Centralized sterile drug products distribution and automated management of sterile compounding stations

• US 8,140,351 B2
• Filed: 05/23/2007
• Issued: 03/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Baxter Corporation Englewood (Baxter International Inc.)
• Original Assignee: FHT, Inc. (Baxter International Inc.)
• Inventors: Tribble, Dennis, Osborne, Joel A., Khan, Abdul Wahid, Valentine, Matthew, Padmani, Bhavesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Koppikar, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): RAJ, RAJIV J
• Application Number:
  US11/752,769
• Publication Number:
  US 20080195246A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,763 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 705/2
• 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

Abstract

Central management of dose order preparation retrieves an unprocessed dose order record, selects a workstation from a set of workstations, forwards the order for conversion into a drug dosage form, and repeats the process for additional unprocessed dose order records. Depending on the operation type of the selected workstation (manual, automatic), protocol information concerning preparation of the dose order is selectively provided to the selected workstation. Interrogatable elements enable tracking of dose orders and dosage forms throughout preparation, storage and distribution cycles. Further methods enable rapid fulfillment by utilizing inventory ahead of drug order processing if suitable dosage forms exist in inventory records.

Claims

1. A method for centrally managing dose order preparation, comprising the steps of:

(a) retrieving at a monitoring computer a first dose order record, the first dose order record having an unprocessed status;

(b) selecting a workstation from among a set of workstations, at least one being an automated workstation, to handle the first dose order record;

(c) forwarding the first dose order record to the automated workstation for conversion into a drug dosage form and for preparation of a dose;

(d) receiving at the monitoring computer from the selected workstation a processed-order status indication;

(e) updating the first dose order record to the processed-order status, wherein the updating step includes updating a location of the drug dosage form;

(f) comparing the first dose order record with the prepared dose; and

(g) based on a rejection of the prepared dose, updating the first dose order record as being rejected and generating a second dose order record having an unprocessed status; and

(h) repeating steps (a) to (g);

wherein the second dose order record indicates that it is a re-order of the first dose order record and includes a link to the first dose order record.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining an operation type of the selected workstation; and

selectively providing a protocol concerning preparation of the first dose order record to the selected workstation based on the operation type of the selected workstation.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the selected workstation has a manual operation type and wherein the protocol is provided in response to the operation type being the manual operation type.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

prompting an operator of the selected workstation to provide information input regarding the protocol;

receiving the information input; and

analyzing the information input to verify preparation in conformance with the protocol.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the selected workstation has an automated operation type and wherein the selected protocol fails in view of the operation type being automated.

6. The method of claim 1, including the additional step of responding from the monitoring computer to any status inquiry concerning the first dose order record with the processed-order status.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the updating step includes updating a location of the drug dosage form to be that of the selected workstation.

8. The method of claim 7, including the additional step of responding from the monitoring computer to any status inquiry concerning the first dose order record with the processed-order status and the location.

9. The method of claim 1, including the additional steps of:

supporting a first interrogatable tag on the drug dosage form; and

linking the first interrogatable tag to the first dose order record.

10. The method of claim 9, including the additional step of associating a current location of the drug dosage form with a location.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the location has a second interrogatable tag and wherein the associating step comprises interrogating the first and second interrogatable tags and storing information associated with each response in the first dose order record.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving step retrieves the first dose order record from at least one of a memory, a file, and a database.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step updates the first dose order record to associate the first dose order with the selected workstation.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieving step receives a plurality of dose order records, and wherein the method includes the additional step of arranging the plural dose order records in accordance with a rule.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the arranging step comprises grouping the plural dose order records by at least one of type and medication, wherein the dose order records in the group are all forwarded to the selected workstation.

16. The method of claim 14, including the additional step of identifying an urgency associated with one of the plural dose order records, wherein the urgent dose order record is forwarded to the selected workstation for conversion into a drug dosage form and for preparation of a dose with a higher priority for handling than any unprocessed dose order record that has been forwarded to the selected workstation.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

generating a supply-list identifying a plurality of supplies required to fulfill the plurality of dose order records;

comparing the supply-list with an inventory of supplies; and

ordering one or more of the plurality of supplies not in the supply-list.

18. The method of claim 1, including the additional steps of identifying a source of the first dose order record, testing the source against a set of valid sources, and proceeding with the selecting and forwarding steps based on a determination that the source is among the set of valid sources.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of workstations comprises one or more remote workstations configured to receive dose orders over a network.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of forwarding a quality assurance activity to a selected workstation.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of forwarding a quality assurance activity is performed in response to a rule.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving at the monitoring computer a medication order containing one or more dose order records;

logging the dose order records received; and

determining a predicted volume of work orders and a staffing level required to perform the predicted volume.

26. The method of claim 1, further including the step of:

preparing the dose from the first dose order record and if the dose is delivered to a storage location, the first dose order record is updated to reflect its status as “

stored” and

the storage location is saved, the first dose order record including an expiration date of the dose, and the step of selecting the workstation includes searching storage locations for doses that have not expired and satisfy the requirements of the first dose order record.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of updating the first dose order record to the processed-order status further includes at least one of the following steps:

updating the first dose order record to a “

ready”

status when the dose is staged and ready for distribution and administration to a patient;

updating the first dose order record to an “

in delivery”

status when the dose has been retrieved and is placed in a container and is in route to the patient, wherein a location of the container is monitored; and

updating the first dose order record to a “

delivered”

status when the dose is removed from the container for administering to the patient.

23. A method for centrally managing dose order preparation, comprising the steps of:

receiving at a monitoring computer a medication order containing one or more dose order records;

assigning an unprocessed status to each dose order record among the received dose order records;

retrieving a first dose order record, the first dose order record having an unprocessed status;

selecting a workstation from among a set of workstations to handle the first dose order record;

forwarding the first dose order record to the selected workstation for preparation of a dose;

comparing the first dose order record with the prepared dose; and

based on a rejection of the prepared dose, updating the first dose order record as being rejected and generating a second dose order record having an unprocessed status;

wherein the second dose order record indicates that it is a re-order of the first dose order record and includes a link to the first dose order record.

24. The method of claim 23, including the additional steps of providing to the workstation a standard order process protocol suitable for confirming any dose preparation steps;

performing dose preparation; and

confirming that the dose preparation conforms to the standard process protocol.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the confirming step uses automated equipment to test the prepared dose once it has been processed at the workstation.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the second dose order record comprises a duplicate dose order record.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising re-queuing the second dose order for processing.