Method for controlling a drug dispensing system

• US 20030074218A1
• Filed: 11/13/2002
• Published: 04/17/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/1995
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ArXium, Inc. (Van Humbeck Family)
• Original Assignee: INT Co.
• Inventors: Bossi, David, Wallace, Robert L., Bossi, Enea W., Liff, Harold J., Berube, Arthur A., Hart, Brian T., Hart, Richard D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,427,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/66 Trinkets, e.g. shirt buttons or jewellery items recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/62 in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0042 for hiring of objects
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

An automated drug dispensing system includes a cabinet adapted to store a variety of prepackaged pharmaceuticals in a plurality of bins for filling patient prescriptions. Each bin stores a particular variety of packaged multiple-dose pharmaceutical. Each variety of pharmaceutical is associated with a particular code. A controller receives request signals and in response generates dispense signals. Each bin includes a dispenser coupled to the controller for dispensing the packaged pharmaceuticals therefrom in response to a dispense signal sent from the controller. After a package is dispensed, a code reader determines the code of the dispensed package and verifies whether the code on the dispensed package matches the code of the requested package.

Claims

1. A method of filling a prescription for a pharmaceutical, said method comprising:

retrieving a coded unit of use of a prescribed pharmaceutical;

using a code reader to read the code of the unit of use;

comparing the code of the retrieved unit of use with a stored code of the prescribed pharmaceutical;

printing a label representative of the prescription if the code of the retrieved unit of use matches the stored code of the prescribed pharmaceutical, and the label including a representation of the prescribed pharmaceutical; and

applying the label to the retrieved unit of use.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the representation of the prescribed pharmaceutical includes a picture of the pharmaceutical.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the code is a bar code.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the code is a UPC code corresponding to one of the national drug code (NDC).

5. An automated system for dispensing a prescribed pharmaceutical comprising:

a computer having a memory including stored prescription information and stored pharmaceutical information, and a processor that compares prescription information to the stored pharmaceutical information;

a printer connected to the computer operable to print a label, the label including prescription information and a representation of the prescribed pharmaceutical; and

a code reader coupled with said computer and operable to read a code on a unit of use of the prescribed pharmaceutical.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the code on the package includes a barcode.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the code reader includes a bar code reader.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the label includes a picture of the prescribed pharmaceutical.

17. The method of claim 8, step (d) including the steps of printing the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament as said medicament indicia on said prescription label and printing an image of the medicament as said medicament indicia on said prescription label.

18. The method of claim 17, said container indicia including a bar code, said indicia reading device including a bar code reader, step (b) including the step of using said bar code reader to read said bar code.

9. A method of filling a prescription for a medicament, said method comprising:

(a) retrieving a unit of use of medicament corresponding to the prescription, there being prescription data corresponding to the prescription including the medicament stored in a computer, the unit of use having machine-readable indicia thereon representative of the medicament therein;

(b) using an indicia-reading device coupled with said computer to read said indicia, to produce unit of use data representative thereof, and to provide said unit of use data to said computer;

(c) in said computer, comparing said unit of use data and said prescription data to determine a match therebetween;

(d) only if a match in step (c), prompting a printer to print a package label representative of said prescription, said package label including medicament indicia representative of at least one physical attribute of the prescription medicament; and

(e) applying said package label to said unit of use.

10. The method of claim 9, step (d) including the step of printing a word description of the medicament as said medicament indicia on said package label.

11. The method of claim 10, step (d) including the step of printing at least one of the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament as said medicament indicia on said package label.

12. The method of claim 9, step (d) including the step of printing an image of the medicament as said medicament indicia on said package label.

13. The method of claim 12, the medicament having opposed faces, step (d) including the step of printing an image of both of said opposed faces as said medicament indicia on said packager label.

14. The method of claim 9, the computer including a database of medicament data representative of selected physical attributes of selected medicaments including the prescription medicaments, step (c) including the step of retrieving medicament data corresponding to said prescription medicament from said database, step (d) including the step of printing medicament indicia corresponding to retrieved medicament data on said package label.

15. The method of claim 9, step (d) including the step of printing said package label corresponding to said prescription in a selected language.

16. The method of claim 9, said prescription label being a first prescription label, step (d) including one of the steps of printing selected prescription data on said first prescription label in both a first and a second selected language, and printing a second prescription label corresponding to said prescription in a selected language different from the language of said first prescription label.

19. The method of claim 9, said container indicia including a bar code, said indicia reading device including a bar code reader, step (b) including the step of using said bar code reader to read said bar code.

20. The method of claim 9, said indicia being a UPC code corresponding to one of the national drug code (NDC) number and the drug identification number (DIN), step (b) including the step of determining one of the national drug code (NDC) number and the drug identification number (DIN) corresponding to said medicament as said indicia from said indicia.

21. The method of claim 9, step (d) including the step of prompting a printer to print said label with auxiliary information corresponding to said medicament.

22. The method of claim 9, step (b) including the step of manually entering said unit of data into said computer when said indicia is unreadable by machine.

23. The method of claim 9, step (a) including at least one of the steps of displaying the location of said unit of use displaying a word description of the medicament, and displaying an image of the medicament on a monitor coupled with said computer.

24. A medicament-dispensing apparatus for filling a prescription for a medicament, said apparatus comprising:

a prescription database including prescription data corresponding to a prescription to be filled including the medicament thereof;

a computer including means for accessing said prescription database for retrieving prescription data therefrom corresponding to the prescription to be filled;

a printer coupled with said computer and operable to print a prescription label representative of the prescription;

an indicia-reading device coupled with said computer and operable to read indicia on a unit of use of a medicament and to generate unit of use data representative thereof, said unit of use data being representative of the medicament contained in the unit of use, said device being operable to provide said unit of use data to said computer,

said computer including means for comparing said unit of use data and said prescription data to determine a match therebetween and in response, prompting said printer to print the prescription label; and

an attribute database including attribute data representative of at least one physical attribute of the medicament, said computer including means for accessing said attribute database and for retrieving attribute data therefrom corresponding to the prescription medicament and for activating said printer to print the prescription label with medicament indicia thereon representative of at least one physical attribute of the prescription medicament.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, said container indicia including a bar code, said indicia-reading device including a bar code reader.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, said medicament indicia including at least one of the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, said medicament indicia including at least one image of the prescription medicament.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, the medicament indicia including a shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the prescription medicament.

29. The apparatus of claim 24, the prescription label being printed in a first language, said apparatus including a language database of language data representative of the prescription in a second language, said computer having means for accessing said language database and retrieving language data therefrom corresponding to a prescription, and for activating said printer to print a second prescription label in said second language.

30. The apparatus of claim 24, the prescription label being printed in a first language, said apparatus including a language database of language data representative of the prescription in a second language, said computer having means for accessing said language database and retrieving language data therefrom corresponding to a prescription, and for activating said printer to print additional prescription data thereon corresponding to said second language.

31. The apparatus of claim 24, said indicia being a UPC code corresponding to one of the national drug code (NDC) number and the drug identification number (DIN) corresponding to said medicament, said computer being operable to determine one of said NDC number and DIN number from said indicia.

32. The apparatus of claim 24, said prescription database including data representative of auxiliary information corresponding to said medicament, said computer including means for prompting said printer to print said label with said auxiliary information.

33. The apparatus of claim 24, further including means for manual entry of said unit of use data.

34. The apparatus of claim 24, said computer including means for displaying at least one of the location of a unit of use corresponding to the medicament of the prescription, a word description of said medicament, and an image of said medicament.

35. A method of filling a prescription for a medicament, said method comprising:

(a) receiving prescription data into a computer corresponding to a prescription to be filled, the prescription data including data representative of the prescription medicament;

(b) in said computer, retrieving attribute data including a word description of the medicament from an attribute database, said attribute data being representative of at least one physical attribute of the prescription medicament;

(c) printing a prescription label with prescription data thereon representative of the prescription and with medicament indicia corresponding to said attribute data.

36. The method of claim 35, step (b) including the step of retrieving at least one of the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament as said word description.

37. The method of claim 35, step (b) including the step of retrieving image data representative of at least one image of medicament as said attribute data, step (c) including the step of printing the prescription label with an image of the medicament as said medicament indicia.

38. The method of claim 35, the medicament having opposed faces, step (b) including the step of retrieving data representative of images of the opposed faces of the medicament.

39. A medicament-dispensing apparatus for filling a prescription for a medicament, said apparatus comprising:

an attribute database including attribute data corresponding to at least one physical attribute of the prescription medicament of a prescription to be filled;

said attribute data including a word description of the medicament;

a computer including means for accessing said attribute database for retrieving attribute data therefrom corresponding to the prescription to be filled; and

a printer coupled with said computer and operable to print a prescription label representative of the prescription,

said computer including means for activating said printer and print a prescription label with medicament indicia thereon corresponding to said attribute data.

40. The apparatus of claim 39, said attribute data including at least one of the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament.

41. The apparatus of claim 39, said attribute data including image data representative of an image of the medicament, said medicament indicia including an image of the medicament.

42. The apparatus of claim 39, the medicament having opposed faces, said medicament indicia including images of both said faces.

43. The apparatus of claim 39, said attribute data including at least one of the shape, color pattern, color, scoring and form of the medicament.

44. A prescription-filling apparatus for filling a prescription for a medicament, said apparatus comprising:

a language database including language data corresponding to the prescription in a second language;

a computer including means for accessing said language database for retrieving language data therefrom corresponding to the prescription to be filled; and

a printer coupled with said computer and operable to print a prescription label representative of the prescription,

said computer including means for activating means for said printer to print a first prescription label in a first language and a second prescription label in said second language.