US-12626793-B2 - Business to customer communication portal

Abstract

A multi-format communications system provides a way for a company to control information, some of which may be confidential information, such as PHI, exchanged with existing and potential customers, through individuals associated with the company in a manner preferred by the customers, particularly for non-confidential information, while maintaining a permanent record of communications. With the company maintaining control, if an employee leaves, the employee can be blocked from access to customer information, including communications. Additionally, a time-line view of all events related to a customer can be displayed including communications.

Inventors

• Keith Dressler
• Bo Ferger
• Douglas Ford
• Rob Whelan
• Yasser Ansari
• Yanis Markin

Assignees

• RHINOGRAM INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20230418

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A method for managing communications between remote user devices accessing a plurality of different communication channels, a computer system of an organization, and a plurality of team member devices, the method comprising: receiving, at the computer system via a first communication channel of the plurality of different communication channels, a first communication from a remote user device, wherein the first communication comprises first information associated with a remote user; receiving, at the computer system via a second communication channel, a second communication from a team member device, wherein the second communication comprises second information associated with the remote user, wherein the second communication channel is a private communication channel controlled by the organization over which the team member device securely transmits the second communication to the computer system, and wherein the second communication channel is different than the first communication channel; generating, at the computer system, a third communication to send to the remote user device via the first communication channel, wherein the third communication comprises third information associated with the remote user and further comprises a user-actionable element associated with at least one of a secure application, secure channel, or secure website, and wherein the computer system is configured to communicate confidential information associated with the remote user via the at least one secure application, secure channel, or secure website to the remote user device if the remote user activates the user-actionable element in the third communication; accessing, by first software and second software on the computer system, a file associated with the remote user on the computer system, wherein the file contains each of the first, second, and third information that the computer system transmits or receives over the different first and second communication channels, and wherein a first portion of the file is communicated to the first software and a second portion of the file is communicated to the second software for different purposes; and using, by the computer system, the file to create a graphical display depicting at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in a chronological order in a timeline format.
2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: associating, by the computer system, a respective timestamp with each of the first, second, and third information; storing, by the computer system, each of the first, second, and third information together with their respective timestamps as different entries in the file associated with the remote user; and creating, by the computer system, the graphical display depicting at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in the chronological order in the timeline format based on the timestamps respectively associated with the first, second, and third information in the file.
3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying, by the computer system, a user interface including options for selecting multiple different views, wherein one of the options corresponds to a view comprising the graphical display depicting at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in the chronological order in the timeline format.
4. 4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the second communication channel is a private channel controlled by the organization.
5. 5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the organization is a health care provider and the remote user is a patient.
6. 6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein at least one of the first, second, and third information comprises personal health information of the patient.
7. 7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the personal health information comprises medical test results of the patient.
8. 8 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the personal health information comprises doctor notes associated with the patient.
9. 9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first, second, and third information comprises financial information of the remote user.
10. 10 . A communication system for communicating with remote user devices accessing a plurality of different communication channels and a plurality of team member devices associated with an organization, the communication system comprising: a communication interface configured to receive: a first communication from a remote user device via a first communication channel, wherein the first communication comprises first information associated with a remote user, and a second communication from a team member device via a second communication channel, wherein the second communication comprises second information associated with the remote user, wherein the second communication channel is a private communication channel controlled by the organization over which the team member device securely transmits the second communication to the communication system, and wherein the second communication channel is different than the first communication channel; at least one processor configured to generate a third communication to send to the remote user device via the first communication channel, wherein the third communication further comprises third information associated with the remote user and further comprises a user-actionable element associated with at least one of a secure application, secure channel, or secure website, wherein the communication system is configured to communicate confidential information associated with the remote user via the at least one secure application, secure channel, or secure website to the remote user device if the remote user activates the user-actionable element in the third communication; a memory configured to store a file associated with the remote user, wherein the file is configured to store entries corresponding to each of the first, second, and third information associated with the remote user; and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: access, using first software and second software, the file associated with the remote user, wherein a first portion of the file is communicated to the first software and a second portion of the file is communicated to the second software for different purposes; and use the file to create a graphical display to depict at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in a chronological order in a timeline format.
11. 11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein a respective timestamp is associated with each of the first, second, and third information, and wherein the file is further configured to store each of the first, second, and third information together with their respective timestamps as different entries.
12. 12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to create a user interface including options for selecting multiple different views, wherein one of the options corresponds to a view comprising the graphical display depicting at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in the chronological order in the timeline format.
13. 13 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the organization is a health care provider and the remote user is a patient, and wherein at least one of the first, second, and third information comprises personal health information of the patient.
14. 14 . A method for managing communications between a patient and a health care provider having a plurality of team members including at least one doctor and a computer system configured to communicate with the patient's device and the doctor's device, the method comprising: receiving, at the computer system, a first communication from the patient's device via a first communication channel of a plurality of different communication channels available to the patient, wherein the first communication comprises first information associated with the patient; receiving, at the computer system, a second communication from the doctor's device via a second communication channel, wherein the second communication comprises second information associated with the patient, and wherein the second communication channel is different than the first communication channel; generating, at the computer system, a third communication to send to the patient's device via the first communication channel, wherein the third communication comprises third information associated with the patient and further comprises a user-actionable element associated with at least one of a secure application, secure channel, or secure website, wherein the computer system is configured to communicate personal health information associated with the patient via the at least one of a secure application, secure channel, or secure website to the patient's device if the patient activates the user-actionable element in the third communication; accessing, by first software and second software on the computer system, a file associated with the patient on the computer system, wherein the file contains each of the first, second, and third information that the computer system transmits or receives over the different first and second communication channels, and wherein a first portion of the file is communicated to the first software and a second portion of the file is communicated to the second software for different purposes; and using, by the computer system, the file to create a graphical display depicting at least a portion of the contents of each of the first, second, and third information in a chronological order in a timeline format.
15. 15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first information comprises payment information associated with the patient.
16. 16 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the second information comprises at least one of test results or doctor's notes associated with the patient.
17. 17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the third information comprises appointment scheduling information associated with the patient.
18. 18 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the first communication comprises a text message received from the patient.
19. 19 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the file is an electronic health record associated with the patient.
20. 20 . The method of claim 14 , wherein the doctor is a dentist.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY This application is a continuation of and also claims a benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/410,431 filed Jan. 19, 2017, which in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/281,506 filed Jan. 21, 2016, which are both hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties as if fully set forth herein. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a business to a customer communication portal or system and more particularly to a communication portal which allows for customers to communicate with businesses in the channel of the customer's preference, while providing a system for allowing the business to receive the various communication streams from customers in an integrated manner, preferably assign responsible staff to those communications, and then have the staff respond back to the customers in through the communications channel of choice of the customer, preferably while maintaining a permanent record of communications between the business and the customer. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Some individuals have used, integrated or unified communication systems which translate one communications protocol to another. For instance, software exists to convert facsimiles to e-mail. Other software products convert e-mails to faxes. Certain cell phone providers advertise conversion of voice mail to e-mail. Each of these various systems allow for a user to customize the way they would prefer to receive messages. Additionally, Slack is an application that is a self-contained messaging system which is becoming more popular for business to business use. While users can invite others to join other Slack members in groups, Slack is not set up to receive inbound communications from non-members. Slack is a group communication tool for teams to communicate with each other. All team members are invited to join team so they can communicate. Public channels in Slack can be joined by any Slack member. Although teams can be set up in Slack, the obligation is on the users to join teams (or be invited to join teams) and there is not believed to be a way for a business to assign teams or alternatively assign responsibility for responding to communications. Additionally, all users need to be members of Slack for the application to work. Slack allows for the sharing of documents, but probably not in a HIPPA compliant manner. Slack also allows users to edit or even delete messages after being sent. While Slack allows the filtering messages, there is not an auto-assignment feature for assigning responsibility to respond to particular communications to particular individuals, apparently because Slack is being used mostly for internal communication among team members at a business and not with its external customers. Accordingly, while Slack is certainly an attractive application for a team collaboration tool, there are believed to be improvements needed for businesses to be able to provide an integrated or unified communication system which provides the ability for the business to control the flow of communication to teams and assign responsibilities for customer communication, while still providing an ability to respond to customers in the formats of choice used by the customers. An additional security feature of being able to provide at least some secure communications for at least some applications (such as to be able to provide personal health information (PHI) and/or other sensitive material in a secure manner) would be desirable. Customer records could have secure and insecure communications. A practice could direct a patient to the secure access channel where by all prior communication methods (secure and non-secure) are accessible only from a secure portal. In the context of some businesses such as dental offices, it is not unusual for patients to request the personal (not business) cell phone numbers of dental assistants so that the patients can text the dental assistants to attempt to reschedule appointments or for other communications. If appointments were the only thing that the patients texted the dental assistants about, that might be satisfactory for at least some dental practices. However, what if a patient receives an x-ray from another doctor and sends it via text to the dentist? Now, PHI is traveling on unsecured networks. Additionally, it is possible that the patient may want to discuss some of their dental records with the dental assistants. This also could result in PHI being transmitted on unsecured networks. Furthermore, the dental assistant may switch to another doctor and the entire communication record is lost by the dentist. Worse yet, in other environments, it may be that if a staff member leaves they may take their contacts with them with no backup by the employer. This would be particularly harmful in the case of a salesperson leaving and taking contacts. Accordingly, there is believed to be a need for an improved business to consu