System for dispensing medical items by brand or generic name

• US 5,993,046 A
• Filed: 11/26/1996
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Diebold Incorporated (Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated)
• Inventors: McCune, Sean M., McGrady, R. Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Gordon, Paul P.
• Application Number:
  US08/757,735
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 364/478.01, 364/403, 364/479.01, 364/479.02, 364/479.07, 377/6, 221/2, 221/6, 221/92, 221/124, 221/125
• US Class Current: 700/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06M 7/04 Counting of piece goods, e.g. of boxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00

Abstract

The system for monitoring and dispensing medical items which are dispensed for administration to patients includes a data terminal (76) which is connected through a local area network (82) to at least one remote computer (84) having a processor and a data store. A user of the data terminal is enabled to select a patient for whom medical items will be used, and responsive to a request to dispense items the requested items are dispensed from dispensing devices (96, 100) connected to the data terminal. The data store also includes brand name and generic name information concerning medical items that are dispensed. Through selection of an input button (252) included in a plurality of windows (256, 264, 286) a user is enabled to selectively display medical items by either brand or generic name and to dispense the items for a patient in accordance with either of said names.

Claims

1. A system for dispensing medical items comprising:

a dispenser, wherein said dispenser is selectively operable to dispense medical items;

a user terminal, wherein said user terminal includes a display and an input device, wherein said dispenser is operative to dispense medical items responsive to said input device;

a data store in operative connection with said user terminal, wherein said data store includes data representative of a brand name and a generic name corresponding to a medical item dispensable from said dispenser, and wherein said display of said user terminal is operative to display said brand name and said generic name for said medical item.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein said input device includes a manually selectable selector, wherein selection of said selector changes said display from displaying said brand name to displaying said generic name.

3. A system according to claim 2 wherein selection of said selector is operative when said generic name is being displayed to change said display to displaying said brand name.

4. The system according to claim 2 wherein said display includes an indicator, wherein said indicator indicates whether said brand name or said generic name corresponding to said item is being displayed.

5. The system according to claim 3 wherein said selector is responsive to the last selection made wherein one of either said brand name or said generic name is being displayed on the display, to indicate on the display that said other of said names is available to be displayed responsive to selection of said selector.

6. The system according to claim 3 wherein said data store includes data representative of brand names and generic names for each of a plurality of medical items that may be made available to a user in an area adjacent said user terminal, and wherein said display is operative responsive to said input device to display either said brand name or said generic name for each one of said plurality of medical items, and wherein selection of said selector is operative to change said display from displaying the brand names to displaying the generic names of said plurality of said medical items.

7. The system according to claim 1 wherein said data store includes data representative of a first price for the medical item in the brand name form and a second price for the medical item in the generic name form.

8. The system according to claim 7 wherein said data store includes a record corresponding to a patient, and wherein said input device enables selection of said patient and selection of the medical item by brand or generic name, and wherein said system is operative responsive to dispensing of said item from said dispenser to store said pricing data for said selected brand name or said selected generic name in correlated relation with the record corresponding to the patient in the data store.

9. The system according to claim 2 wherein said data store includes data representative of medical items prescribed for a patient, and wherein said display is operative responsive to said input device to display said medical items prescribed for said patient, and wherein said display is operative responsive to said selector to change at least one of said displayed medical items from said brand name to said generic name.

10. The system according to claim 9 wherein said display is operative to display a plurality of said prescribed medical items, and wherein selection of said selector is operative to cause said display to display the generic names of said plurality of prescribed medical items.

11. The system according to claim 10 wherein selection of said selector when said generic names of said plurality of prescribed items are displayed, is operative to cause said display of the user terminal to display the brand names of said plurality of prescribed medical items.

12. The system according to claim 2 wherein said data store further includes data representative of at least one kit, wherein said kit comprises a plurality of medical items used together in a procedure, and wherein said display is operative responsive to said input device to display a listing of the plurality of medical items in the kit, and wherein said display is operative responsive to said selector to change from displaying the brand names of at least one of the medical items in the kit to displaying the generic name for said medical item in a kit.

13. The system according to claim 2 wherein said display is operative responsive to said input device to display at least one window, wherein when said window is displayed, a dispense input is accessible to a user of said user terminal, and wherein selection of said dispense input is operative when said window is displayed and said dispense input is selected, to cause the medical item to be dispensed from said dispenser, and wherein when said window is displayed, selection of said selector is operative to change either the brand or generic name of said item on said display to said other name.

14. The system according to claim 13 wherein when said dispense input is selected and said display of said user terminal displays one of either said brand or generic name of said medical item, and said medical item corresponding to said one of said brand or generic name is not available for dispense from said dispenser, selection of said dispense input is operative to cause said display to indicate that said medical item corresponding to said other name is available for dispense.

15. The system according to claim 2 wherein said input device includes a touch screen and wherein said selector is a button presented on said display of said touch screen.

16. The system according to claim 13 wherein said input device includes a touch screen and wherein said dispense input and said selector are buttons presented on said window.

17. A system for dispensing medical items comprising:

a dispenser, wherein said dispenser is selectively operable to dispense medical items;

a user interface, wherein said user interface includes a display and an input device, wherein said dispenser is operative to dispense medical items responsive to said input device;

a data store in operative connection with said user interface, wherein said data store includes data representative of a brand name and a generic name corresponding to a medical item dispensable from said dispenser, and wherein said display of said user interface is operative to display said brand name and said generic name for said medical item.

18. A system for providing medical items for use by patients, comprising:

a storage location, wherein medical items are stored in said storage location prior to dispense to a user for administration to patients;

a data store, wherein said data store includes item data representative of a brand name and a generic name for a medical item in said storage location, and patient data representative of information corresponding to a patient for whom medical items may be dispensed;

a user terminal in operative connection with said data store, wherein said user terminal includes an output device and an input device, and wherein said input device includes a selector, and wherein said output device is operative responsive to said selector to indicate either a brand name or a generic name for the medical item.

19. The system according to claim 18 wherein said information corresponding to the patient includes at least one prescribed medical item prescribed for said patient, and wherein said output device is operative responsive to said input device to display said prescribed medical item, and wherein said output device is further responsive to said selector to display the brand name or the generic name for said prescribed medical item.

20. A method for dispensing medical items for use by patients, comprising the steps of:

storing in a data store data representative of a brand name and a generic name for a medical item;

displaying on a display of a user interface in operative connection with the data store one of either said brand name or said generic name for said medical item;

changing said display of said user interface to display said other of said brand name or said generic name responsive to selection of a selector on an input device of said user interface.

21. The method according to claim 20 and further comprising the step of dispensing said medical item from a dispenser responsive to selection of a dispense input to said input device of said user interface.

22. The method according to claim 20 wherein said storing step further comprises storing patient data representative of information corresponding to a patient, and wherein said displaying step further comprises displaying the name of the patient with said name of the medical item, and further comprising the steps of;

indicating through said input device of said user interface a taking of said medical item for use by said patient, and

recording in said data store data representative of the taking of said medical item in correlated relation with said patient information.

23. The method according to claim 22 wherein said storing step further comprises storing in correlated relation with the data representative of the medical item a brand name price and a generic name price for the item, and wherein in the displaying step the name of the medical item is displayed as one of either the brand name or the generic name, and wherein the recording step further comprises recording in correlated relation with the patient information, data representative of the price stored in correlated relation with the one displayed brand name or generic name.

24. A system for dispensing medical items comprising:

a dispenser, wherein the dispenser is selectively operable to dispense medical items;

a user terminal, wherein the user terminal includes an output device and an input device, wherein the dispenser is operative to dispense medical items responsive inputs to the input device;

a data store in operative connection with the user terminal, wherein the data store includes data representative of a brand name and a generic name corresponding to a medical item dispensable from the dispenser, and wherein the output device of the user terminal is operative to indicate the brand name and the generic name for the medical item.

25. A method for dispensing medical items for use by patients, comprising the steps of:

storing in a data store data representative of a brand name and a generic name for a medical item;

displaying on an output device of a user interface in operative connection with the data store the brand name and the generic name for the medical item; and

dispensing the medical item from a dispenser responsive to a dispense input to an input device.

26. A system for dispensing medical items comprising:

a dispenser, wherein the dispenser encloses a plurality of medical items and is selectively operative to dispense the medical items therefrom;

a user interface located in proximity to the dispenser, wherein the user interface includes a display and an input device, wherein the dispenser is operative to dispense medical items from the dispenser responsive to inputs to the input device;

a data store in operative connection with the user interface, wherein the data store includes data representative of a brand name and a generic name corresponding to at least one medical item enclosed in and dispensable from the dispenser, and wherein the display of the user interface is selectively operative responsive to inputs to the input device to display the brand name and the generic name for the one medical item.

27. A method for dispensing medical items for use by patients, comprising the steps of:

storing in a data store, data representative of a brand name and a generic name for a medical item;

enclosing the medical item in a dispenser from which the medical item is selectively dispensed;

displaying on an output device of a user interface in operative connection with the data store, the brand name and the generic name for the medical item, the user interface being located in proximity to the dispenser;

inputting to an input device of the user interface in operative connection with the dispenser, a dispense input; and

dispensing the medical item from the dispenser responsive to the input of the dispense input to the input device.