On-line pharmacy automated refill system
First Claim
1. An interactive method of processing patient refill prescriptions using telephone and computer equipment comprising the steps of:
- answering an incoming telephone call from a caller, the incoming telephone call answered with a client computer;
receiving a request for a prescription refill from the caller;
storing said request until on-line communications with a host computer are established; and
attempting to contact said host computer having access to a databank of patient information for validating said request by comparing said request with said patient information.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An interactive computer request processing system. In the preferred embodiment, the request processing system utilizes telephone and computer equipment to accept refill requests for patient prescriptions. The system receives information from a patient and performs prescription inquiries to a databank to determine patient information such as the status of prescriptions. The system remains operational whether or not interactive communications can be achieved with the databank. If communications are not available, the system stores the patient information. Therefore, the system always appears to the caller to be fully operational regardless of whether interactive communications are available. When communications are re-established, the databank and prescription inquiries are conducted, whereby the system validates or invalidates requests based on specified criteria. In a preferred embodiment, the system automatically attempts to notify a patient that the patient'"'"'s request is invalid, thereby alerting the patient that the patient'"'"'s prescription has not been filled.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. An interactive method of processing patient refill prescriptions using telephone and computer equipment comprising the steps of:
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answering an incoming telephone call from a caller, the incoming telephone call answered with a client computer; receiving a request for a prescription refill from the caller; storing said request until on-line communications with a host computer are established; and attempting to contact said host computer having access to a databank of patient information for validating said request by comparing said request with said patient information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer program product comprising:
a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in said medium for effecting an interactive method of processing patient refill prescriptions using telephone and computer equipment, said computer program product having; computer readable program code for causing a computer to effect answering an incoming telephone call from a caller, the incoming telephone call answered with a client computer; computer readable program code for causing a computer to effect receiving a request for a prescription refill from the caller; computer readable program code for causing a computer to effect storing said request until on-line communications with a host computer are established; and computer readable program code for causing a computer to effect attempting to contact said host computer having access to a databank of patient information for validating said request by comparing said request with said patient information. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
Specification