Method and apparatus for delivering drugs

• US 6,308,109 B1
• Filed: 04/30/1999
• Issued: 10/23/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho
• Inventors: Morimoto, Takuo, Yuyama, Shoji, Nose, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ellis, Christopher P.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Butler, Michael E
• Application Number:
  US09/302,473
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: 700/230, 700/229, 700/228, 700/213, 700/236, 700/244, 700/242, 700/243, 198/349.7, 221/7, 221/76
• US Class Current: 700/228
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 1/1376 the orders being assembled on a commissioning conveyor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered

Abstract

An apparatus and control method for feeding medications in which processing units, which can prepare drugs, non-drug articles and drug-related articles, are provided along a carrier feed line, and in which carriers for respective patients are fed on the feed line in the order in which preparations for carriers, preparations for medications, and preparation for receiving carriers are all finished so that a large amount of medications can be collected and delivered by carts to a plurality of wards in a hospital with high efficiency. When patient data is entered in a host computer, at least one of the processing units corresponding to this data is activated to prepare medications. When preparations in all of the processing units, tray feed units, and tray receiving unit have been made, a corresponding tray is fed on the conveyor to collect medications and is then loaded into a predetermined one of a plurality of carts.

Claims

1. An apparatus for dispensing drugs and other medical supplies, said apparatus comprising:

a carrier feed line having a first end and a second end;

a carrier feed unit, provided at said first end of said carrier feed line, operable to deposit carriers one at a time onto said carrier feed line;

a plurality of processing units, provided along said carrier feed line, operable to prepare and dispense drugs and non-drug articles into the carriers being fed on said carrier feed line, wherein said plurality of processing units are operable to simultaneously dispense the drugs and non-drug articles into a plurality of the carriers, and wherein the carriers are containers for receiving drugs and non-drug articles;

a plurality of carrier receiving units provided at said second end of said carrier feed line;

a carrier loading unit operable to direct each of the carriers that have been fed to said second end of said carrier feed line to a predetermined one of said plurality of carrier receiving units and operable to load said each carrier into said predetermined one of said plurality of carrier receiving units; and

a control unit operable to receive an order for a patient, activate said carrier feed unit to place a carrier corresponding to the patient on said carrier feed line, and activate ones of said plurality of processing units which are listed in the order to thereby dispense the drugs and non-drug articles directly into the carrier being fed on said carrier feed line by amounts specified in the order.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said plurality of processing units comprise a tablet processing unit and an ampule processing unit, each of said tablet processing unit and said ampule processing unit having a belt conveyor operable to dispense tablets and ampules into the carriers being fed on said carrier feed line.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said carrier receiving units are carts.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said plurality of carrier receiving units is operable to stack a plurality of carriers fed from said carrier feed line, and wherein said carrier loading unit includes means for pushing up a stack of carriers stored in one of said carrier receiving units corresponding to each carrier that has been fed to said second end of said carrier feed line to create a space large enough to receive said each carrier under the stack of carriers in said one of said carrier receiving units, and inserting said each carrier into said space.