Method and apparatus for inter-pharmacy workload balancing using resource function assignments

• US 7,734,478 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2005
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Inventors: Wielgos, Russell Alan, Jhaveri, Nimesh, Goodall, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): O'Connor; Gerald J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pauls; John A
• Application Number:
  US11/253,096
• Publication Number:
  US 20070088568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,694 Days
• Field of Search: 705/2, 705/4, 705/400, 700/99, 700/103, 700/121, 600/437, 395/208, 651/60
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• 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 system distributes workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy resources that are connected by a computer network. Work orders are queued at each pharmacy resource and redistributed based on existing workload distribution, capacity of pharmacy resources, and/or product demand.

Claims

1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources of a corporate entity, the method comprising:

identifying, at a computing device of an information processing system connecting the network of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity, a drug type;

determining, at the computing device, a demand for the drug type, including determining a total number of prescription orders to be filled corresponding to the drug type in the network of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity;

determining, at the computing device, a capacity of a designated set of pharmacy resources in the network to process prescription orders corresponding to the drug type, wherein;

the designated set is assigned to process prescription orders associated with the drug type;

processing each prescription order associated with the drug type includes executing physical preparation and executing information processing of each prescription order associated with the drug type;

executing physical preparation of each prescription order associated with the drug type includes packaging a dosage of the drug type and printing a label corresponding to each prescription order associated with the drug type;

executing information processing of each prescription order associated with the drug type includes authenticating each prescription order, validating third party provider information, collecting payment information, and referencing drug information associated with the drug type; and

at least one pharmacy resource in the network is enabled to independently process prescription orders including executing both the physical preparation and the information processing;

determining, at the computing device, when the demand for the drug type exceeds the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources in the network to process prescription orders corresponding to the drug type, and assigning, by the computing device, an additional pharmacy resource to the designated set;

determining, at the computing device, when the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources in the network to process prescription orders corresponding to the drug type exceeds the demand for the drug type, and deactivating, by the computing device, one pharmacy resource of the designated set from processing prescription orders corresponding to the drug type; and

sending, via the information processing system to a first pharmacy resource in the designated set of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity in the network, at least a portion of a first prescription order corresponding to the drug type for processing.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the set of designated pharmacy resources includes a facility, and wherein determining the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources comprises determining at least one of an existence of equipment, an availability of the equipment, and an availability of materials at the facility to process the drug type.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of:

the availability of the equipment is based on a workload of the equipment, and wherein the workload of the equipment is based on a tally of prescription orders being processed by the equipment;

or

the availability of equipment is based on a configuration of the equipment.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining, at the computing device, a transition time required to configure the equipment to be enabled to process a particular prescription order associated with the drug type, and wherein an efficiency of the facility is based on the transition time.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources is based on a rate of processing a particular prescription order associated with the drug type by each member of the designated set of pharmacy resources.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources comprises one of accessing information indicating an availability of a pharmacist capable of processing a particular prescription order associated with the drug type, an efficiency of the pharmacist, or a labor cost associated with the pharmacist.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the pharmacist is located at one of a facility or a remote home location in communicative connection with the network of pharmacy resources.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein assigning the additional pharmacy resource to the designated set of pharmacy resources comprises assigning a number of additional pharmacy resources to the designated set based on minimizing a difference between the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

determining when the demand for the drug type exceeds the capacity of the designated set comprises determining when the demand for the drug type exceeds the capacity of the designated set by a first threshold;

or

determining when the capacity of the designated set exceeds the demand for the drug type comprises determining when the capacity of the designated set exceeds the demand for the drug type by a second threshold.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining when the capacity of the designated set of pharmacy resources exceeds the demand for the drug type comprises determining a cost efficiency of each member of the set.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a particular pharmacy resource to a first designated set of pharmacy resources in the network to process prescription orders corresponding to a first drug type, and assigning the particular pharmacy resource to a second designated set of pharmacy resources in the network to process prescription orders corresponding to a second drug type.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein processing a particular prescription order includes executing a physical preparation of the particular prescription order at a first pharmacy resource and executing the information processing of the particular prescription order at a different pharmacy resource.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein executing the information processing of the particular prescription order at the different pharmacy resource comprises executing a first portion of the information processing at a second pharmacy resource and executing a second portion of the information processing at a third pharmacy resource.

14. A system for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy resources of a corporate entity, the system comprising:

a set of client computers associated with the plurality of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity, wherein each client computer is associated with a different pharmacy resource of the corporate entity and is programmed to;

accept prescription orders into a queue,

identify a prescription order in the queue associated with a drug type, and

communicate at least one of a capacity associated with the drug type of the different pharmacy resource or a tally of prescription orders associated with the drug type at the different pharmacy resource to a server computer; and

the server computer, wherein the server computer is communicatively connected to each client computer and is programmed to;

determine a capacity associated with the drug type of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on at least the capacity associated with the drug type of each different pharmacy resource or the tally of prescription orders associated with the drug type at each different pharmacy resource communicated by each client computer,

determine a demand for the drug type, wherein the demand for the drug type is based on a total number of prescription orders for the drug type to be filled in a network of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity; and

designate a subset of the plurality of pharmacy resources as processing centers for prescription orders associated with the drug type based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the plurality of pharmacy resources,

wherein;

each of the processing centers is enabled to process the prescription orders associated with the drug type,

processing the prescription orders associated with the drug type includes physical preparation and information processing of each of the prescription orders associated with the drug type,

the physical preparation of each prescription order associated with the drug type includes packaging a dosage of the drug type and printing a label corresponding to each prescription order,

the information processing of each prescription order associated with the drug type includes authenticating each prescription order, validating third party provider information, collecting payment information, and referencing drug information, and

at least one of the plurality of pharmacy resources is enabled to independently process prescription orders.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the server computer designates a larger subset of pharmacy resources if the demand for the drug type exceeds a capacity associated with the drug type of a current subset of the plurality of pharmacy resources.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the server computer designates a smaller subset of pharmacy resources if a capacity associated with the drug type of a current subset of the plurality of pharmacy resources exceeds the demand for the drug type by a threshold.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein at least one of:

each of the plurality of pharmacy resources includes a pharmacist, and wherein the server computer is programmed to determine the capacity of the plurality of pharmacy resources by estimating a rate of processing the drug type by the pharmacist;

or

each of the plurality of pharmacy resources includes a facility, and wherein the server computer is programmed to determine the capacity of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on at least one of an availability of equipment or an availability of materials at the facility.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the server computer is programmed to determine the capacity of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on a cost efficiency of each of the plurality of pharmacy resources.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the server computer is programmed to designate a first processing center to perform the physical preparation of a particular prescription order and a different processing center to perform at a least a portion of the information processing of the particular prescription order.

20. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy network computers in a network of a corporate entity, comprising:

a first program that identifies a drug type;

a second program that calculates a demand for the drug type based on a set of prescription orders associated with the drug in the network of the corporate entity that are to be filled, including calculating a total number in the set of prescription orders;

a third program that determines a capacity of a set of pharmacy resources to produce the drug type;

a fourth program that designates a subset of the plurality of pharmacy network computers, each of which is associated with a different pharmacy resource from the set of pharmacy resources, as processing center computers based on the demand for the drug type and the capacity of the set of pharmacy resources, wherein each of the subset of pharmacy network computers is enabled to receive and process at least one of the set of prescription orders associated with the drug type; and

a fifth program that modifies a size of the subset of the plurality of pharmacy network computers based on a change in the demand for the drug type,

wherein processing each prescription order includes;

executing a physical preparation of each prescription order including packaging a dosage and printing a label corresponding to each prescription order, and executing information processing of each prescription order including authenticating each prescription order, validating third party provider information, collecting payment information, and referencing drug information associated with the drug type, and

wherein a first processing center computer executes the physical preparation of a particular prescription order and a second processing center computer executes at least a portion of the information processing of the particular prescription order.