Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-23
2001-03-20
Le, Thien M. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
C235S383000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06202923
ABSTRACT:
RELATED PATENT APPLICATION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated pharmacies and, more particularly, to an automated pharmacy that is more accurate and has a prescription filling throughput greater than those of other systems.
2. Background of the Invention
In a typical prescription filling system illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,995, for AUTOMATED MEDICAL PRESCRIPTION FULFILLMENT SYSTEM HAVING WORKSTATIONS FOR IMAGING, FILLING, AND CHECKING THE DISPENSED DRUG PRODUCT, issued to WILLIAMS et al., a written prescription is presented to a pharmacy and read by a pharmacist or clerk. The pharmacist or clerk at the pharmacy also inquires about the malady of the patient directly, and elicits any additional information from him or her. This information, along with the prescription, is then entered into a computer called a “host” computer via a computer keyboard, and is stored in a database. The computer creates a prescription number associated with the entered data and stores it with the data in the database. The host computer then sends this data record to a first computer, also within the imaging station. The first computer then sends all of this information separately to a first printer, which prints a vial label having a barcode, and to a second printer which then prints a label containing a prescription number, which is affixed to the paper prescription received from the patient. Thereafter, the paper prescription is placed in a scanner, producing a computerized image that is stored in a database. The image is associated in the database with the prescription number. Thereafter, the first computer sends the data to a second computer associated with a filling station, where it is placed in that second computer's database.
In practice, the first printer typically also prints what is commonly referred to in the industry as a “prescription label,” often a single sheet of adhesive-backed paper. It typically consists of a prescription vial label, patient “monograph” (explanations and instructions for the patient), a receipt, a duplicate receipt, and various auxiliary labels such as special warnings, bag labels, and the like. The resultant queue of labeled vials with these associated prescription labels causes confusion, lost time, and is a source of errors which may occur during the filling process.
The label is affixed to an empty vial at the first printer resulting in a labeled vial. At this time the labeled vial (and, in practice, associated prescription paperwork) are sent to the filling station. At the filling station, the second computer, which has received the prescription data record from the first computer, controls a drug dispenser. A barcode scanner is used to read the barcode on the label of the vial, sending the prescription number encoded thereon to the second computer. The second computer then searches its database for the prescription number read from the barcode on the vial label. When it is found, the second computer uses the data to dispense the correct type and number of tablets from the automated dispensing system or a manual filling process, into the vial. With the WILLIAMS et al. system, the vial label is produced in the printer, which results in a queue of labeled vials and paperwork, along the system path, between the imaging workstation prescription label printer and the prescription filling station where both automated and manual filling can take place. Unfortunately, this creates potential for confusion and error.
The present invention, on the other hand, represents a method and a system to alleviate the risk of errors in filling posed by the queue of multiple labeled vials and their associated paperwork that exists at the filling station. The present invention does so by allowing a workflow in which only one unfilled labeled vial and its associated prescription label paperwork exist at the filling station at any one time. In the event that the pharmacy handles very high volume, and more than one filling station is employed, still only one unfilled labeled vial and its associated prescription label paperwork will exist at each separate filling station.
Additionally, the present invention eliminates the need to physically transfer the labeled vial and prescription paperwork from one site (the data entry workstation) to another site (the filling station). Elimination of the physical transferring step smooths the flow of the dispensing operation, and hence, improves the automated pharmacy's throughput.
The WILLIAMS et al. system also has an additional problem, when attempting to give high priority (the order in which vials are filled) to a particular prescription at the filling station. Filling prescriptions out of the originally intended order increases the likelihood of providing the wrong paperwork with any particular vial, because it requires the operator to search through the queue of labeled vials and prescription label paperwork.
The present invention, by removing the physical transfer of paperwork and the queue of labeled vials and paperwork at the filling station, greatly reduces the probability of mistakes when a particular prescription is taken out of its normal position in the queue.
In the present invention, as in the prior art, a prescription number is generated within the computer at the data entry workstation and associated with the entered data record. The image of the paper prescription is scanned in. At this point the various patient information and patient history already in the database can be updated, as can all of the new information about the present prescription associated with it. Then the data and the prescription number are sent to the second computer, located at the filling station, which controls a second printer that prints a label containing the barcode of the prescription number. The label is affixed to a vial, again resulting in a labeled vial. The barcode is read by a scanner connected to the second computer. The second computer or the first computer then searches the database for the prescription number read from the barcode on the vial. When this prescription number is found, the accompanying data block is sent to the second computer, which uses the data to dispense the correct type and number of tablets from the dispenser into the vial.
Both the WILLIAMS et al. and the inventive systems include a checking station, having its own computer or terminal, at which a pharmacist checks the filled vial against the data and the image of the prescription displayed on a screen. The tablets in the vial are also compared with a stored picture of the type of tablet which has been dispensed for this prescription. This validates that the correct drug has been dispensed.
Using the system of this invention as compared to the WILLIAMS et al. system, however, it is unnecessary to have a potentially confusing queue of labels between the first computer and the filling station. This improves reliability of the operation and substantially reduces errors. In addition, since there is no flow of labels or vials from the data entry workstation (the imaging workstation in the WILLIAMS et al. system) to the filling station which must be manually tracked, the efficiency and throughput of the pharmacy is improved.
In the event that a particular prescription requires a fill-next priority, as for example when a patient arrives at the pharmacy and chooses to wait for the medication, the system of this invention makes it easier to accomplish this task without errors, as only the one unfilled labeled vial exists at the filling station (or at any one filling station) at any one time. This results in streamlining the flow of prescription data, so that the data is held in the computers until needed. In other words, the data is not floating about the pharmacy, as is likely in the WILLIAMS et al. system.
Furthermore, in the WILLIAMS et al. system, it is possible for the operator to scan the wrong vial label at the filling station, and thus, the wrong data could be associated with the intended prescription, because a number
Bennett William S.
Boyer James P.
Boyer Joseph H.
Innovation Associates, Inc.
Le Thien M.
Salzman & Levy
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