Management of pharmacy kits

• US 8,990,099 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2012
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bluesight, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kit Check, Inc.
• Inventors: MacDonald, Kevin William, Kress-Spatz, Timothy James Leo
• Primary Examiner(s): LAM, ELIZA ANNE
• Application Number:
  US13/554,342
• Publication Number:
  US 20130035950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 977 Days
• US Class Current: 705/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10415 the interrogation device being fixed in its position, such as an access control device for reading wireless access cards, or a wireless ATM banking machines in general G07F19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 15/00 ICT specially adapted for medical reports, e.g. generation or transmission thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/10 relating to drugs or medications, e.g. for ensuring correct administration to patients
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/40 for the management of medical equipment or devices, e.g. scheduling maintenance or upgrades
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: G16Z 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other main groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A system for managing pharmacy kits comprises a reading station configured to read tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with a pharmacy kit, and an information processing system operatively connected to the reading station and configured to receive the tag information from the reading station and determine a status of the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, a plurality of stored templates defining contents to be included in each of a plurality of pharmacy kits, and a plurality of kit records indicating the current contents of a plurality of pharmacy kits.

Claims

1. A system for managing pharmacy kits, comprising:

a reading station, comprising;

a pharmacy kit container formed of a material designed to provide electromagnetic shielding, and

an antenna coupled to the pharmacy kit container;

computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to;

cause the antenna to emit a radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container, and

receive tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags coupled to a plurality of medicinal containers configured to store a plurality of drugs, the plurality of RFID tags being associated with a pharmacy kit located within the pharmacy kit container,

wherein for the plurality of RFID tags, a particular RFID tag is coupled to a particular medicinal container of the plurality of medicinal containers and the particular medicinal container is configured to store a particular drug of the plurality of drugs, and

wherein the particular RFID tag is associated with drug data of the particular drug, the drug data comprising at least an identifier of the particular drug and an expiration of the particular drug; and

an information processing system communicatively coupled to the reading station and configured to;

verify a first drug of the plurality of drugs using the tag information, wherein to verify the first drug, the information processing system is configured to;

determine whether a first medicinal container associated with the first drug is present based at least in part on the tag information received from the plurality of RFID tags,

based at least upon a determination that the first medicinal container is not present, determine whether a second medicinal container configured to store a substitute first drug is present based at least in part on the tag information,

based at least upon a determination that the second medicinal container is present, determine whether an expiration of the substitute first drug satisfies an expiration threshold based at least in part on the drug data associated with a first RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags, wherein the first RFID tag is coupled to the second medicinal container, and

based at least upon a determination that the expiration of the substitute first drug satisfies the expiration threshold, verify the first drug,

identify any drugs that are missing from the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the tag information received from the plurality of RFID tags and a template for the pharmacy kit,

identify any drugs of the plurality of drugs that do not satisfy the expiration threshold based at least in part on the tag information received from the plurality of RFID tags, and

cause a display to display information regarding the plurality of drugs in the pharmacy kit including the substitute first drug, the any drugs that are missing from the pharmacy kit, and the any drugs of the plurality of drugs that do not satisfy the expiration threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein to identify the any drugs that are missing from the pharmacy kit the information processing system is configured to compare the tag information with the template, wherein the template specifies a plurality of segments for the pharmacy kit and a quantity of pharmaceutical items including the plurality of medications from each segment to be included in the pharmacy kit.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system is configured to monitor locations of a plurality of pharmacy kits based at least in part on information received from a real-time tracking system regarding the locations of the plurality of pharmacy kits.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the template identifies the substitute first drug as an acceptable substitute for the first drug.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system stores the template and kit records of the pharmacy kit.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the pharmacy kit container is configured to receive only one pharmacy kit at a time.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the information processing system stores a virtual history for each of the plurality of the pharmacy kit and updates the virtual history in response to a transaction involving the pharmacy kit.

8. A method of managing pharmacy kits, comprising:

receiving tag information of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags coupled to a plurality of medicinal containers based at least in part on an antenna coupled to a pharmacy kit container emitting a radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container,

wherein the pharmacy kit container provides electromagnetic shielding,

wherein the plurality of medicinal containers are configured to store a plurality of medications and the plurality of RFID tags are associated with a pharmacy kit located within the pharmacy kit container,

wherein for the plurality of RFID tags, a particular RFID tag is coupled to a particular medicinal container of the plurality of medicinal containers and the particular medicinal container is configured to store a particular medication of the plurality of medications, and

wherein the particular RFID tag is associated with medication data of the particular medication, the medication data comprising at least an identifier of the particular medication and an expiration of the particular medication;

verifying the plurality of medications including at least a first medication of the plurality of medications using the tag information, wherein verifying the at least a first medication comprises;

determining that a first medicinal container associated with the first medication is not present based at least in part on the tag information received from the plurality of RFID tags,

determining that a second medicinal container configured to store a substitute first medication is present based at least in part on the tag information, and

determining that an expiration of the substitute first medication satisfies an expiration threshold based at least in part on the medication data associated with a first RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags, wherein the first RFID tag is coupled to the second medicinal container; and

causing a display to display results of the verifying the plurality of medications including information regarding the substitute first medication.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying any missing medications in the pharmacy kit based at least in part on a comparison between the tag information and a template of the pharmacy kit.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating a report indicating the any missing medications.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating billing information for a medical patient based on the any missing medications.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising determining at least one medication of the plurality of medications is expired based at least in part on an amount of time since the at least one medication was removed from refrigeration.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising

determining any near expired medications of the plurality of medications based at least in part on a predetermined expiration margin;

and

generating a report indicating the near expired items.

14. A system for managing pharmacy kits, comprising:

a reading station, comprising;

a pharmacy kit container formed of a material designed to provide electromagnetic shielding, and

an antenna coupled to the pharmacy kit container; and

computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to;

receive tag information of a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags coupled to a plurality of medicinal containers based at least in part on the antenna emitting a radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container,

wherein the plurality of medicinal containers are configured to store a plurality of medications and the plurality of RFID tags are associated with a pharmacy kit located within the pharmacy kit container,

wherein for the plurality of RFID tags, a particular RFID tag is coupled to a particular medicinal container of the plurality of medicinal containers and the particular medicinal container is configured to store a particular medication of the plurality of medications, and

wherein the particular RFID tag is associated with medication data of the particular medication, the medication data comprising at least an identifier of the particular medication and an expiration of the particular medication,

verify the plurality of medications using the tag information, wherein to verify at least a first medication of the plurality of medications the computer-executable instructions cause the one or more processors to;

determine that a first medicinal container associated with the first medication is not present based at least in part on the tag information received from the plurality of RFID tags,

determine that a second medicinal container configured to store a substitute first medication is present based at least in part on the tag information, and

determine that an expiration of the substitute first medication satisfies an expiration threshold based at least in part on the medication data associated with a first RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags, wherein the first RFID tag is coupled to the second medicinal container, and

cause a display to display results of the verification of the plurality of medications including information regarding the substitute first medication.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first medicinal container associated with the first medication is determined to be not present based at least in part on a comparison of the tag information with a template of the pharmacy kit.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the template specifies medications to be included in the plurality of medications associated with the pharmacy kit.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein to verify the plurality of medications, the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the one or more processors to compare the tag information with a template of the pharmacy kit to identify one or more missing medications.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein to verify the plurality of medications, the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the one or more processors to determine whether an expiration of each of the plurality of medications satisfies the expiration threshold.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein to verify the plurality of medications, the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the one or more processors to determine whether a quantity of each medication of the plurality of medications satisfies a threshold quantity.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein to verify the plurality of medications, the computer-executable instructions when executed further cause the one or more processors to determine whether any the plurality of medications are subject to a recall based.