Automated pharmaceutical management and dispensing system

• US 20010002448A1
• Filed: 12/29/2000
• Published: 05/31/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Nextrx Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nextrx Corporation
• Inventors: Wilson, John R., Smith, Michael F., Wilson, Ronald H.
• Application Number:
  US09/753,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20010002448A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/233
• 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: G07F 7/069 by box-like containers, e.g. videocassettes, books
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 9/02 Devices for alarm or indication, e.g. when empty; Advertising arrangements in coin-freed apparatus alarms or warning devices indicating the interruption of flow to be metered G07F15/10
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

The system for automatically dispensing medications or other medical elements includes several groupings, i.e. vaults, of storage members, each vault containing approximately 100 individual cartridges, which each contain packages of unit-of-use doses of a given medication or other medical supply, such as syringes. Each storage member includes an ejector which ejects selected medications/supplies to a supply trough. The packages in the trough are moved to a central collator, which dispenses them to a bin receptacle which has been moved underneath the collator and which is typically identified with a particular patient. Information concerning medications/supplies for a particular patient is stored in a system database and used to determine the particular medications/supplies dispensed into a given bin. Bar coding is used to maintain control over the bins, and the medications, forming a closed information/control system. Particular medications and/or supplies which are not available in the automatic dispensing system are supplied from a supplemental medications cart which has been previously stocked with the correct additional medications by virtue of information from a control computer. The filled bins are transferred to a medication cart which can only be accessed as a result of a command signal after a particular patient and his/her associated bin have been matched. A nurse, having access to the correct bin and sector thereof, removes the medications from the cart and administers them to the patient.

Claims

1. An overjacket package for unit-of-use medical elements, including medications, such that the medical elements can be conveniently dispensed from an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus into individual bin/receptacles, comprising:

a closed package member having an interior for holding a unit-of-use of selected medical elements; and

at least one line of perforations in the package member which extend around a substantial portion of the package member, such that the package member may be readily broken apart along the line of perforations to provide access to the unit-of-use medical element contained therein.

2. An article of

claim 1

, wherein the line of perforations is located anywhere between the two opposing ends of said package member.

3. An article of

claim 1

, including cutout portions at selected points along the line of perforations.

4. An article of

claim 1

, including a sleeve member for temporarily housing and transporting a plurality of identical package members which contain unit-of-use medical elements, wherein the sleeve member is configured to readily fit into a cartridge-like storage member on an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus, the sleeve member being thereafter readily removable from the cartridge, leaving the individual packages in place in the cartridge.

5. An overjacket package for unit-of-use medical elements, including medications, comprising:

a closed package member, made of substantially rigid material, into which unit-of-use medical elements can be inserted, the closed package member having a configuration and size and otherwise arranged that it can be conveniently stored in and dispensed from an automatic medical element-dispensing apparatus into individual bin receptacles.

6. An overjacket package to be dispensed from a medical element dispensing apparatus of the type that includes a plurality of overjacket package dispensers and an ejector associated with each overjacket package dispenser that operates under computer control to dispense one or more overjacket packages, wherein the overjacket package comprises:

a closed box member that is sized to hold a single unit-of-use medical element and fit within an overjacket package dispenser and to be contacted by an ejector in order to dispense the overjacket package, the overjacket package further including a perforated seam around at least a portion of the box member that allows the single unit-of-use medical element to be removed from the overjacket package by breaking the perforated seam.