Drug auditing method and system

• US 6,842,736 B1
• Filed: 10/21/1998
• Issued: 01/11/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Medacist Solutions Group LLC
• Original Assignee: David J. Brzozowski
• Inventors: Brzozowski, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hapiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ALLEN, AKIBA KANELLE
• Application Number:
  US09/176,416
• Time in Patent Office: 2,274 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/3, 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and a method for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility. The system comprises an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers or users, which delivery system has a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout the medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data. Each drug dispensing station includes a console for inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of the drugs and a link for transferring the inputted information to the centralized archive. The system further comprises a processing unit for receiving the transactional information from the centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of the drugs. The method describes the manner in which the transactional information is manipulated to detect any patterns and abnormalities in the distribution and usage of the drugs.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system; and

detecting patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs, said detecting step comprising processing said transactional information in said archival database using a programmed processing unit to detect said patterns and abnormalities and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which identifies said detected patterns and abnormalities.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said inputting step comprises inputting the identity of said medical care provider, the name of and the item number for each of said drugs being dispensed, the dosage or quantity of each of said drugs being dispensed, station identification, current date and current time.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising saving said information in said centralized archival database on an external medium prior to performing said processing step.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

transferring said transactional information in said centralized archival database to said processing unit; and

said processing step comprising testing said transactional information transferred to said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness.

6. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

excluding information from certain stations from the transactional information to be processed by said processing unit to generate said at least one report; and

filtering said transactional information to reduce the size and volume of data to be processed by said processing unit.

9. The method according to claim 6, further comprising interfacing with external data sources for providing additional information needed as an input to said processing step.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

defining at least one drug to be audited;

said processing step comprising processing said archival database information in said processing unit to gather all records involving withdrawal of said at least one drug from at least one data source station in said system to be audited so as to identify and compile a list of high level providers of said at least one drug from said records.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein said processing step comprises benchmarking said medical care providers of said at least one drug with each other for said at least one data source station.

18. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

said automated drug delivery system including multiple stations within a single operating unit of a medical care facility;

said processing step comprising grouping said transactional information from each of said multiple stations;

said processing step further comprising identifying high level providers of said drugs at said grouped stations.

22. The method according to claim 1, wherein said processing step comprises processing said transactional information in said database so as to generate a report for said defined period of time which identifies all transactions in which drugs being dispensed are wasted and those providers who are wasting said drugs.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein said automated drug delivery system comprises a plurality of stations and said processing step comprises processing said transactional information in said database so as to generate a report for said defined period of time which identifies said drugs dispensed at a particular one of said stations.

26. The method according to claim 23, wherein said individual drug being audited comprises narcotic drugs.

5. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

transferring said transactional information in said centralized archival database to a processing unit; and

said processing step comprising testing said transactional information transferred to said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness; and

said processing step further comprising adjusting said transactional information data in said processing unit so as to group stations of like providers together and to reclassify selected ones of said medical care providers.

7. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

transferring said transactional information in said centralized archival database to a processing unit; and

said processing step comprising testing said transactional information transferred to said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness;

excluding information from certain stations from the transactional information to be processed by said processing unit to generate said at least one report;

filtering said transactional information to reduce the size and volume of data to be processed by said processing unit; and

said filtering step comprising defining specific data filtering criteria for each type of report to be generated and storing said criteria in a table.

8. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

transferring said transactional information in said centralized archival database to a processing unit; and

said processing step comprising testing said transactional information transferred to said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness;

excluding information from certain stations from the transactional information to be processed by said processing unit to generate said at least one report;

filtering said transactional information to reduce the size and volume of data to be processed by said processing unit; and

said filtering step comprising creating at least one table defining controlled and non-controlled ones of said drugs and categories of transaction types to be audited during execution of a transaction audit query.

10. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

transferring said transactional information in said centralized archival database to a processing unit; and

said processing step comprising testing said transactional information transferred to said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness;

excluding information from certain stations from the transactional information to be processed by said processing unit to generate said at least one report;

filtering said transactional information to reduce the size and volume of data to be processed by said processing unit;

interfacing with external data sources for providing additional information needed as an input to said processing step; and

said interfacing step comprising interfacing with payroll records for each medical care provider.

12. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

defining at least one drug to be audited;

said processing step comprising processing said archival database information in a processing unit to gather all records involving withdrawal of said at least one drug from at least one data source station in said system to be audited so as to identify and compile a list of high level providers of said at least one drug from said records; and

said processing step further comprising grouping said data source stations by patient care unit with the same type of service.

13. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

defining at least one drug to be audited;

said processing step comprising processing said archival database information in a processing unit to gather all records involving withdrawal of said at least one drug from at least one data source station in said system to be audited so as to identify and compile a list of high level providers of said at least one drug from said records; and

said processing step further comprising grouping defined drug items with the same root drug name together.

15. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

defining at least one drug to be audited;

said processing step comprising processing said archival database information in a processing unit to gather all records involving withdrawal of said at least one drug from at least one data source station in said system to be audited so as to identify and compile a list of high level providers of said at least one drug from said records;

said processing step further comprising benchmarking said medical care providers of said at least one drug with each other for said at least one data source station; and

said benchmarking step comprising totalling the quantity of said at least one drug being audited for said at least one station, totaling the number of medical care providers for said at least one station, and obtaining a mean average for said at least one station by dividing the total withdrawal quantity for said at least one drug by the total number of medical care providers for said at least one station.

16. The method of according to claim 15, wherein said benchmarking further comprises calculating the standard deviation of said at least one drug being audited for said at least one station and flagging those medical care providers which are at least two units of standard deviation above the mean.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein said report generating step comprises generating a list of medical care providers who have been flagged.

21. The method according to claim 16, wherein said benchmarking step further comprises calculating the standard deviation of the total number of said drugs being dispensed for said grouped stations and flagging those providers which are at least two units of standard deviation above the mean.

19. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said automated drug delivery system including multiple stations within a single operating unit of a medical care facility;

said processing step comprising grouping said transactional information from each of said multiple stations;

said processing step further comprising identifying high level providers of said drugs at said grouped stations; and

said identifying step comprising benchmarking said providers at said grouped stations against each other.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein said benchmarking step comprises determining the total quantity of said drugs dispensed at said grouped stations, determining the total number of providers using said grouped stations, and obtaining a mean average for said grouped stations by dividing the total quantity of dispensed drugs by the total number of providers.

24. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said processing step comprising processing said transactional information in said database so as to generate a report for said defined period of time which identifies discrepancies in drug usage.

25. A method for auditing a drug delivery system comprising the steps of:

providing an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said providing step comprising placing a data source station at each location where at least one of said drugs is to be dispensed by a medical care provider;

inputting information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs into a respective data source station whenever one of said drugs is being dispensed;

storing said inputted transactional information in a centralized archival database forming part of said drug delivery system;

processing said transactional information in said archival database and generating at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said processing comprising auditing said inputted transactional information in said archival database and determining for individual drugs being audited withdrawal quantities greater than two for non-emergency department stations and quantities greater than three for emergency department stations.

27. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive; and

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive, for processing said transactional information for a defined period of time to detect patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs, and generating at least one report for said defined period of time showing said detected patterns and abnormalities.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein said receiving and processing means comprises a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein said data manager module comprises means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors, viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information.

31. The system according to claim 29, wherein said data manager module further comprises means for warehousing said transactional information data.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein said client profile module receives said transactional information data from said warehousing means.

33. The system according to claim 32, wherein said client profile module comprises means for excluding certain data within said transactional information data from further processing.

34. The system according to claim 33, wherein said client profile module further comprises means for filtering said transactional information data so as to limit the size and volume of data to be processed by the client analyzer module.

35. The system according to claim 34, wherein said client profile module comprises means for interfacing with external data sources.

38. The system according to claim 34, wherein said client analyzer module comprises means for processing said transactional data received from said client profile module to identify all transactions in which drugs being dispensed are wasted and those users who are wasting said drugs.

39. The system according to claim 34, wherein said client analyzer module comprises means for processing said transactional data received from said client profile module to identify those drugs dispensed at a particular one of said stations.

30. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive fir storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive;

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said receiving and processing means comprising a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module;

said data manager module comprising means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information; and

said data manager module further comprising means for adjusting said transactional information so as to group like users of said stations and for reclassifying certain categories of users.

36. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one~of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive;

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said receiving and processing means comprising a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module;

said data manager module comprising means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information;

said data manager module further comprising means for warehousing said transactional information data;

said client profile module receiving said transactional information data from said warehousing means;

said client profile module comprising means for excluding certain data within said transactional information data from further processing;

said client profile module further comprising means for filtering said transactional information data so as to limit the size and volume of data to be processed by the client analyzer module; and

said client analyzer module comprising means for processing said transactional information data received from said client profile module so as to gather all records involving withdrawal of at least one drug being audited from at least one of said stations and to benchmark users of said at least one drug with each other for said at least one station so as to identify those users who exceed a certain threshold level of drug usage.

37. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive;

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said receiving and processing means comprising a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module;

said data manager module comprising means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information;

said data manager module further comprising means for warehousing said transactional information data;

said client profile module receiving said transactional information data from said warehousing means;

said client profile module comprising means for excluding certain data within said transactional information data from further processing;

said client profile module further comprising means for filtering said transactional information data so as to limit the size and volume of data to be processed by the client analyzer module; and

said client analyzer module comprising means for processing said transactional information data received from said client profile module so as to gather all records relating to the dispensing of drugs from certain ones of said stations and benchmarking users of said drugs from said stations with each other so as to identify those users who exceed a certain threshold level of drug usage.

40. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive;

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said receiving and processing means comprising a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module;

said data manager module comprising means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors viruses that may damage.data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information;

said data manager module further comprising means for warehousing said transactional information data;

said client profile module receiving said transactional information data from said warehousing means;

said client profile module comprising means for excluding certain data within said transactional information data from further processing;

said client profile module further comprising means for filtering said transactional information data so as to limit the size and volume of data to be processed by the client analyzer module; and

said client analyzer module further comprising means for processing said transactional data received from said client profile module to identify discrepancies in drug usage.

41. A system for auditing drug usage within a medical care facility comprising:

an automated drug delivery system for dispensing a plurality of drugs to medical care providers;

said automated drug delivery system comprising a plurality of drug dispensing stations located throughout said medical care facility and a centralized archive for storing data;

each said drug dispensing station including means for recording information about each transaction involving at least one of said drugs and for transferring said transaction information to said centralized archive;

means for receiving said transactional information from said centralized archive and for processing it so as to generate at least one report for a defined period of time which detects patterns and abnormalities in distribution and usage of selected ones of said drugs;

said receiving and processing means comprising a processing unit having a data manager module, a client profile module, a client analyzer module, and a report generator module;

said data manager module comprising means for testing said transactional information received by said processing unit for at least one of physical errors viruses that may damage data comprising said transactional information, and completeness of said transactional information;

said data manager module further comprising means for warehousing said transactional information data;

said client profile module receiving said transactional information data from said warehousing means;

said client profile module comprising means for excluding certain data within said transactional information data from further processing;

said client profile module further comprising means for filtering said transactional information data so as to limit the size and volume of data to be processed by the client analyzer module; and

said client analyzer module further comprising means for processing said transactional data received from said client profile module to identify transactions involving certain drugs where the withdrawal quantities are greater than a certain threshold level.