DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY PERFORMING PRIORITIZED NURSING DIAGNOSES FROM PATIENT ASSESSMENT DATA

A data processing system and method for automatically performing prioritized nursing diagnoses from patient assessment data stores a diagnosis table containing relations between nursing diagnoses and patient characteristics, with each such relation having a corresponding probability measure. A priority table containing at least one relation between a diagnosis from a diagnosis table and a corresponding priority measure is also stored. The data processing system receives assessment data, matches assessment data with relations in the diagnosis table and constructs a potential diagnosis list including the matched diagnoses and the corresponding probability measures. The probability measure of each diagnosis in the potential diagnosis list is weighted with the priority measure corresponding to the diagnosis from the priority table. When more than one relation is provided for a diagnosis in the diagnosis table, probability measures are combined when the potential diagnosis list is constructed. The probability measures are preferably added together to combine them, and are preferably limited to a maximum value, for example, equivalent to 99%. The diagnosis table may be divided into primary and secondary diagnoses tables. Each relation in the primary diagnosis table has the same probability measure. The tables and lists of the data processing system and method preferably implemented in a relational database.