SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING HOSPITAL PATIENTS WITH RETAIL PHARMACY SERVICES

• US 20160364547A1
• Filed: 06/10/2016
• Published: 12/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Meijer (Meijer Cos. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Meijer (Meijer Cos. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Love, Nathaniel J., Hubble, Harold Brent, Pallas, David Scott
• Application Number:
  US15/179,750
• Publication Number:
  US 20160364547A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

In a system and method for filling post-discharge medications of a hospital patient a first receive signal carries a consent indicator indicating consent by the hospital patient or a caregiver of the hospital patient to fill at least one post-discharge medication prescribed or to be prescribed to the hospital patient, a second received signal carries an identifier of one of a plurality of affiliated retail pharmacies at which to fill the at least one post-discharge medication, the consent indicator is transmitted to a Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) service used by a physician of the hospital patient to process the at least one post-discharge medical prescription prescribed thereby in order to gain access to the at least one medical prescription prescribed by the patient'"'"'s physician, the at least one medical prescription from the PBM service is received based on the consent indicator, and the obtained at least one medical prescription is transmitted to the identified one of the plurality of retail pharmacies with instructions to fill the at least one medical prescription.

Claims

1. A system for filling post-discharge medications of a hospital patient, the system comprising:

a retail pharmacy server communicatively coupled to a plurality of affiliated retail pharmacies, the retail pharmacy server including at least one processor,

communication circuitry coupled to the retail pharmacy server, and

a memory having instructions stored therein that are executable by the at least one processor to receive via the communication circuitry a first signal carrying a consent indicator indicating consent by the hospital patient or a caregiver of the hospital patient to fill at least one post-discharge medication prescribed or to be prescribed to the hospital patient, to receive via the communication circuitry a second signal carrying an identifier of one of the plurality of affiliated retail pharmacies at which to fill the at least one post-discharge medication, to transmit with the communication circuitry the consent indicator to a Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) service used by a physician of the hospital patient to process the at least one post-discharge medical prescription prescribed thereby in order to gain access to the at least one medical prescription prescribed by the patient'"'"'s physician, to receive with the communication circuitry the at least one medical prescription from the PBM service based on the consent indicator, and to transmit with the communication circuitry the obtained at least one medical prescription to the identified one of the plurality of affiliated retail pharmacies with instructions to fill the at least one medical prescription.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the patient is admitted to a hospital, and wherein the identified one of the plurality of affiliated retail pharmacies is co-located at the hospital at which the patient is admitted.

3. A computer implemented method for making a product recommendation to a communication device of a patient following discharge of the patient from a hospital as part of a hospital stay, the method comprising:

causing, with a first processor carried by of a pharmacy server, communication circuitry of the pharmacy server to transmit to a hospital server a request for patient information relating to the patient'"'"'s hospital stay,

receiving, with the first processor, the requested patient information from the hospital server,

determining, based on the requested patient information, at least one of a product to recommend to the patient, a product to be avoided by the patient and a product to substitute for a product previously or typically purchased by the patient, and

causing, with the first processor, the communication circuitry of the pharmacy server to transmit to the communication device of the patient at least one of the product to recommend to the patient, the product to be avoided by the patient and the product to substitute for a product previously or typically purchased by the patient.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

receiving, with a second processor carried by the communication device of the patient, the transmitted at least one of the product to recommend to the patient, the product to be avoided by the patient and the product to substitute for a product previously or typically purchased by the patient, and

causing, by the second processor, a display carried by the communication device to display thereon the at least one of the product to recommend to the patient, the product to be avoided by the patient and the product to substitute for a product previously or typically purchased by the patient.

5. A computer implemented method for establishing a live communication link between a first communication device of a patient following discharge of the patient from a hospital as part of a hospital stay and a second communication device of one of a plurality of pharmacists of a retail pharmacy, the method comprising:

receiving by a first processor of a pharmacy server a transmitted request for the live communication link and an identification of the patient,

determining, by the first processor, an identity of the patient by matching the received identification of the patient with patient information stored in a database of the pharmacy server,

retrieving, by the first processor from the database, patient information relating to the patient'"'"'s hospital stay,

retrieving, by the first processor from the database, pharmacist information for the plurality of pharmacists of the retail pharmacy,

selecting one or more of the plurality of pharmacists by matching at least some of the patient information relating to the patient'"'"'s hospital stay with one or more attributes of the pharmacist information,

transmitting, under control of the first processor, a patient communication link to the first communication device of the patient, and

transmitting, under control of the first processor, a pharmacist communication link to at least one communication device associated with each of the one or more selected pharmacists,

wherein the first communication device and the at least one communication device associated with one of the one or more selected pharmacists establish live communication via the patient communication link and the pharmacist communication link.