Medication administration system

• US 20030120384A1
• Filed: 12/12/2002
• Published: 06/26/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: 3Am IP, LLC
• Original Assignee: MDG Medical, Inc.
• Inventors: Haitin, David, Sadan, Batami, Asseo, Gilead
• Granted Patent: US 7,155,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/242
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 12/001 Trolleys for transport of medicaments, food, linen, nursing supplies carts specially adapted for surgery or diagnosis A61B50/13; hand carts B62B3/00
• CPC Class Codes: A61G 2205/10 Bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 2205/30 Printed labels
• CPC Class Codes: A61J 7/0069 Trays for holding or distributing medicines display trays A47F3/14; serving trays A47G23/06
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 5/18 specially adapted for controlling several coin-freed apparatus from one place
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/001 Interfacing with vending machines using mobile or wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/002 Vending machines being part of a centrally controlled network of vending machines
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/65 stored on portable record carriers, e.g. on smartcards, RFID tags or CD
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

The present invention comprises a system and method for administering medications to a plurality of patients in a medication institution. A preferred system comprises a workflow program for generating a scheduler, wherein the scheduler coordinates the administration of medications to the patients, a medicine cabinet, responsive to said scheduler, for storing medications and dispensing the medications to an authorized user for administration to the patients, the workflow program providing the cabinet with patient specific information relating to said dispensation of the medications including a physician order for each patient, and a medicine cart, coupled to the medicine cabinet, for instructing said authorized user in the administration of said medication to each of said patients. The cart comprises a plurality of patient specific cart drawers for storing the medication to be administered to each patient, wherein each cart drawer remains unidentified as patient specific until the medication cart receives said patient specific information, and a cart processor, wherein the cart drawers are filled with medicine from the medicine cabinet for each patient associated with each patient specific cart drawer in accordance with the respective physician order for each patient.

Claims

1. A system for administering one or more medications to each of a plurality of patients comprising:

a workflow program for generating a scheduler, wherein the scheduler coordinates the administration of medications to each patient;

a medicine cabinet, responsive to said scheduler, for storing the medications and dispensing same to an authorized user for administration to each patient, wherein the workflow program provides the cabinet with patient specific information relating to said dispensing of the medications; and

a medicine cart comprising;

a plurality of cart drawers for storing the medications and transporting same to each patient, wherein each cart drawer remains unidentified until the medication cart receives said patient specific information, whereupon one or more of the cart drawers becomes patient specific; and

a cart processor for accessing a cart program that controls access to the plurality of patient specific cart drawers and assigns each patient one or more of the cart drawers, wherein the cart drawers are filled with the medications from the medicine cabinet for each patient associated with each patient specific cart drawer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said medicine cabinet comprises:

one or more frames, each of which comprises a plurality of cabinet drawers, wherein one or more of the cabinet drawers are designated medication specific; and

a cabinet processor for accessing a cabinet program that controls access to the plurality of medication specific cabinet drawers.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said medicine cabinet further comprises a port for linking said medicine cart to said medicine cabinet.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said patient specific information comprises a physician order for each patient.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein said physician order comprises the medication to be administered to the respective patient and an electronic identification means that confirms the physician'"'"'s order.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein simultaneous access to a medication specific cabinet drawer and medications included therein, and said patient specific cart drawer is granted to the authorized user by said cabinet program and said cart program, respectively, while each of the remaining plurality of cabinet and cart drawers are inaccessible to the authorized user.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said cabinet program grants access to another one of the plurality of cabinet drawers and medications included therein, wherein said access is granted to the authorized user, one cabinet drawer at a time, when the cabinet program detects closure of a previously accessible cabinet drawer.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said assigned patient specific cart drawer is closed and inaccessible upon detection by said cabinet program that all patient medications were dispensed and that all cabinet drawers are inaccessible.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein access to a medication specific cabinet drawer or said patient specific cart drawer, or a combination thereof, is denied to an unauthorized user.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein said one or more cabinet drawers are designated patient specific cabinet drawers, each of which is assigned by the cabinet program to a patient.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein access to one of the plurality of patient specific cabinet drawers and medications included therein, is granted to the authorized user by said cabinet program, each of the remaining cabinet drawers being inaccessible to said authorized user while said one of the plurality of patient specific cabinet drawers is accessible.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said cart further comprises a bar code reader for reading a patient identification to verify that the correct patient is being administered one or more medications.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein said cart further comprises a common drawer for storing one or more medications not supplied in the patient specific cart drawer.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein said medications in said common drawer are bar coded with a patient identification for each patient for whom the medication is ordered wherein said bar code reader reads said bar coded medications in said common drawer to confirm that the correct medication is being administered to the patient.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said cart program logs administration information for each patient receiving medication.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein said medicine cart further comprises monitoring equipment for taking vital sign information of a patient in accordance with the patient specific information,

said vital sign information being transmitted to said workflow program.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of medicine carts, wherein the operation of each cart is coordinated by said workflow program.

18. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

a prescription program for assisting generation of the physician order for each of said plurality of patients; and

a mobile computer for accessing the prescription program.

19. The system of claim 4, further comprising:

at least one workstation, coupled to a central server and said mobile computer, for transmitting said patient specific information to said mobile computer, receiving said physician order from said mobile computer, and accessing the workflow program to generate the scheduler in response to receiving said physician order, said workflow program accessible to an authorized user using said workstation; and

the central server for coordinating the transmission of the patient specific information to the medicine cabinet and the medicine cart.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said workstation further accesses said prescription program.

21. The system of claim 2, wherein said workflow program calculates and maintains a running inventory of the medications in each of the cabinet drawers;

whereby such inventory is continuously updated as the medications are dispensed or replenished by the authorized user.

22. The system of claim 2, wherein said cabinet processor accesses said workflow program for viewing an output of the workflow program including the scheduler and the inventory of the medications in said medicine cabinet.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein said mobile computer accesses said workflow program.

24. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the one or more frames includes a refrigeration means for storing medications that require refrigeration;

said refrigerated medication being bar coded with a patient ID for the patient whom the medication has been prescribed.

25. The system of claim 2, wherein said medicine cabinet further comprises a bar code reader for reading a bar coded medication to verify that the bar coded medication is being dispensed correctly.

26. A method for administering one or more medications to each of a plurality of patients comprising the steps of:

generating a scheduler, using a workflow program, which coordinates the administration of medications to each patient;

providing patient specific information to a medicine cabinet, controlled by a cabinet program, which cabinet stores the medications therein;

dispensing the medications to a medicine cart by an authorized user in response to said scheduler and said patient specific information;

assigning each patient one or more cart drawers upon the cart receiving said patient information, wherein each assigned cart drawer becomes patient specific;

controlling access to the medications in the patient specific cart drawer by a cart program; and

administering the medications to each patient from the patient specific cart drawer.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising designating in said medicine cabinet one or more of a plurality of cabinet drawers as medication specific.

28. The method of claim 26, further comprising generating a physician order for each patient, wherein said physician order is included in said patient specific information.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising simultaneously granting access to a medication specific cabinet drawer and medications included therein and said patient specific cart drawer to the authorized user, by said cabinet program and said cart program, respectively, while each of the remaining plurality of cabinet and cart drawers are inaccessible to the authorized user.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising granting access to another one of the plurality of cabinet drawers and medications included therein, wherein said access is granted to the authorized user, one cabinet drawer at a time, when the cabinet program detects closure of a previously accessible cabinet drawer.

31. The method of claim 30, further comprising closing said patient specific cart drawer upon detection by said cabinet program that all patient medications for that patient have been dispensed.

32. The method of claim 26, further comprising designating said one or more cabinet drawers as patient specific, each one or more patient specific cabinet drawers being assigned by the cabinet program to a patient.

33. The method of claim 26, further comprising reading a patient identification to verify that the correct patient is being administered medication using a bar code reader.

34. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

designating one or more drawers in the cart as a common drawer;

bar coding said medications in said common drawer with a patient identification for whom the medication is ordered; and

reading said bar coded medication in said common drawer to confirm the correct medication is administered to the patient.

35. The method of claim 26, further comprising logging administration information for each patient receiving medication.

36. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

taking vital sign information of a patient in accordance with the patient specific information using monitoring equipment; and

transmitting said vital sign information to said workflow program.

37. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

calculating a running inventory of the medications in each of the cabinet drawers; and

updating said inventory as the medications are dispensed or replenished by an authorized user.

38. The method of claim 26, further comprising reading a bar coded medication to verify that the medication is dispensed correctly.