Beneficial product dispenser

• US 10,102,706 B2
• Filed: 11/05/2012
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VendRx, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VendRx, Inc.
• Inventors: Jefferies, Trent, Frey, David, Murdock, Galen Earl, Schwartz, Mary, Jefferies, Samantha
• Primary Examiner(s): Collins, Michael
• Application Number:
  US13/669,286
• Publication Number:
  US 20130131862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,171 Days
• Field of Search: 221264
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/165 using xyz-picker or multi-dimensional article picking arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 11/62 in which the articles are stored in compartments in fixed receptacles
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers

Abstract

A dispensing station comprises beneficial products for patients of a health care provider. An inventory database tracks inventory available in the dispensing station. A patient is associated with a prescription record, which specifies a prescribed beneficial product. The patient may provide patient identifying information to the dispensing station, such as credentialed payment information, which may be used to identify a prescription record, authenticate the patient, transfer a payment, and/or dispense the prescribed beneficial product to the patient. The prescription record may be valid for a limited time period, may be restricted to fulfillment within a particular location, and/or may be restricted to one or more specified dispensing stations. The dispensing station may validate the beneficial products before dispensing the products to the patient.

Claims

1. A dispensing station, comprising:

a loading compartment housed within the dispensing station and comprising a plurality of loading bins fixedly secured within an interior of the dispensing station, each loading bin configured to hold a dispensable unit;

an inventory compartment housed within the dispensing station, the inventory compartment comprising a plurality of inventory bins, each inventory bin configured to hold a dispensable unit;

a loading access port having an open configuration and a closed configuration, the open configuration to provide access to the plurality of loading bins from an exterior of the dispensing station through the loading access port while the loading bins remain fixedly secured within the interior of the dispensing station and access to the inventory bins within the inventory compartment is blocked, and the closed configuration to block access to the plurality of loading bins and the inventory bins within the inventory compartment; and

a manipulation unit configured to transfer dispensable units from the loading bins within the interior of the dispensing station to inventory bins within the inventory compartment, wherein transferring a dispensable unit comprises removing the dispensable unit from one of the loading bins, moving the dispensable unit into the inventory compartment, and placing the dispensable unit into one of the inventory bins.

2. The dispensing station of claim 1, further comprising a scanning module configured to scan a unique identifier tag of the dispensable unit while the dispensable unit is being transferred from the loading bin to the inventory bin, wherein the scanning module is configured to obtain a unique identifier of the dispensable unit.

3. The dispensing station of claim 2, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to position the dispensable unit within a scanning area of the scanning module.

4. The dispensing station of claim 2, further comprising an isolation zone, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to position the dispensable unit within the isolation zone and to scan for unique identifier tags of dispensable units outside of the isolation zone.

5. The dispensing station of claim 2, wherein the scanning module comprises one or more of a radio frequency identifier scanner and a bar code scanner.

6. The dispensing station of claim 1, further comprising a separator configured to prevent access to the interior of the inventory compartment through the inventory access port when the loading access port is in the open configuration and to allow access to the interior of the inventory compartment through the inventory access port when the loading access port is in the closed configuration.

7. The dispensing station of claim 6, further comprising a controller configured to position the separator to present access to the interior of the inventory compartment in response to determining that the loading access port is in the open configuration, wherein the controller is configured to actuate a blocking mechanism configured to maintain the separator in position to prevent access to the interior of the inventory compartment through the inventory access port in response to determining that the loading access port is to transition to the open configuration.

8. The dispensing station of claim 1, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a configuration of the dispensable unit.

9. The dispensing station of claim 8, wherein the manipulation unit comprises one or more arms, and wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a configuration of the dispensable unit by use of an angular scan of the dispensable unit by the one or more arms.

10. The dispensing station of claim 8, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine one or more of a length, a size, and a configuration of the dispensable unit by use of one or more of a pressure sensor, an electro-optical sensor, and a touch sensor.

11. The dispensing station of claim 8, further comprising a controller configured to update an inventory database with a location of the dispensable unit within the inventory compartment and the configuration of the dispensable unit.

12. The dispensing station of claim 1, wherein the manipulation unit is further configured to determine a location of a printable area on the dispensable unit, and to position the printable area of the dispensable unit in a printing area of a printer of the dispensing station.

13. The dispensing station of claim 12, wherein determining the location of the printable area comprises rotating the dispensable unit within the scan area of a scanning module of the dispensing station.

14. The dispensing station of claim 1, wherein the manipulation unit is further configured to place the dispensable unit in a quarantine compartment in response to failing to validate the dispensable unit.

15. A dispensing system, comprising:

an enclosure comprising,

a loading compartment within an interior region of the enclosure, the loading compartment comprising a plurality of loading bins fixedly secured within the interior region of the enclosure, each loading bin configured to hold one or more dispensable units, and

an inventory compartment comprising a plurality of inventory bins within the interior region of the enclosure, each inventory bin configured to hold one or more dispensable units;

a loading access port, wherein the loading access port is configured to;

provide access to the plurality of loading bins fixedly secured within the interior region of the enclosure from an exterior of the enclosure while blocking access to the inventory bins within the inventory compartment when open, and

block access to the interior region of the enclosure from the exterior of the enclosure when closed;

a manipulation unit configured to transfer a dispensable unit from a loading bin fixedly secured within the interior region of the enclosure to a particular inventory bin within the inventory compartment in response to determining that the loading port is closed by;

removing the dispensable unit from the loading bin,

moving the dispensable unit to the inventory compartment, and

depositing the dispensable unit within the particular inventory bin; and

a controller configured to update an inventory database to associate the dispensable unit with a location of the particular inventory bin within the inventory compartment in response to transferring the dispensable unit to the particular inventory bin.

16. The dispensing system of claim 15, further comprising a separator attached to the manipulation unit, and wherein positioning the manipulation unit within the interior region of the inventory compartment comprises blocking access to the inventory compartment through the inventory port.

17. The dispensing system of claim 15, wherein the manipulation unit is configured to determine a location of a printable area on the dispensable unit, and is further configured to position the printable area of the dispensable unit in a printing area of a printer in response to dispensing the dispensable unit.

18. The dispensing system of claim 15, wherein the manipulation unit is further configured to acquire measurement data pertaining to the dispensable unit, the measurement data corresponding to one or more of a length, a size, and a configuration of the dispensable unit, and wherein the controller is further configured to store the measurement data pertaining to the dispensable unit in the inventory database.

19. The dispensing system of claim 15, wherein the controller is configured to determine the location of the particular inventory bin by use of the inventory database in response to a request for the dispensable unit.

20. An enclosure that defines an interior region of a dispensing station, the dispensing station comprising:

an inventory compartment fixedly enclosed within the interior region of the dispensing station and comprising a plurality of inventory containers;

a loading compartment fixedly enclosed within the interior region of the dispensing station and comprising a plurality of loading containers;

a loading access door;

a loading configuration configured to allow access to the loading compartment through the loading access door from outside the interior region of the dispensing station and to block access to the inventory compartment through the loading access door from outside the interior region of the dispensing station;

a locked configuration configured to prevent access to the loading compartment from outside the interior region of the dispensing station through the loading access door; and

a manipulation unit configured to transfer dispensable units held within loading containers of the loading compartment to inventory containers within the inventory compartment, wherein transferring a particular dispensable unit held within a particular loading container comprises removing the particular dispensable unit from the particular loading container, moving the particular dispensable unit from the loading compartment to the inventory compartment, and depositing the particular dispensable unit into an inventory container within the inventory compartment.