Variable dose dispensing system

• US 9,842,196 B2
• Filed: 04/21/2016
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Carefusion 303 Incorporated (Becton, Dickinson & Co)
• Original Assignee: Carefusion 303 Incorporated (Becton, Dickinson & Co)
• Inventors: Utech, Thomas, Davis, Kim E., Jaskela, Maria C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Waggoner, Timothy R
• Application Number:
  US15/134,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20160232325A1
• Time in Patent Office: 600 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0092 for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 20/13 delivered from dispensers
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/20 for the management or administration of healthcare resources or facilities, e.g. managing hospital staff or surgery rooms

Abstract

A variable dose dispensing system may include a processor and memory. The processor may receive a request for a variable dose order of a medication, such as from a user. The processor may request an amount of the medication to be administered, and receive, in response to the request, an indication of the amount to be administered. The processor may verify that the amount to be administered is within a range of the variable dose order. The processor may determine an item in a local inventory that contains at least the amount of the medication to be administered, and may dispense the item. If an amount of the dispensed item exceeds the amount to be administered, such as by a waste amount, the processor may display an indication of the waste amount to the user, and may transmit a notification of the waste amount, such as to a management server.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium embodying instructions that, when executed by a machine, allow the machine to perform a method for managing variable dose dispensing, the method comprising:

receiving, from a medication dispensing device, a user identifier associated with a user, a dispensed amount of a medication, and an amount of the medication to be administered by the user, wherein the dispensed amount exceeds the amount to be administered by a waste amount;

initiating, in response to the receiving, a timer associated with the user identifier and the medication; and

if, before the timer reaches a timeout threshold, an indication is received from a waste device that indicates that the user associated with the user identifier wasted the waste amount of the medication, storing the indication,

otherwise storing a notification that the user associated with the user identifier failed to waste the waste amount before the timer reached the timeout threshold.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

transmitting the notification that the user associated with the user identifier failed to waste the waste amount before the timer reached the timeout threshold.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises transmitting the notification to the medication dispensing device, the notification further indicating that the user associated with the user identifier should not be allowed access to any other medications in the medication dispensing device.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a list of a plurality of items of the medication that are equivalencies.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the waste amount comprises a first item and the list of the plurality of items indicates that the first item is an equivalency of two second items.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 5, wherein if the indication is received from the waste device, before the timer reaches the timeout threshold, that indicates that the user associated with the user identifier wasted the two second items, storing the indication, otherwise storing the notification that the user associated with the user identifier failed to waste the waste amount before the timer reached the timeout threshold.