Mobile dispensing cart inventory management system
First Claim
1. A management system for managing inventory in a medical cart, the inventory comprising medical articles for dispensing to a particular patient, each of the medical articles being identified by a wireless data carrier which is responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the wireless data carrier provides identification data, the management system comprising:
- a metallic enclosure having an internal reading area, the metallic enclosure located within the medical cart and having electrically conductive walls that completely surround the internal reading area, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from the frequency f1 to which the data carriers are responsive, the data carriers not being operationally responsive to frequency f2;
a probe disposed in a position at an electrically-conductive wall of the metallic enclosure and configured to inject EM of a frequency f1 into the metallic enclosure, wherein the position of the probe in relation to electrically-conductive walls of the metallic enclosure is selected so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure;
an active impedance matching circuit coupled to the probe and configured to actively match more closely impedance of the probe to impedance of the metallic enclosure at frequency f1;
a storage area located within the internal reading area of the metallic enclosure in the medical cart, the storage area configured to contain medical articles with associated data carriers identifying the medical articles, each data carrier being responsive to EM at frequency f1 but not operationally responsive to frequency f2, the storage area having an access control device that prevents access to the storage area when locked and allows access when unlocked;
a receiving antenna disposed within the metallic enclosure and configured to receive the identification data provided by the data carriers in response to the injected EM;
a processor; and
a non-volatile memory in which is stored a patient data base containing identifications of all medical articles stored in the storage area for use by that patient, and a health care provider data base that links a health care provider to the patient;
wherein the processor is programmed to unlock the storage area for access by a health care provider linked to the patient in the health care provider data base; and
wherein after the storage area is re-locked, the processor is programmed to read all medical articles in the storage area to determine if any have been taken, if an article has been taken, the processor is programmed to compare the taken article to the patient data base and if the taken article is not found in the patient data base, to provide an alarm.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A mobile dispensing cart having a plurality of locked drawers has medical articles stored therein for particular patients. The storage drawers have sizes wherein the resonant frequency of the sizes does not match the frequency of operation of the RFID system of the cart. Enclosures are used in the storage areas that provide robust RFID fields for exciting and reading RFID tags. A health care practitioner for a particular patient obtains access and opens a drawer. An RFID tracking system takes an inventory of the cart after the drawer is later closed to determine if any medical article was taken, and if so which one. The identified taken article is compared to a data base of medical articles stored in the cart for the patient and if the taken article does not match the patient data base, an alarm is provided.
15 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A management system for managing inventory in a medical cart, the inventory comprising medical articles for dispensing to a particular patient, each of the medical articles being identified by a wireless data carrier which is responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the wireless data carrier provides identification data, the management system comprising:
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a metallic enclosure having an internal reading area, the metallic enclosure located within the medical cart and having electrically conductive walls that completely surround the internal reading area, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from the frequency f1 to which the data carriers are responsive, the data carriers not being operationally responsive to frequency f2; a probe disposed in a position at an electrically-conductive wall of the metallic enclosure and configured to inject EM of a frequency f1 into the metallic enclosure, wherein the position of the probe in relation to electrically-conductive walls of the metallic enclosure is selected so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure; an active impedance matching circuit coupled to the probe and configured to actively match more closely impedance of the probe to impedance of the metallic enclosure at frequency f1; a storage area located within the internal reading area of the metallic enclosure in the medical cart, the storage area configured to contain medical articles with associated data carriers identifying the medical articles, each data carrier being responsive to EM at frequency f1 but not operationally responsive to frequency f2, the storage area having an access control device that prevents access to the storage area when locked and allows access when unlocked; a receiving antenna disposed within the metallic enclosure and configured to receive the identification data provided by the data carriers in response to the injected EM; a processor; and a non-volatile memory in which is stored a patient data base containing identifications of all medical articles stored in the storage area for use by that patient, and a health care provider data base that links a health care provider to the patient; wherein the processor is programmed to unlock the storage area for access by a health care provider linked to the patient in the health care provider data base; and wherein after the storage area is re-locked, the processor is programmed to read all medical articles in the storage area to determine if any have been taken, if an article has been taken, the processor is programmed to compare the taken article to the patient data base and if the taken article is not found in the patient data base, to provide an alarm. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of managing inventory in a medical cart, the inventory comprising medical articles for dispensing to a particular patient, each of the medical articles being identified by a wireless data carrier which is responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the wireless data carrier provides identification data, the management method comprising:
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preparing a patient data base of medical articles that are assigned to the particular patient and that are located in a storage area of a medical cart, and storing the patient data base in a non-volatile data base memory; injecting electromagnetic energy of a frequency f1 into a metallic enclosure located within the cart with a probe, the metallic enclosure having electrically conductive walls, wherein the probe is positioned in relation to the electrically conductive walls so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure, the electrically conductive walls completely surrounding an internal reading area of the enclosure, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from the frequency f1 and to which a data carrier that is responsive to frequency f1 is not operationally responsive to frequency f2, wherein the storage area is located within the metallic enclosure; actively matching the impedance of the probe that is used to inject EM energy into the metallic enclosure more closely to impedance of the enclosure at frequency f1; controlling access to the storage area within the enclosure with a locking device, the storage area being inaccessible when the locking device is locked and accessible when the locking device is unlocked; receiving a request from a health care provider to have access to the storage area for dispensing a medical article stored in the storage area to the particular patient; accessing a health care provider data base stored on the nonvolatile data base memory to determine if the health care provider requesting access is assigned to the particular patient; unlocking the storage area if the health care provider requesting access matches as being assigned to the particular patient in the health care provider data base; reading all medical articles located in the storage area after the storage area has been re-locked to identify if any medical article that has been taken; and if a medical article has been taken, comparing the taken medical article to the patient data base and if the taken medical article does not match the patient data base, providing an alarm. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification