On Site Prescription Management System and Methods for Health Care Facilities

• US 20110251850A1
• Filed: 04/12/2011
• Published: 10/13/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: BTP Fund, LP
• Original Assignee: Provider Meds LP (Provider Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Stephens, Stewart W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,268,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/22 Social work or social welfare, e.g. community support activities or counselling services
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• 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 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

A system and method for control of prescription drug packaging and dispensing machines located in an in-patient health care facility including centralized control and enhanced communication between system components. Delay and errors in processing item data in the prescription dispensing system are reduced by using concise ID data incorporated into each canister memory chip and storing canister contents data elsewhere. Canisters are configured in a pharmacy using interchangeable parts. Data being processed is synchronized by a combination of user tokens (who), data identifiers (what), and unique Ids for the entities in the system (where). The foregoing combination enables substantial efficiency improvements and error reduction.

Claims

1. A system for controlling dispensing of medications in a health care facility coupled to a network, comprising:

an order management system (OMS) and an associated database operating on a hosted remote server coupled to said network, said OMS serving said health care facility via said network;

a prescription order entry (POE) system coupled via said network to said order management system;

a medication dispensing system installed in said health care facility and coupled via said network to said order management system; and

an electronic medication administering record (eMAR) coupled through said medication dispensing system via said network to said order management system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said medication dispensing system further comprises:

an automated prescription drug packaging and dispensing machine (ADM);

a work station operatively connected to said dispensing machine;

wherein

said electronic medication administering record operative in said work station.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said automated prescription drug packaging and dispensing machine comprises:

a plurality of selectable medication canisters having dispensing mechanisms, memory chips, and encoded labels replaceably included therewith, said canisters configurable according to physical attributes of said medications; and

a dispensing port for ejecting packaged and labeled medications.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said canisters each comprise:

a non-volatile memory having designated memory locations including a build ID and a canister/fill ID and excluding medication data;

said memory not exceeding 48 bytes'"'"' capacity for storing essential medication data.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein further comprising:

a build ID defined to identify the configuration of said canister corresponding to attributes of said medication contained therein; and

a canister/fill ID defined to identify said canister and its contents.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said database associated with said order management system comprises:

canister information including canister build data; and

a set of medication attribute tables containing medication ID data and data describing form, shape, and dimensions of the available medications.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein said canisters each comprise:

interchangeable components for making said canisters configurable according to physical attributes of said medications.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said interchangeable components comprise:

one each of a main body, a division block, a guide block, a partition, and a fix block.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein said work station comprises:

a processor coupled to said network and to said electronic prescription drug dispensing machine; and

a display and a scanner coupled to said processor.

10. The system of claim 2 wherein said work station comprises a tablet computer having a touch screen display and a scanner connected thereto.

11. The system of claim 9 or claim 10, wherein said scanner is operative for scanning bar codes representing data about said medications.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a prescription drug resource center (ORC) having associated therewith a database, said ORC being coupled to said order management system via said network.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said prescription order entry system (POE), said medication dispensing system, said electronic medication administering record (eMAR), and said prescription drug resource center (ORC) are accessible via an assigned user token from said health care facility.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a pharmacy user system (OPS) for inventory control coupled to said network and a third party pharmacy information system (PhIS) for support of said medication dispensing system coupled to said network.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an interface to a prescription drug payment provider (PDP) servicing said health care facilities.

16. A method for automated dispensing of prescription medications to one or more health care facilities via associated remote pharmacies, comprising the steps of:

providing a central hosted remote server having a system database and coupled to a network and operating an order management system (OMS) containing interface links to a plurality of remote operative units;

providing at least one medication dispensing system in each health care facility, wherein each said medication dispensing system includes an automated prescription drug packaging and dispensing machine (ADM) and a work station coupled thereto, and each said automated dispensing machine (ADM) is coupled to said central hosted server;

coupling a prescription order entry system (POE), accessible from said health care facility, to said central remote server via said network;

including in said automated dispensing machine (ADM) a plurality of medication canisters for storing and dispensing prescription drugs therefrom; and

associating with each said canister a memory device having a storage capacity not exceeding 48 bytes.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

connecting an electronic medication administering record (eMAR) to said work station coupled to said automated dispensing machine (ADM) in said health care facility; and

configuring said electronic medication administering record for communication with said order management system (OMS) via said network.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

providing interface links in said order management system to one or more of a prescription order entry system (POE), an automated dispensing machine (ADM), and an electronic medication administering record (eMAR), a resource center (RC), a pharmacy information system (PhIS), a pharmacy user system (PS), and an electronic health record (EHR).

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

associating a unique identifier (UID) with each operative unit coupled to said order management system (OMS); and

assigning an access token to each authorized user to enable access to said OMS via any of said operative units.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

configuring said memory device associated with each said canister as a non-volatile memory having designated memory locations including a build ID and a canister/fill ID and excluding medication data.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the steps of:

defining said build ID to identify the configuration of said canister corresponding to attributes of said medication contained therein; and

defining said canister/fill ID to identify said canister and its contents.

22. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

storing sets of medication attributes of available medications, including form, shape, and size information in attribute tables of said system database; and

constructing each said canister from interchangeable parts in a pharmacy associated with said health care facility to accommodate said canisters to variations in the medication attributes of said prescription medications to be stored in said canisters.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

storing a subset of said canister and prescription information remote from said central server to ensure continuity of dispensing in case of network outage.

24. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of:

tracking and logging a location and dispensing history for each said canister.