Automated pharmaceutical management and dispensing system
First Claim
1. An overjacket package for unit-of-use medical elements, including medications, such that the medical elements can be conveniently dispensed from an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus into individual bin/receptacles, comprising:
- a closed package member having an interior for holding a unit-of-use of selected medical elements; and
at least one line of perforations in the package member which extend around a substantial portion of the package member, such that the package member may be readily broken apart along the line of perforations to provide access to the unit-of-use medical element contained therein.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
The system for automatically dispensing medications or other medical elements includes several groupings, i.e. vaults, of storage members, each vault containing approximately 100 individual cartridges, which each contain packages of unit-of-use doses of a given medication or other medical supply, such as syringes. Each storage member includes an ejector which ejects selected medications/supplies to a supply trough. The packages in the trough are moved to a central collator, which dispenses them to a bin receptacle which has been moved underneath the collator and which is typically identified with a particular patient. Information concerning medications/supplies for a particular patient is stored in a system database and used to determine the particular medications/supplies dispensed into a given bin. Bar coding is used to maintain control over the bins, and the medications, forming a closed information/control system. Particular medications and/or supplies which are not available in the automatic dispensing system are supplied from a supplemental medications cart which has been previously stocked with the correct additional medications by virtue of information from a control computer. The filled bins are transferred to a medication cart which can only be accessed as a result of a command signal after a particular patient and his/her associated bin have been matched. A nurse, having access to the correct bin and sector thereof, removes the medications from the cart and administers them to the patient.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. An overjacket package for unit-of-use medical elements, including medications, such that the medical elements can be conveniently dispensed from an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus into individual bin/receptacles, comprising:
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a closed package member having an interior for holding a unit-of-use of selected medical elements; and
at least one line of perforations in the package member which extend around a substantial portion of the package member, such that the package member may be readily broken apart along the line of perforations to provide access to the unit-of-use medical element contained therein. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. An overjacket package for unit-of-use medical elements, including medications, comprising:
a closed package member, made of substantially rigid material, into which unit-of-use medical elements can be inserted, the closed package member having a configuration and size and otherwise arranged that it can be conveniently stored in and dispensed from an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus into individual bin receptacles.
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6. An overjacket package to be dispensed from a medical element dispensing apparatus of the type that includes a plurality of overjacket package dispensers and an ejector associated with each overjacket package dispenser that operates under computer control to dispense one or more overjacket packages, wherein the overjacket package comprises:
a closed box member that is sized to hold a single unit-of-use medical element and fit within an overjacket package dispenser and to be contacted by an ejector in order to dispense the overjacket package, the overjacket package further including a perforated seam around at least a portion of the box member that allows the single unit-of-use medical element to be removed from the overjacket package by breaking the perforated seam.
Specification