Method and apparatus for inter-pharmacy workload balancing using resource function assignments
First Claim
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1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources connected by an information processing system, the method comprising:
- identifying a drug type;
determining a demand for the drug type;
determining a capacity of a pharmacy resource to process a prescription order associated with the drug type; and
assigning the pharmacy resource to process the prescription order based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the pharmacy resource to process the drug type.
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Abstract
The system distributes workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy resources that are connected by a computer network. Work orders are queued at each pharmacy resource and redistributed based on existing workload distribution, capacity of pharmacy resources, and/or product demand.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources connected by an information processing system, the method comprising:
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identifying a drug type;
determining a demand for the drug type;
determining a capacity of a pharmacy resource to process a prescription order associated with the drug type; and
assigning the pharmacy resource to process the prescription order based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the pharmacy resource to process the drug type. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A system for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy locations, the system comprising:
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a set of client computers associated with a set of pharmacy resources, wherein each client computer is programmed to;
accept prescription orders into a queue, identify a prescription order associated with a drug type, and communicate at least one of a capacity of a pharmacy resource and a tally of prescription orders associated with the drug type to a server computer; and
a server computer programmed to;
determine the capacity of a set of pharmacy resources, determine a demand for the drug type, and designate a set of pharmacy resources as processing centers for prescription orders associated with the drug type based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the set of pharmacy resources. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy network computers, comprising:
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a first program that identifies a drug type associated with a prescription order;
a second program that calculates a demand for the drug type based on a set of prescription orders;
a third program that determines a capacity of a set of pharmacy resources to produce the drug type;
a fourth program that designates a set of pharmacy network computers associated with the set of pharmacy resources as processing center computers based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the set of pharmacy resources, wherein the set of pharmacy network computers receive and processes the set of prescription orders.
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Specification