Prescription order position tracking system and method

• US 7,672,859 B1
• Filed: 11/16/2000
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/16/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: GSL Solutions, Inc. (Becton, Dickinson & Co)
• Original Assignee: GSL Solutions, Inc. (Becton, Dickinson & Co)
• Inventors: Smith, Mark B., Louie, Shelton, Garrett, Stephen A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Frenel; Vanel
• Application Number:
  US09/715,439
• Time in Patent Office: 3,393 Days
• Field of Search: 705 22- 23, 705/28, 705/29, 705/26, 705 2- 3, 705/7, 705/30, 340/10.1, 235/462.46
• US Class Current: 705/3
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

An economical prescription order tracking system automatically monitors and tracks prescription orders through a conventional pharmacy. The system includes a tracking tag having a unique identifier associated with it secured near the prescription order such that it travels with the order through various locations within the pharmacy. Tag reading devices are positioned at key locations throughout the pharmacy to detect the location of each tag, and its associated attached prescription order. The detected locations are compiled via a computer system and associated with the customer, such that at any given time the location of the prescription order within the pharmacy can be determined, thereby facilitating the efficient operation of the pharmacy. Preferably, filled prescription orders are placed in a large bin having multiple cubbies within it. Each cubby has a displayed number and a tag reading device received therein such that the location of the prescription order within the cubby is easily determined simply by placing the prescription order with tag into an available cubby. The time each prescription order remains at each location and worker identity information at each location can be recorded and compiled to facilitate workflow and worker efficiency monitoring of the pharmacy.

Claims

1. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy having a plurality of physically spaced apart locations for manually filling and storing the prescription orders, the plurality of spaced apart locations being positioned along a workflow stream leading to a storage area with an array of compartments for storing filled prescription orders therein, prescription orders being moved between the plurality of spaced apart locations by one or more pharmacy workers by hand, said method including the following steps:

receiving plural prescription orders at a first location upstream of the storage area;

operably securing a separate machine-readable tag to each prescription order upstream of said storage area, each said tag having a unique identifier that is readable by a tag reader in proximity to the tag regardless of its orientation relative to the tag reader;

associating the unique identifier of each tag with customer information stored in a computer system in association with the prescription order;

moving the prescription orders by hand to a second location within the pharmacy for manual filling upstream of the storage area, the second location having a second location tag reader in communication with the computer system;

automatically detecting the presence of the prescription orders at the second location by reading the unique identifier of the remote tags with said second location tag reader regardless of the orientation of said tags and automatically recording at the computer system the location of the prescription orders at said second location for the manual filling;

moving each of the prescription orders by hand to one of the compartments in the array of compartments as a filled prescription order, each compartment having a corresponding compartment tag reader that is in communication with the computer system and is operable to read the unique identifier of the tag on the filled prescription order regardless of the orientation of the tag,

whereby the step of associating the unique identifier of each tag with customer information and the step of automatically detecting the presence of the prescription orders are performed by or under control of the computer system.

2. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy of claim 1, further including the steps of:

displaying on a computer system the compartment in which any selected prescription order is stored, thereby facilitating the easy location of said prescription order.

3. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy of claim 1, further including the steps of:

automatically collecting timing information about the amount of time each of the prescription orders remains at the second location;

storing said timing information into the computer system; and

,

compiling workflow information based on the timing information.

4. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy of claim 3, further including the step of:

associating the workflow information with a particular worker to evaluate worker efficiency.

5. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy of claim 1, wherein said pharmacy is a retail pharmacy.

6. A method for ensuring that a pharmacy worker distributes the correct prescription order to a customer of the pharmacy, the pharmacy having a storage portion with an array of individually identified storage areas therein, each individually identified storage area having a unique visual identifier, said method comprising:

receiving a prescription order at a first location spaced apart from the storage area within the pharmacy;

operably securing a machine-readable tag to the prescription order, the machine-readable tag having a unique tag identifier readable when placed in proximity to a tag reader regardless of orientation of the tag relative to the tag reader;

associating the machine-readable tag with customer information associated with the prescription order in the computer system;

manually filling the prescription order defining a filled prescription order;

placing the filled prescription order and the machine-readable tag by hand into one individually identified storage area of the plurality of individually identified storage areas without instructions from the computer system as to which individually identified storage area the filled prescription order and the machine-readable tag are to be placed into thereby defining a pharmacy worker selected storage area;

reading the unique tag identifier of the tag within the pharmacy worker selected storage area with a tag reader that is associated with the pharmacy worker selected storage area, but not with any other individually identified storage areas in the array;

providing the unique tag identifier and the storage area identifier for the pharmacy worker selected storage area to the computer system;

the computer system correlating the customer information, unique tag identifier, and storage area identifier;

retrieving the customer information from the computer system to determine the storage area identifier associated with the pharmacy worker selected storage area in which the customer'"'"'s filled prescription order is located; and

,

retrieving the filled prescription order by hand from the identified pharmacy worker selected storage area of the storage portion.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said tag is a radio-frequency identification (“

RFID”

) tag and said tag readers are RFID readers.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said storage area identifier is not related to information contained within the customer information.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said storage area identifier is numeric.

10. The method of claim 6, further including:

detecting the removal of the filled prescription order and its associated tag from the pharmacy worker selected storage area by the tag reader associated with the pharmacy worker selected storage area.

11. The method of claim 10, further including:

monitoring with the computer system the time the filled prescription order and its associated tag remains within the pharmacy worker selected storage area; and

returning the filled prescription order to stock if the prescription order is not picked up within a predefine time limit.

12. The method of claim 6, further including placing a second filled prescription order with a second unique remote tag operably secured thereto within the pharmacy worker selected storage area such that the filled prescription order and the second filled prescription order concurrently occupy the same pharmacy worker selected storage area, and wherein the computer system associates customer identifying information for the second filled prescription, the second prescription order and the storage identifier.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the computer system detects the removal of the prescription order from the pharmacy selected storage area during the retrieving the prescription order step, and detects the continued presence of the second prescription order within the pharmacy selected storage area during the retrieving the prescription order step.

14. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy having a plurality of physically spaced apart locations for manual filling and storing the prescription orders, the plurality of spaced apart locations being positioned along a workflow stream leading to a storage area with an array of compartments for storing filled prescription orders therein, prescription orders being moved between the plurality of spaced apart locations by one or more pharmacy workers by hand, said method including the following steps:

receiving plural prescription orders at a first location upstream of the storage area;

operably securing machine-readable tags to the prescription orders upstream of said storage area, each said tag having a unique identifier that is readable by a tag reader in proximity to the tag regardless of its orientation relative to the tag reader;

associating the unique identifiers of the tags with customer information stored in a computer system in association with the prescription orders;

moving the prescription orders by hand to a second location within the pharmacy for manual filling upstream of the storage area, the second location having a second location tag reader in communication with the computer system;

automatically detecting the presence of the prescription orders at the second location by reading the unique identifier of the remote tags with said second location tag reader regardless of the orientation of said tags and automatically recording at the computer system the location of the prescription orders at said second location for manual filling; and

moving the prescription orders by hand to one or more of the compartments in the array of compartments as filled prescription orders, each compartment having a corresponding compartment tag reader that is in communication with the computer system and is operable to read the unique identifier of the tag on each filled prescription order in the compartment regardless of the orientation of the tag,

whereby the step of associating the unique identifier of each tag with customer information and the step of automatically detecting the presence of the prescription orders are performed by or under control of the computer system.

15. A method for tracking physical location of prescription orders through a pharmacy of claim 14, further including the steps of:

displaying on a computer system the compartment in which any selected prescription order was stored by hand, thereby facilitating the easy location of said prescription order by a pharmacy worker.

16. The method of claim 14, further including:

detecting removal of a filled prescription order and its associated tag from a selected compartment in the storage area with the compartment tag reader corresponding to the selected compartment.