Bulk encoding medical items with wireless identification
First Claim
1. A method for bulk encoding a plurality of medical items with respective individual wireless identification devices, each medical item of the plurality of medical items having a characteristic that is identical to all other medical items in the plurality, the bulk encoding method comprising:
- storing the identical characteristic of the plurality of medical items in a computer-readable database located in a non-volatile memory;
attaching a wireless identification device to each of the medical items, each wireless identification device configured to wirelessly transmit a serial number that is different from all other serial numbers of wireless identification devices attached to other medical items of the plurality of medical items;
after the wireless identification devices have been attached to each of the medical items of the plurality of medical devices, reading the wireless identification devices while they are attached to the medical items of the plurality of medical items to obtain the serial numbers of all the plurality of medical items; and
associating the serial numbers read from the plurality of activated wireless identification devices to the identical characteristic in the database.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for bulk encoding medical items in a tracking system in a healthcare facility comprises attaching to each of a plurality of identical medical items a blank RFID tag. When activated simultaneously, the serial numbers of all RFID tags on all the identical medical items are read and their serial numbers are associated with the pre-stored characteristics of the medical item in a data base. The RFID tags are blank in that they include no human-readable data concerning the medical article to which the RFID tag is attached. A data mining system and method are provided for mining the database.
8 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for bulk encoding a plurality of medical items with respective individual wireless identification devices, each medical item of the plurality of medical items having a characteristic that is identical to all other medical items in the plurality, the bulk encoding method comprising:
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storing the identical characteristic of the plurality of medical items in a computer-readable database located in a non-volatile memory; attaching a wireless identification device to each of the medical items, each wireless identification device configured to wirelessly transmit a serial number that is different from all other serial numbers of wireless identification devices attached to other medical items of the plurality of medical items; after the wireless identification devices have been attached to each of the medical items of the plurality of medical devices, reading the wireless identification devices while they are attached to the medical items of the plurality of medical items to obtain the serial numbers of all the plurality of medical items; and associating the serial numbers read from the plurality of activated wireless identification devices to the identical characteristic in the database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for bulk encoding a plurality of medical items received at a healthcare facility with wireless identification devices for identifying and tracking the received medical items while in the healthcare facility, comprising:
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receiving the plurality of medical items each having a name and a characteristic; storing information about the received medical items, including the name and the characteristic in a computer-readable database located in a non-volatile memory; selecting a plurality of identical medical items from those medical items received and attaching a wireless identification device to each of the selected identical medical items, each of the wireless identification devices having a serial number; after the wireless identification devices have been attached to all the identical medical items, reading the wireless identification devices of all the selected medical items at the same time to obtain the serial numbers of the wireless identification devices; and associating the serial numbers read from all the wireless identification devices of the identical medical items to the name and characteristic for that medical item stored in the database thereby identifying that medical item with the serial numbers of the read RFID tags. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for bulk encoding a plurality of medical items with respective individual wireless identification devices, each medical item of the plurality of medical items having a characteristic that is identical to all other medical items in the plurality, the bulk encoding system comprising:
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a wireless identification device attached to each of a plurality of medical items, each wireless identification device having a serial number that differs from the serial numbers of all other medical items in the plurality of medical items; a nonvolatile memory device in which is stored a database of information including the characteristic that is identical to all the medical items in the plurality of medical items; a wireless identification device reader having an interior reading space that is large enough to receive the plurality of identical medical items, the wireless identification device reader configured to read the serial numbers of all the wireless identification devices located in the reader; and a processor programmed to communicate a read control signal to the reader to have the reader read all the wireless identification devices attached to the identical medical items in the reader, and the processor further programmed to receive the serial numbers of the read wireless identification devices and to control the memory to associate and store the received serial numbers in the data base in relation to the stored identical characteristic of all the plurality of medical items. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification