected, a message such as "Please do not stand up and wait in that posture" is selected and used for sounding.

The nurse call base unit 3 (hereinafter simply referred to as the "base unit") is equipped with a handset 31 as a communication section for answering calls made using the handset 1, a first display 32 that displays a list of patient information and a ward map, a second display 33 that displays caller information, etc.

Figure 3 shows a block diagram of the control unit 7. As shown in Figure 3, the control unit 7 includes a nursing system information storage unit 71 that stores the association between nurses and mobile terminals 4, and between nurses and patients, a camera/sub-unit information storage unit 72 that stores the sub-unit 1 equipped with a speaker 12 as an audio notification means paired with a camera 8, a voice conversion unit 73 that converts text information into voice, a control unit CPU 74 that controls communication between devices and also controls the control unit 7, and a control unit communication IF 75 that communicates with each device via a LAN line L1.

The operation of the nurse call system configured as described above is as follows: However, the operation of calling a nurse by operating the handset 1, and the operation of answering the call from the base unit 3 or mobile terminal 4 and talking are the same as in the past, so explanations are omitted here, and the explanation here focuses on the operation when a patient tries to move from the bed to go to the toilet, etc.
The camera 8 is always active, and the specific posture detection unit 23 detects specific postures of the patient from the image captured by the camera 8. Specifically, it recognizes sitting up, sitting on the edge of the bed, standing up to the side of the bed, etc., and operates as follows when it detects these postures.

When the specific posture detection unit 23 detects a specific posture from the image captured by the camera 8, a specific posture detection signal is sent to the control unit 7 under the control of the corridor light CPU 26. The control unit 7 that receives this signal, under the control of the control unit CPU 74, obtains the room number and patient information by referencing the nursing system information storage unit 71 and the camera/sub-unit information storage unit 72 based on the ID information of the camera 8 attached to the specific posture detection signal, and sends a call signal with the room number and patient information attached to it to the base unit 3 and the mobile terminal 4.

However, the mobile terminal 4 to which the call signal is sent is only one of the multiple mobile terminals 4, and is the mobile terminal 4 associated with the patient captured by the camera 8 (the patient associated with the camera 8). This mobile terminal 4 is read from the nursing system information storage unit 71 and sent. As a result, only the parent unit 3 and the nurse in charge of the patient are notified.

Also, under the control of the corridor light CPU 26, a message associated with the detected posture is extracted from the messages stored in the message storage unit 24, and is sounded from the speaker 12 of the handset 1 paired with the camera 8. For example, when a sitting-on-the-edge posture is detected, a message such as "Please do not stand up, and wait in that posture" is selected and sounded, as described above, and when a posture with the upper body raised on the bed is detected, a message such as "Has a problem occurred? Please wait as is" is selected and sounded.

The speaker that reports the message (the reporting means paired with the camera 8) does not have to be the speaker 12 of the handset 1, but may be a ceiling speaker (not shown) for broadcasting, or if the camera 8 is equipped with a speaker, the message may be reported from that speaker. Also, although the specific attitude detection unit 23 is provided in the corridor light 2, the specific attitude detection unit 23 may be provided in the camera 8, in which case the specific attitude detection signal is sent from the camera 8 to the corridor light 2. Furthermore, the message storage unit 24 does not have to be provided in the corridor light 2, but may be provided in the handset 1 or the control unit 7.

In the base unit 3 and the portable terminal 4 that receive a call signal from the control unit 7 in response to the detection of the specific posture, a call is made with a ring tone different from that of a call made by operation of the handset 1.
There are two types of call settings: a call setting that allows answering and talking, and a call setting that allows only answering operation and does not allow talking or conversation functions. First, the case where answering and talking are possible will be described.

When the call is answered by either the base unit 3 or the mobile terminal 4 in response to the call detected in the specific posture, the control unit CPU 74 reads the handset 1 paired with the camera 8 from the camera/handset information storage unit 72, and a voice path to the handset 1 is formed between the handset 1 and the device that has been answered. In response to the formation of the voice path, the corridor light CPU 26 stops the message being sounded by the handset 1.
In this way, the voice of the nurse input from the device that responded, such as the mobile terminal 4, is reported from the speaker 12 of the handset 1 where the message has stopped.

In this way, a specific message is sent to a patient who is in a specific posture, so the patient can remain in bed. Also, because an appropriate message is sent according to the patient's posture, the patient can be assured that they are being watched over.
Furthermore, because the nurse who responded can talk to the patient, the patient can feel at ease and remain in the same place, preventing falls, etc. Therefore, the nurse who receives the notification can deal with the situation without panicking.

In the above, we have explained the case where an audio path is formed by a response operation, but if the speaker that issues the message is the handset's speaker 12, the microphone 11 is provided in a pair, so it is also possible to form a speech path rather than an audio path and talk to the patient.

Next, we will explain the case of a call setting where only a response operation is possible and no talk or conversation functions are available. The base unit 3 and the mobile terminal 4, to which a call signal is sent in response to the detection of a specific posture, ring, and the call stops when either of them responds. Now, if a response operation is performed using the mobile terminal 4, the ring stops and a reception notification signal is sent to the control unit 7 via the base station 5 and the exchange 6.

When the control unit CPU 74 receives this reception notification signal, it does not form an outlet or speech path, but instead identifies the name of the nurse who responded from the nursing system information memory unit 71 based on the ID information of the mobile terminal 4 contained in the reception notification signal, and further converts the identified nurse name into voice information in the voice conversion unit 73 and transmits it to the corridor light 2 that output the specific posture detection signal.
The corridor light 2 receives the nurse's name as voice information, and under the control of the corridor light CPU 26, the name is added and the message including the nurse's name, such as "Nurse XX is coming, please wait a moment," is sounded from the speaker 12 of the handset 1.

On the other hand, if the call is answered by the base unit 3, the ringtone stops and a reception notification signal is returned, but the nurse who responded cannot be identified from the reception notification signal. Therefore, when the corridor light 2 receives the reception notification signal sent from the base unit 3, it switches to a message such as "A nurse will be there shortly, please wait a moment" and sounds it from the speaker 12 of the handset 1.

In this way, when a nurse responds to a call notifying the patient of the detection of a specific posture, the content of the message changes to something the nurse can respond to, allowing the patient to wait in peace without the nurse having to speak to the patient through the response device.
Furthermore, if the patient responds using the mobile terminal 4, the name of the nurse who responded is added to the message, providing further peace of mind to the patient. However, even if the patient responds using the mobile terminal 4, the nurse's name may not be announced as in the case of a response using the base unit 3, and the message may simply be switched to one that the nurse responds to.

1: Nurse call handset, 2: Corridor light, 3: Nurse call parent unit (notification means), 4: Mobile terminal (notification means), 7: Controller, 8: Camera, 12: Speaker (sound alarm means), 23: Specific posture detection unit, 24: Message storage unit, 26: Corridor light CPU (message control unit, signal generation unit), 71: Nursing system information storage unit, 72: Camera and handset information storage unit, 73: Voice conversion unit, 74: Controller CPU (notification control unit).

Claims (3)

A nurse call system having a nurse call handset for a patient to call a nurse and talk to the nurse, a hallway light to notify the occurrence of a call by the nurse call handset, a nurse call master to answer the call, and a controller to control the call/talk,
A camera for imaging a patient;
a specific posture detection unit that detects a specific posture of a patient on a bed from an image captured by the camera;
a message control unit that, when the specific posture detection unit detects a specific posture, issues a predetermined message from a speaker provided in the nurse call handset associated with the camera, and a signal generation unit that outputs a specific posture detection signal for calling the nurse call master unit ;
A mobile terminal that is carried by a nurse to respond to a call,
The control device receives the specific posture detection signal and transmits a call signal to the nurse call master device and the mobile terminal,
When the nurse call master unit or the mobile terminal that has received the call signal responds, a transmission path is formed from the responding device to the nurse call slave unit that is paired with the camera that captured the specific posture,
A nurse call system characterized in that the message control unit, upon establishment of a voice transmission path, stops message notification and enables the nurse's voice to be heard from the speaker of the nurse call handset . A nurse call system having a nurse call handset for a patient to call a nurse and talk to the nurse, a hallway light to notify the occurrence of a call by the nurse call handset, a nurse call master to answer the call, and a controller to control the call/talk,
A camera for imaging a patient;
a specific posture detection unit that detects a specific posture of a patient on a bed from an image captured by the camera;
a message control unit that, when the specific posture detection unit detects a specific posture, issues a predetermined message from a speaker provided in the nurse call handset associated with the camera, and a signal generation unit that outputs a specific posture detection signal for calling the nurse call master unit;
A mobile terminal that is carried by a nurse to respond to a call,
The control device receives the specific posture detection signal and transmits a call signal to the nurse call master device as well as to the mobile terminal;
A nurse call system characterized in that when the nurse call parent unit or the mobile terminal that receives the call signal responds, the message control unit changes the message being notified to a message notifying that a nurse will respond and continues to sound the alarm. The system includes a nursing care system information storage unit that stores the association between the nurse and the mobile terminal and the association between the nurse and the patient, and a voice conversion unit that converts the name of the nurse into voice information,
When a response operation is performed on the mobile device, the control device reads the name of the nurse associated with the mobile device from the nursing system information storage unit, converts the read nurse name into voice and transmits it to the message control unit,
3. The nurse call system according to claim 2, wherein the message control unit receives the voice-converted nurse name, changes the message being notified to a message including the nurse name, and continues the notification.

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