System and Method of Preventing Patient Drug Mismatch

• US 20110115620A1
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Published: 05/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: KMC Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: KMC Holdings LLC
• Inventors: Myers, Gary L.
• Application Number:
  US13/000,834
• Publication Number:
  US 20110115620A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/539.12
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00309 operated with bidirectional data transmission between data carrier and locks
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00666 with dials
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/00912 for safes, strong-rooms, vaults or the like
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/23 by means of a password
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/28 the pass enabling tracking or indicating presence
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

Aspects of the invention disclose a method and system for preventing patient drug mismatch. The method and system may be implemented using RFID technology to match medication to a particular patient. Aspects of the disclosure may be part of a medication administration system and/or a medication dispensing system that may or may not work with a medication and supply management system.

Claims

1. A system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment, the system comprising:

a patient ID bracelet, wherein the patient ID bracelet includes therein a patient RFID chip, the patient ID bracelet being adapted to be affixed to a patient;

a patient drug tray having a label portion thereon and a tray RFID chip embedded within the label portion; and

a cabinet for containing the patient drug tray, the cabinet having a computing device therein associated with an RFID antenna for detecting and recognizing the patient RFID chip and the tray RFID chip, the cabinet further having a lock to secure its contents, the lock being actuatable by the computing device, whereby the computing device actuates the lock to allow or disallow access to the contents of the cabinet based at least on a comparison between the patient RFID chip and the tray RFID chip.

2. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 1, wherein the cabinet further comprises a display panel and a keypad for user interaction, and wherein the display panel and keypad for user interaction are externally accessible while the cabinet is locked.

3. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, wherein the computing device is adapted to continually scan for detectable RFID chips via the RFID antenna.

4. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, wherein the computing device causes a patient name to be displayed if the patient RFID chip is detected.

5. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, further comprising a drug RFID chip associated with at least one drug within the patient drug tray, when the patient drug tray is within the cabinet.

6. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 5, wherein the computing device causes a drug name to be displayed when the drug RFID chip is detected.

7. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, further comprising a caretaker RFID chip wearably associated with a caretaker assigned to the patient.

8. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 7, wherein the computing device causes a caretaker name to be displayed when a caretaker RFID chip associated with the caretaker is detected.

9. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, wherein the computing device actuates the lock to allow or disallow access to the contents of the cabinet based also on receipt of an entry code via the keypad.

10. The system for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 2, wherein the computing device is further adapted to log accesses and access attempts to the cabinet contents.

11. A method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment, the method comprising:

scanning an area for RFID signals to determine whether any of a patient arm band having an RFID chip, a patient prescription RFID chip, and a caretaker tag RFID chip are present within the scanned area;

receiving a user input at a keypad associated with the cabinet;

if an arm band RFID chip and patient prescription RFID chip are detected during the step of scanning, comparing the arm band RFID and patient prescription RFID;

if the arm band RFID and patient prescription RFID match, then determining whether the user input at a keypad associated with the cabinet indicates an authorized access attempt and determining whether the caretaker tag RFID chip is present within the scanned area; and

allowing access to the cabinet if the keypad entry is correct and the caretaker tag RFID chip is present.

12. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, wherein determining whether the user input at a keypad associated with the cabinet indicates an authorized access attempt comprises executing a keypad subroutine.

13. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, wherein allowing access to the cabinet if the keypad entry is correct and the caretaker tag RFID chip is present comprises also determining that a key switch lock is opened.

14. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, wherein allowing access to the cabinet if the keypad entry is correct and the caretaker tag RFID chip is present further comprises displaying an indication of access authorization on a display device associated with the cabinet.

15. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, wherein allowing access to the cabinet if the keypad entry is correct and the caretaker tag RFID chip is present further comprises storing a time stamp associated with the access attempt.

16. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, further comprising identifying all drugs in the cabinet via RFID signals from tags on or associated with the drug containers, and verifying that access to individual drugs in the cabinet is authorized.

17. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 16, wherein verifying that access to individual drugs in the cabinet is authorized comprises evaluating an identifier for each drug to determine whether there is a match between each drug and the patient.

18. The method for providing access to a drug cabinet for purposes of patient treatment according to claim 11, wherein determining whether the user input at the keypad associated with the cabinet indicates an authorized access attempt further comprises:

associating the user input with a particular user;

comparing the particular user with a list of authorized users; and

determining that the user input indicates an authorized access attempt if the particular user is named on the list of authorized users.