Management of pharmacy kits using multiple acceptance criteria for pharmacy kit segments

• US 9,449,296 B2
• Filed: 08/29/2014
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bluesight, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Kit Check, Inc.
• Inventors: MacDonald, Kevin William, Pedra, David Mario, Kress-Spatz, Timothy James Leo, Doyle, Christian, Brody, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): LAM, ELIZA ANNE
• Application Number:
  US14/472,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20140372145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 753 Days
• Field of Search: 705 2- 3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0875 Itemisation or classification of parts, supplies or services, e.g. bill of materials
• 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 70/40 relating to drugs, e.g. their side effects or intended usage

Abstract

A pharmacy kit is managed by defining multiple rules for determining whether a segment of a pharmacy kit is satisfactorily stocked, selecting at least one rule among the multiple rules according to a kit stocking contingency, an prompting a user to stock the segment of the pharmacy kit according to the selected at least one rule.

Claims

1. A method of managing a pharmacy kit, comprising:

causing an antenna coupled to a pharmacy kit container to emit a radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container;

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 the antenna emitting the 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,

wherein the plurality of RFID tags are associated with a pharmacy kit located within the pharmacy kit container and are associated with medication data of the plurality of medications,

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

wherein the first RFID tag is associated with first medication data of the first medication, the first medication data comprising at least an identifier of the first medication and a concentration of the first medication;

determining whether a kit stocking contingency has occurred with respect to a segment of the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the received tag information, wherein the segment identifies a medication type and medication concentration that forms at least a portion of the pharmacy kit;

based at least in part on a determination that the kit stocking contingency has not occurred, determining whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to a first acceptance criterion, wherein determining whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to the first acceptance criterion comprises comparing the medication data associated with the plurality of RFID tags with the segment to determine whether at least one medicinal container of the plurality of medicinal containers stores the medication type and medication concentration identified by the segment;

based at least in part on a determination that the kit stocking contingency has occurred, determining whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to a second acceptance criterion different from the first acceptance criterion, wherein determining whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to the second acceptance criterion comprises comparing the medication data associated with the plurality of RFID tags with the segment to determine whether the at least one medicinal container stores the medication type identified by the segment and a substitute medication concentration; and

causing a display to display information regarding whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to at least one of the first acceptance criterion or the second acceptance criterion.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the kit stocking contingency comprises a shortage of at least one medication corresponding to the first acceptance criterion.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining whether the kit stocking contingency has occurred comprises receiving a shortage notification for the at least one medication corresponding to the first acceptance criterion.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second acceptance criterion specify different types of items that can be used to stock the segment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the different types of items comprise different types of medication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first acceptance criterion specifies a size of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment, and the second acceptance criterion specifies an alternative size of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first acceptance criterion specifies a quantity of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment, and the second acceptance criterion specifies an alternative quantity of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether an additional kit stocking contingency has occurred; and

based at least in part on determining that the additional kit stocking contingency has occurred, determining whether the segment of the pharmacy kit has been satisfactorily stocked according to at least one additional acceptance criterion different from the first and second acceptance criterion.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second acceptance criterion and the at least one additional acceptance criterion are ranked in order of user preference.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user input defining one or more rules for determining, based on the first acceptance criterion or the second acceptance criterion, whether the segment is satisfactorily stocked.

11. A system, 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

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to;

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

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 the radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container, the plurality of medicinal containers configured to store a plurality of medications, wherein the plurality of RFID tags are associated with a pharmacy kit located within the pharmacy kit container and are associated with medication data of the plurality of medications,

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

wherein the first RFID tag is associated with first medication data of the first medication, the first medication data comprising at least an identifier of the first medication and a concentration of the first medication;

determine whether a kit stocking contingency has occurred with respect to a segment of the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the received tag information, wherein the segment identifies a medication type and medication concentration that forms at least a portion of the pharmacy kit;

based at least in part on a determination that the kit stocking contingency has not occurred, determine whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to a first acceptance criterion, wherein to determine whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to the first acceptance criterion the computer-executable instructions cause the one or more processors to compare the medication data associated with the plurality of RFID tags with the segment to determine whether at least one medicinal container of the plurality of medicinal containers stores the medication type and medication concentration identified by the segment;

based at least in part on a determination that the kit stocking contingency has occurred, determine whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to a second acceptance criterion different from the first acceptance criterion, wherein to determine whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to the second acceptance criterion the computer-executable instructions cause the one or more processors to compare the medication data associated with the plurality of RFID tags with the segment to determine whether the at least one medicinal container stores the medication type identified by the segment and a substitute medication concentration; and

cause a display to display information regarding whether the segment has been satisfactorily stocked according to at least one of the first acceptance criterion or the second acceptance criterion.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the kit stocking contingency comprises a shortage of at least one medication corresponding to the first acceptance criterion.

13. The system of claim 12, to determine whether the kit stocking contingency has occurred the computer-executable instructions cause the one or more processors to receive a shortage notification for the at least one medication corresponding to the first acceptance criterion.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first and second acceptance criterion specify different types of items that can be used to stock the segment.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the different types of items comprise different types of medication.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first acceptance criterion specifies a size of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment, and the second acceptance criterion specifies an alternative size of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the first acceptance criterion specifies a quantity of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment, and the second acceptance criterion specifies an alternative quantity of medication that can be used to satisfactorily stock the segment.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

determine whether an additional kit stocking contingency has occurred; and

based at least in part on a determination that the additional kit stocking contingency has occurred, determine whether the segment of the pharmacy kit has been satisfactorily stocked according to one or more additional acceptance criterion different from the first and second acceptance criterion.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the reading station comprises the non-transitory computer-readable medium.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the reading station is communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium via a network.