Method and apparatus for inter-pharmacy workload balancing
First Claim
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1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources connected by an information system, the method comprising:
- receiving work orders at each pharmacy resource into a queue for execution;
calculating a workload for each pharmacy resource;
determining a current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on the workload calculation of each pharmacy resource;
designating a pharmacy resource as one of a sender and a receiver based on the workload of the pharmacy resource and the workload distribution; and
routing work orders from a sender queue to at least one receiver queue based on the work load distribution.
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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.
109 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 system, the method comprising:
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receiving work orders at each pharmacy resource into a queue for execution;
calculating a workload for each pharmacy resource;
determining a current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on the workload calculation of each pharmacy resource;
designating a pharmacy resource as one of a sender and a receiver based on the workload of the pharmacy resource and the workload distribution; and
routing work orders from a sender queue to at least one receiver queue based on the work load distribution. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy locations, the system comprising:
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a client computer located at each pharmacy location, wherein the client computer is programmed to accept work orders into a queue and calculate a workload for the pharmacy location; and
a server computer for collecting workload data from the plurality of pharmacy locations, wherein the server computer determines a target workload distribution based on a current workload distribution and designates each client computer at each pharmacy location as one of a sender and a receiver;
wherein each client computer designated as a sender routes work orders to at least one client computer designated as a receiver based on the target workload distribution. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for distributing pharmacy workload across a plurality of pharmacy resources, the executable instructions comprising:
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a first routine receiving work orders for a first pharmacy location into a queue for execution;
a second routine calculating a workload for the first pharmacy location;
a third routine receiving workload distribution data; and
a fourth routine routing work orders between the first pharmacy location queue and a second pharmacy location queue based on the received workload distribution data. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification