A system and method for analyzing a patient status for respiratory insufficiency for use in automated patient care. A set of one or more physiological measures relating to patient information recorded on a substantially continuous basis or derived therefrom are received. The physiological measures set is stored into a patient care record for an individual patient into a database. One or more of the physiological measures in the physiological measures set are analyzed relative to one or more other physiological measures to determine a pathophysiology indicating an absence, an onset, a progression, a regression, and a status quo of respiratory insufficiency.