MANAGEMENT OF PHARMACY KITS

• US 20130035950A1
• Filed: 07/20/2012
• Published: 02/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bluesight, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kitcheck, Inc.
• Inventors: MacDonald, Kevin, Kress-Spatz, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,990,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10415 the interrogation device being fixed in its position, such as an access control device for reading wireless access cards, or a wireless ATM banking machines in general G07F19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system for managing pharmacy kits comprises a reading station configured to read tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with a pharmacy kit, and an information processing system operatively connected to the reading station and configured to receive the tag information from the reading station and determine a status of the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, a plurality of stored templates defining contents to be included in each of a plurality of pharmacy kits, and a plurality of kit records indicating the current contents of a plurality of pharmacy kits.

Claims

1. A system for managing pharmacy kits, comprising:

a reading station configured to read tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with a pharmacy kit; and

an information processing system operatively connected to the reading station and configured to receive the tag information from the reading station and determine a status of the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, a plurality of stored templates defining contents to be included in each of a plurality of pharmacy kits, and a plurality of kit records indicating the current contents of a plurality of pharmacy kits.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system determines the status of the pharmacy kit by comparing its contents to one of the plurality of templates, wherein the template specifies a plurality of segments for the pharmacy kit and a quantity of items from each segment to be included in the pharmacy kit.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising a real-time tracking system configured to electronically transmit information regarding the respective locations of the plurality of pharmacy kits to the information processing system, wherein the information processing system is configured to monitor the locations based on the transmitted information.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least one of the segments can be satisfied by more than one type of item.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the more than one type of item comprises more than one brand of a pharmaceutical product.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the reading station comprises a container having an enclosure configured to receive the pharmacy kit, an RFID antenna located within the enclosure, and an RFID reader connected to the RFID antenna.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system comprises an internet browser configured initiate a read operation performed by the read station in response to a user input, receive the tag information from the reading station, and communicate the tag information to a server via a network connection, wherein the server stores the templates and kit records.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the reading station is configured to receive only one kit at a time.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the RFID tags comprises a first portion comprising an RFID tag, and a second portion attached to the first portion and comprising a transparent tail attached to an item in the pharmacy kit.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system stores a virtual history for each of the plurality of pharmacy kits and updates the virtual history for each kit in response to a transaction involving the kit.

11. A method of managing pharmacy kits, comprising:

operating a radio-frequency identifier (RFID) reader to read tag information from a plurality of RFID tags associated with a pharmacy kit;

identifying a plurality of items present in the pharmacy kit based on the tag information; and

comparing the plurality of items with an electronic template to determine a status of the pharmacy kit.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying any missing or expired items in the pharmacy kit based on the comparison between the plurality of items and the template.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating a report indicating the missing or expired items.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating billing information for a medical patient based on the missing items.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the items is determined to be expired based on an amount of time since its removal from refrigeration.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining any near expired items in the pharmacy kit based on a predetermined expiration margin, and generating a report indicating the near expired items.

17. A method, comprising:

building a pharmacy kit comprising a plurality of pharmaceutical items labeled with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags;

verifying contents of the pharmacy kit by operating an RFID reader to read tag information from the RFID tags and comparing the tag information with an electronic template;

deploying the pharmacy kit within a facility following the verification; and

re-verifying the contents of the pharmacy kit following the deployment by operating an RFID reader to read tag information from the RFID tags and comparing the tag information with the electronic template.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein re-verifying the contents of the pharmacy kit comprises identifying any missing items, items that have expired according to an original or alternative expiration date, extra items, items determined to be on national shortage, items within a predetermined expiration margin, or items that have been removed from refrigeration for at least a predetermined amount of time.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein building the pharmacy kit comprises determining a type of RFID tag to be applied to each of the items based on item information associated with the electronic template.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising updating the pharmacy kit to replace the missing and expired items.