Beneficial Product Dispenser

• US 20130131862A1
• Filed: 11/05/2012
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VendRx, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VendRx, Inc.
• Inventors: Jefferies, Trent, Frey, David, Murdock, Galen Earl, Schwartz, Mary, Jefferies, Samantha
• Granted Patent: US 10,102,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/235
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/165 using xyz-picker or multi-dimensional article picking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/62 in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• 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 dispensing station comprises beneficial products for patients of a health care provider. An inventory database tracks inventory available in the dispensing station. A patient is associated with a prescription record, which specifies a prescribed beneficial product. The patient may provide patient identifying information to the dispensing station, such as credentialed payment information, which may be used to identify a prescription record, authenticate the patient, transfer a payment, and/or dispense the prescribed beneficial product to the patient. The prescription record may be valid for a limited time period, may be restricted to fulfillment within a particular location, and/or may be restricted to one or more specified dispensing stations. The dispensing station may validate the beneficial products before dispensing the products to the patient.

Claims

1. A dispensing station, comprising:

a loading compartment configured to hold one or more dispensable units, the loading compartment comprising an access port configured to selectively provide access to the loading compartment;

an inventory compartment configured to hold one or more dispensable units;

a separator configured to selectively prevent access to the inventory compartment through the loading compartment;

a manipulation unit configured to transfer a dispensable unit from the loading compartment to the inventory compartment in response to validating the dispensable unit.

2. The dispensing station of claim 1, further comprising a scanning module configured to scan a unique identifier tag of the dispensable unit, wherein validating the dispensable unit comprises obtaining a unique identifier of the dispensable unit by use of the scanning module.

3. The dispensing station of claim 2, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to position the dispensable unit within a scanning area of the scanning module.

4. The dispensing station of claim 2, further comprising an isolation zone, wherein validating the dispensable unit comprises positioning the dispensable unit within the isolation zone and scanning for unique identifier tags of dispensable units outside of the isolation zone.

5. The dispensing station of claim 2, wherein the scanning module comprises one or more of a radio frequency identifier scanner and a bar code scanner.

6. The dispensing station of claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to configure the separator to prevent access to the inventory compartment in response to determining that the inventory compartment is accessible.

7. The dispensing station of claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to actuate a blocking mechanism configured to maintain the separator in position to block access to the inventory compartment in response to determining that the inventory compartment is accessible.

8. The dispensing station of claim 1, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a configuration of the dispensable unit.

9. The dispensing station of claim 8, wherein the manipulation unit comprises one or more arms, and wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a configuration of the dispensable unit by use of an angular scan of the dispensable unit by the one or more arms.

10. The dispensing station of claim 8, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a length of the dispensable unit by use of one or more of a pressure sensor, an electro-optical sensor, and a touch sensor.

11. The dispensing station of claim 8, further comprising a controller configured to update an inventory database with a location of the dispensable unit within the inventory compartment and the configuration of the dispensable unit.

12. The dispensing station of claim 8, wherein the manipulation unit is further configured to determine the location of a printable area on the dispensable unit.

13. The dispensing station of claim 12, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to position the printable area of the dispensable unit in a printing area of a printer of the dispensing station.

14. The dispensing station of claim 12, wherein determining the location of the printable area comprises rotating the dispensable unit within the scan area of a scanning module of the dispensing station.

15. The dispensing station of claim 1, wherein the manipulation unit is further configured to place the dispensable unit in a quarantine compartment in response to failing to validate the dispensable unit.

16. A dispensing system, comprising:

an enclosure comprising,

an inventory compartment comprising a plurality of bins, each bin configured to hold a respective dispensable unit at a particular location within the bin,

a loading compartment comprising a plurality of bins, each bin configured to hold a respective dispensable unit at a particular location within the bin, and

a controller configured to block access to the inventory compartment through the loading compartment in response to determining that the inventory compartment is open;

a manipulation unit configured to transfer a dispensable unit from the loading compartment to the inventory compartment in response to determining that the inventory compartment is closed and determining a configuration and unique identifier of the dispensable unit; and

a controller configured to update an inventory database with the configuration, unique identifier, and bin location of the dispensable unit.

17. The dispensing system of claim 16, wherein the separator is attached to the manipulation unit, and wherein positioning the manipulation unit within the inventory compartment comprises blocking access to the inventory compartment through the loading compartment.

18. The dispensing system of claim 16, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a location of a printable area on the dispensable unit, and is further configured to position the printable area of the dispensable unit in a printing area of a printer in response to dispensing the dispensable unit.

19. The dispensing system of claim 16, further comprising a network interface, wherein the controller is configured to update the inventory database by use of the network interface.

20. The dispensing system of claim 16, wherein the controller is configured to determine the bin location of the dispensable unit by use of the inventory database and in response to a request for the dispensable unit from a patient.