SYRINGE FILLING AND PACKAGING SYSTEM FOR HOSPITAL PHARMACIES

• US 20160001003A1
• Filed: 07/06/2015
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Instrument LLC (Emerson Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: John G. Grosskopf Jr
• Inventors: Perazzo, Nicholas J., Rosen, Robert A., Grosskopf, John G. Jr., Bennett, Mark, Chopper, John M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,695,490 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/6009 for matching patient with his treatment, e.g. to improve transfusion security
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1782 Devices aiding filling of syringes in situ combination of a vial and a syringe for transferring or mixing their contents A61J1/2096, filling of medical containers in general B65B3/003
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 3/003 Filling medical containers such as ampoules, vials, syringes or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B65B 7/2807 Feeding closures

Abstract

A semi-automated system (100) suitable for use in a hospital setting for filling patient-specific liquid medication prescriptions from bulk medicine containers (104) into oral/enteral syringes (S) for administration on a just-in-time basis. The system enables hospital pharmacists to simplify and streamline their task, increasing the number of prescriptions that can. be tilled in a day, improving patient safety and care by minimizing medication errors and the consequences that ensue.

Claims

1. A system for semi-automated filling of syringes wife medicines from a plurality of medicine containers, said syringes being of various sizes and types all having a barrel, a terminal discharge, a first flange about said barrel, a plunger slideably engaged in said barrel, and a second flange at distal end of said plunger, and said plurality of medicine containers being of various sizes and types, the system comprising:

a programmable computer including software for controlling said system;

a medicine container orientation and login station for adapting said plurality of medicine containers to interface said syringes;

a syringe label printer and labeler station;

a filling station comprising a loading station for loading of a syringe to a filling position, and for manual loading of a container to said filling position, said filling station further comprising a plurality of arms for manipulating said syringe when in said filling position to withdraw said plunger of said syringe to fill said syringe with medicine.

2. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising an inspection station for checking one of fill weight or volume of filled syringes.

3. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising a bag printing and sealing station for bagging said filled syringes and for barcoding the bag.

4. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 2, wherein said inspection station comprises a visual inspection station for optically determining a fill volume of said syringe.

5. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising a first labeler resident at said medication container orientation and login station and in communication with said programmable computer for printing a scannable label for attachment to said medicine containers.

6. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 5, further comprising a first scanner resident at said medication container orientation and login station and in communication with said programmable computer for scanning the label printed by said first labeler and attached to said medicine containers.

7. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising a syringe storage bin for retaining a plurality of syringes of different sizes, said storage bin comprising a plurality of compartments each for retaining a plurality of syringes of uniform size.

8. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said container loading station further comprises a gripper for gripping said medicine containers.

9. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 8, wherein said gripper comprises a stationery half-yoke and a movable half-yoke.

10. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 8, wherein the gripper of said container loading station is adapted to shake said medicine containers to mix the medicine contained therein.

11. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of arms for manipulating said syringe includes at least a first arm, second arm and third arm, all of said arms being independently servo-controlled.

12. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said first arm and second arm articulate vertically.

13. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said third arm is extendable and rotatable about a vertical axis.

14. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said third arm comprises a pair of fork-shaped fingers separated by a curvilinear notch and protruding perpendicular to said vertical axis.

15. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 14, wherein said fork-shaped fingers spin when said third arm rotates about said vertical axis and said curvilinear notch closes upon a syringe between said fork-shaped fingers.

16. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising a capping station to cap the filled syringe.

17. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, further comprising a scanner at said filling station in communication with said controller for scanning the label attached to said medicine containers to verify that the medicine contained therein is suitable to fill said syringe.

18. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said syringes are oral or enteral syringes.

34. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 1, wherein said medicine containers comprise indicia providing a unique container identification, National Drug Code (NDC), quantity of medicine inside said containers, production batch/lot code, and expiration date of the medicine container.

19. A system for semi-automated filling of syringes with medicines from a plurality of medicine containers, said syringes being of various sizes and types all having a barrel, a terminal discharge, a first flange about said barrel, a plunger slideably engaged in said barrel, and a second flange at distal end of said plunger, the system comprising:

a programmable computer including software for controlling said system;

a filling station comprising a stationary housing a plurality of articulating syringe gripping arms protruding therefrom, each of said plurality of syringe gripping arms having a distal pair of horizontally-opposed fork shaped fingers defining a notched opening, and each said gripping arm being independently controlled by said programmable computer to articulate vertically up and down in front of said housing, one of said syringe gripping arms gripping a body of said syringe, and one of said syringe gripping arms gripping a plunger of said syringe and adapted to withdraw the plunger of said syringe to fill said syringe with medicine from one of said medicine containers.

20. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, wherein said plurality of arms for manipulating said syringe includes at least a first arm and a second arm Independently servo-controlled by said programmable computer.

21. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 20, wherein said first arm and second arm protrude horizontally from said housing.

22. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 20, wherein said first arm protrudes horizontally from said housing and said second arm protrudes vertically in front of said housing and is extendable and rotatable about a vertical axis.

23. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 22, wherein said third arm comprises a pair of fork-shaped fingers separated by a curvilinear notch and protruding perpendicular to said vertical axis.

24. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 23, wherein said fork-shaped fingers spin when said third arm rotates about said vertical axis and said curvilinear notch closes upon a syringe between said fork-shaped fingers.

25. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, wherein said system further comprises an Inspection station in communication with said programmable computer for determining a fill level of said syringe.

26. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, further comprising a medicine container orientation and login station for removal of a conventional screw-on cap from said medicine container and replacement with a container/syringe interface.

27. The system for semi-automated tilling of syringes according to claim 19, wherein said programmable computer is in communication with a hospital computer system so that when an electronic prescription is entered into said hospital computer system for a dose of prescription medicine to be administered via a syringe, data is transmitted from said electronic prescription to said system for automatically filling a syringe with said dose of prescription medicine.

28. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, further comprising a first labeler resident at said medication container orientation and login station and in communication with said programmable computer for printing a scannable label for attachment to said medicine containers.

29. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 28, further comprising a first scanner resident at said medication container orientation and login station and in communication with said programmable computer for scanning the label printed by said first labeler and attached to said medicine containers.

30. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, wherein said medicine containers comprise indicia providing a unique container identification, National Drag Code (NDC), quantity of medicine inside said containers, production batch/lot code, and expiration date of the medicine container.

31. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 19, further comprising a labeler in communication with said programmable computer for printing a scannable label for attachment to said syringe.

32. A system for semi-automated filling of syringes with medicines from a plurality of medicine containers, said syringes being of various sizes and types all having a barrel, a terminal discharge, a first flange about said barrel, a plunger slideably engaged in said barrel, and a second flange at distal end of said plunger, the system comprising;

a filling station, comprising a loading station for loading of a syringe to a filling position, and for manual loading of a container to said filling position, said filling station further comprising a plurality of arms for manipulating said syringe when in said filling position to withdraw said plunger of said syringe to fill said syringe with medicine;

a programmable computer including software for carrying out the steps of,

maintaining a database of medicines, said database comprising a record corresponding to each type of medicine;

inputting a plurality of medicine prescriptions for syringes to a queue of prescriptions to be fulfilled;

sorting said prescription queue by type of medicine;

fulfilling a batch subset of said input medicine prescriptions comprising all the same type of medicine, by the following substeps,

selecting a medicine container containing said selected type of medicine,

selecting a syringe to fill with medicine from said selected medicine container to fulfill one of said input medicine prescriptions,

loading said selected syringe and said selected bulk container into a filling station, and

controlling said plurality of arms to withdraw the plunger of said selected syringe to fill said selected syringe with medicine from said selected container.

33. The system for semi-automated filling of syringes according to claim 32, wherein said medicine containers comprise indicia providing a unique container identification, National Drug Code (NDC), quantity of medicine inside said containers, production batch/lot code, and expiration date of the medicine container.