Method and apparatus for inter-pharmacy workload balancing
First Claim
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1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources comprising:
- receiving, into electronic queues corresponding to computers of a plurality of pharmacy resources in the network of pharmacy resources, prescription work orders for execution, wherein;
the computers are communicatively coupled,each of the plurality of pharmacy resources is at a different location and includes at least one employee, andthe prescription work orders each include a physical preparation portion and an information processing portion;
calculating a workload for each pharmacy resource, the workload based on an employee type of a corresponding at least one employee, wherein the employee type is selected from a group of employee types including at least a pharmacist and a non-pharmacist;
determining a current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on the calculated workload of each pharmacy resource;
designating a particular pharmacy resource as one of a sender or a receiver pharmacy resource based on the calculated workload of the particular pharmacy resource and the current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources; and
automatically routing, based on the current workload distribution, a first portion of the information processing portion of a particular prescription work order from a sender electronic queue corresponding to a sender computer corresponding to a designated sender pharmacy resource to at least one first receiver electronic queue corresponding to at least one first receiver computer corresponding to at least one first designated receiver pharmacy resource.
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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.
126 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources comprising:
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receiving, into electronic queues corresponding to computers of a plurality of pharmacy resources in the network of pharmacy resources, prescription work orders for execution, wherein; the computers are communicatively coupled, each of the plurality of pharmacy resources is at a different location and includes at least one employee, and the prescription work orders each include a physical preparation portion and an information processing portion; calculating a workload for each pharmacy resource, the workload based on an employee type of a corresponding at least one employee, wherein the employee type is selected from a group of employee types including at least a pharmacist and a non-pharmacist; determining a current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on the calculated workload of each pharmacy resource; designating a particular pharmacy resource as one of a sender or a receiver pharmacy resource based on the calculated workload of the particular pharmacy resource and the current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources; and automatically routing, based on the current workload distribution, a first portion of the information processing portion of a particular prescription work order from a sender electronic queue corresponding to a sender computer corresponding to a designated sender pharmacy resource to at least one first receiver electronic queue corresponding to at least one first receiver computer corresponding to at least one first designated receiver pharmacy resource. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy locations, the system comprising:
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a network of the plurality of pharmacy locations, wherein each pharmacy location includes at least one employee; a client computer located at each pharmacy location programmed to accept prescription work orders into an electronic queue, execute at least a portion of each prescription work order, and calculate a workload for a corresponding pharmacy location based on an employee type of the at least one employee, wherein; each prescription work order includes a physical preparation portion and an information processing portion, and the employee type is selected from a group of employee types including at least a pharmacist and an employee without a pharmacy license; and a server computer programmed to; collect workload data from the plurality of pharmacy locations, determine a target workload distribution based on a current workload distribution, and designate each client computer corresponding to each pharmacy location as one of a sender or a receiver, so that a designated sender client computer routes, based on the target workload distribution, a first part of the information processing portion of a particular prescription work order to a first designated receiver client computer and routes a second part of the information processing portion of the particular prescription work order to a second designated receiver client computer. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer-readable memory having computer-executable instructions for distributing pharmacy workload across a plurality of pharmacy locations, the computer-executable instructions stored on a memory of a network server and comprising:
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a first routine for determining a workload for a first pharmacy location, wherein; the first pharmacy location includes at least one employee and a first computer, the first computer is configured to receive prescription work orders, wherein each prescription work order includes a physical preparation portion and an information processing portion, and the workload is based on an employee type of the at least one employee, wherein the employee type is selected from a group of employee types including at least a pharmacist and an employee without a pharmacist'"'"'s license; a second routine for determining a target workload distribution for the plurality of pharmacy locations based on the workload for the first pharmacy location and workloads of other pharmacy locations from the plurality of pharmacy locations; and a third routine for indicating a routing, based on the target workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy locations, of a first part of the information processing portion of a particular prescription work order from a first electronic queue corresponding to the first pharmacy location and accessible by the first computer to a second electronic queue corresponding to a second pharmacy location and accessible by a second computer at the second pharmacy location, wherein; the information processing portion of the particular prescription work order includes at least one of;
entering prescription data, authenticating the particular prescription work order, validating customer information, validating third-party information, collecting payment information, processing payment information, referencing drug information, determining an out-of-stock status of one or more materials, or entering accounting information into an accounting database;the physical preparation portion of the particular prescription work order includes at least one of;
printing a label, mixing compounds, receiving a pre-processed compound or formulation, obtaining a material, packaging, delivering, mailing, or fulfilling; andthe first computer and the second computer of the plurality of pharmacy locations are communicatively coupled to each other and to the network server. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25)
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Specification