Systems and methods for providing comprehensive pharmaceutical consultations

• US 8,676,606 B1
• Filed: 11/01/2010
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Walgreen Co. (Walgreens Boots Alliance Incorporated)
• Inventors: Nadas, Gyula J., Johnson, Michael R., Fields, Anthony James
• Primary Examiner(s): Phongsvirajati, Sind
• Application Number:
  US12/917,061
• Time in Patent Office: 1,233 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 705/3
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation

Abstract

Systems and methods of providing comprehensive pharmaceutical consultations are disclosed, including generating a consultation recording block corresponding to a filling of a prescription order for a patient. The consultation recording block may include multiple consultation entries, where each consultation entry corresponds to a particular pharmaceutical consultation that is desired or required to occur in conjunction with the prescription fill. Input corresponding to various fields of various consultation entries may be received and stored. Different fields of different consultation entries corresponding to a particular patient and to a particular prescription order may be displayed, populated, viewed, resolved and authorized by different pharmaceutical personnel at different work flow stages of the filling, and in some cases, one or more consultation entries may be automatically generated and at least partially automatically populated. The techniques described herein allow for more comprehensive pharmaceutical consultations as compared to presently known techniques.

Claims

1. A method for providing comprehensive pharmaceutical consultations, comprising:

generating, by a computing device, a consultation recording block corresponding to a single filling of a single prescription order corresponding to a drug prescribed for a patient,

the single filling of the single prescription order including a work flow tracked by the computing device and having a plurality of stages including a data entry stage, a drug utilization review stage, a prescription order fill stage, a third party validation stage, and a payment stage,

the consultation recording block including two or more consultation entries respectively corresponding to different stages of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order,

each of the two or more consultation entries having a plurality of portions including a status portion indicating a status of a respective consultation,

a first consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a first stage of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order, and

a second consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a second stage of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order;

storing the consultation recording block in a memory accessible by the computing device;

displaying, on a display device coupled to the computing device, at least one of the two or more consultation entries;

receiving, via a user input interface coupled to the display device, information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, including;

receiving a first information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a first consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a first authorization corresponding to the first information; and

receiving a second information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a second consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a second authorization corresponding to the second information; and

storing the received information in the at least one of the two or more consultation entries of the consultation recording block.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first consultation entry corresponding to the first stage of the work flow comprises automatically generating, using the computing device, the first consultation entry based on an entry into or an exit from the first stage of the work flow.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the first consultation entry corresponding to the first stage of the work flow comprises generating, using the computing device, the first consultation entry based on a user request received at the user input interface.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the first authorization or the second authorization corresponds to a pharmacist'"'"'s authorization, and the other of the first authorization or the second authorization corresponds to a non-pharmacist'"'"'s authorization.

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

receiving the information corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of portions includes receiving an indication of the status of the respective consultation,

the plurality of portions further includes a resolution portion, and receiving the information corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of portions includes receiving an indication of a resolution of the respective consultation, or

the plurality of portions further includes a comment portion, and receiving the information corresponding to the at least one of the plurality of portions includes receiving an indication of an acknowledgement of information displayed in the comment portion.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein information displayed in at least one of the plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries is based on data retrieved from a database corresponding to a particular stage of the plurality of stages of the work flow.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising auto-filling at least a part of at least one of plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a part of the method is performed in conjunction with any stage of the work flow.

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

simultaneously displaying, on the display device, the two or more consultation entries;

displaying, on the display device, an indicator other than the two or more consultation entries that indicates an existence of the consultation recording block;

or

displaying the consultation recording block in conjunction with another consultation recording block corresponding to the patient, the another consultation recording block corresponding to another prescription order for the patient or to a service.

10. A system for providing comprehensive pharmaceutical consultation, comprising:

a computing device including a memory and a processor;

a display device communicatively coupled to the computing device; and

computer-executable instructions stored on the memory of the computing device and executable by the processor configured for;

generating a consultation recording block corresponding to a single filling of a single prescription order corresponding to a drug prescribed for a patient,

the single filling of the single prescription order corresponding to a work flow tracked by the computing device and having a plurality of stages including a data entry stage, a drug utilization review stage, a prescription

order fill stage, a third party validation stage, and a payment stage,

the consultation recording block including two or more consultation entries corresponding to the work flow of the single filling of the prescription order,

each of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a different consultation associated with a respective stage of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order, and the each of the two or more consultation entries having a plurality of portions including a status portion indicating a status of a respective consultation and an authorization portion indicating an authorization of a completion of the respective consultation,

a first consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a first stage of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order; and

a second consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a second stage of the work flow of the single filling of the single prescription order;

storing the consultation recording block in the memory of the computing device or in another memory accessible by the computing device;

displaying, on the display device, at least one of the two or more consultation entries;

receiving information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, including;

receiving a first information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a first consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a first authorization corresponding to the first information; and

receiving a second information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a second consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a second authorization corresponding to the second information; and

populating the at least one of the two or more consultation entries of the consultation recording block with the received information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries is at least one of:

received via a user input interface coupled to the display device, or received based on an access of a database by the computing device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the database accessed by the computing device is a particular database corresponding to at least one particular stage of the plurality of stages of the work flow.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the first consultation entry is one of:

automatically generated by the computing device based on an entry into or an exit from the first stage of the work flow, or generated by the computing device based on a user request received at a user input interface coupled to the display device.

14. The system of claim 10, further comprising further computer-executable instructions for at least one of:

simultaneously displaying, on the display device, the two or more consultation entries;

displaying, on the display device, an indicator other than the two or more consultation entries that indicates an existence of the consultation recording block;

or

displaying, on the display device, the consultation recording block in conjunction with another consultation recording block corresponding to the patient, the another consultation recording block corresponding to another prescription order for the patient or to a service.

15. A system for providing comprehensive pharmaceutical consultation, comprising:

a computing device;

a consultation recording block corresponding to a single filling of a single prescription order for a drug prescribed for a patient and including two or more consultation entries,

each of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a respective different consultation corresponding to the single filling of the single prescription order,

each of the two of more consultation entries having a plurality of portions including a status portion for indicating a status of a respective consultation, a resolution portion for indicating a resolution of the respective consultation, a comment portion for displaying stored information corresponding to the drug, and an authorization portion for receiving an authorization of the respective consultation, and

a first consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a first stage of a plurality of stages of a work flow tracked by the computing device and corresponding to the single filling of the single prescription order, and a second consultation entry of the two or more consultation entries corresponding to a second stage of the plurality of stages of the work flow corresponding to the single filling of the single prescription order;

a display device coupled to the computing device and presenting at least a portion of the consultation recording block;

a user input interface coupled to the display device and configured to receive information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries which includes;

a first information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a first consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a first authorization corresponding to the first information; and

a second information corresponding to at least one of the plurality of portions of a second consultation entry of the at least one of the two or more consultation entries, and receiving a second authorization corresponding to the second information; and

a data storage entity accessible by the computing device and storing the consultation recording block and the information received using the user input interface.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

at least one of the first consultation entry or the second consultation entry is automatically presented on the display device when the single filling of the single prescription order enters into or exits from a respective stage of the work flow; and

at least one of the plurality of portions of the automatically presented at least one of the first consultation entry or the second consultation entry is at least partially populated with an auto-filled character string.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the auto-filled character string is based on data retrieved from a database corresponding to the respective stage of the work flow.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprising a cessation of a progression through the plurality of stages of the work flow corresponding to the single filling of the single prescription order when one of the two or more consultation entries is unpopulated, and a resumption of the progression through the plurality of stages when the one of the two or more consultation entries is at least partially populated.