Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-30
2001-10-23
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
C700S229000, C700S230000, C700S236000, C700S244000, C221S007000, C221S076000, C198S349700
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308109
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for delivering drugs prepared in, for example, a hospital pharmacy and medical instruments such as injectors to nurse stations or operating rooms in different wards of a hospital or to different hospitals.
Carrier devices for taking articles out of a storage room and delivering them to predetermined positions by putting them in carriers are used in various industrial fields. In a hospital, especially in a big hospital, drugs prepared based on prescriptions issued by doctors are handed to patients or delivered to nurse stations in respective wards after being inspected by pharmacists. Thus, it is difficult to use the above-mentioned conventional carrier devices as drug carrier devices in hospitals.
In many hospitals, in order to eliminate the necessity for hospital pharmacists to have to walk to a drug storage room to fetch necessary drugs from the shelf, drug pouches for powdered drugs and tablets are put in buckets which run on a conveyor line installed in a pharmacy and are collected in one place. After checking if the drugs are consistent with prescriptions, they are handed to patients.
But by using an automatic injection dispenser disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 3-69537, it is possible to prepare drugs more efficiently. The dispenser disclosed in this publication has a temporary tray storage shelf, a shelf for storing transfusion fluids, a shelf for single items, and an ampule storage shelf that are arranged in this order in a drug storage room. Each shelf has a means for discharging drugs or other drug-related articles from the shelf into a tray. Drugs and other products are discharged from the respective shelves into trays and are then sent to a predetermined place.
Examined Japanese Utility Model Publication 6-14753 discloses a device for storing and discharging small medical articles such as ampules. In this device, ampules are stored in cartridges so that they can be easily stored and taken out. Ampules can be taken out of any desired cartridge by a discharging means and put in trays. The trays are then sent to an inspecting station and then to a discharging point.
A similar device is disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication 2-28406 too.
These conventional devices have a means for collecting or selecting drugs and other medications which is provided in the feed line along which drugs and other medications taken out of a drug storage room are fed to a predetermined place in a pharmacy, and after being inspected by pharmacists, they are sent out of the pharmacy. But none of these devices has a means for delivering medications collected to a predetermined one of a plurality of wards in a hospital or to a predetermined one of a plurality of hospitals.
In most cases, drugs collected in a pharmacy and inspected by pharmacists are put in drug pouches and are physically handed to patients.
In big hospitals, drugs and non-drug articles prepared for patients are large in kinds, numbers and quantities.
While powdered drugs, tablets, liquid drugs and external drugs account for most drugs administered to outpatients, drugs administered to inpatients are much more varied in kinds, including ampules, vials, blood and other fluids for transfusion, which are used according to the instructions of doctors. Also, non-drug items such as injectors and dressings are also needed.
When necessary drugs and non-drug articles for a plurality of patients have been prepared and collected, they are checked by pharmacists or other authorized people, put in trays and sent to the respective nurse stations.
Conventional drug carrier devices make it possible to efficiently collect medications from an inspecting station. But none of them has a means for automatically sorting and delivering medications to respective nurse stations. Thus, they have to be manually sorted and delivered to nurse stations.
An object of this invention is to provide a control method for feeding medications in which processing units, which can prepare drugs, non-drug articles and drug-related articles and other items that are needed in hospitals, are provided along a carrier feed line, and in which carriers for respective patients are fed on the feed line in the order in which preparations for carriers, preparations for medications and preparation for receiving carriers are all finished so that a large amount of medications can be collected and delivered to a plurality of wards in a hospital with high efficiency.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to this invention, there is provided a method of controlling the feeding of medications comprising the steps of feeding data including patients' names and patient code data, prescription-based drug preparation data, and data on non-drug articles and drug-related items to a logic control circuit, controlling one or some of a drug processing unit, a processing unit for non-drug articles and a processing unit for drug-related items that are arranged along a feed line to prepare drugs, non-drug articles and drug-related items that are needed for each patient, setting carriers in a carrier feed unit provided at the feed end of the feed line, preparing to accept carriers in a distribution station provided at the delivery end of the feed line, starting a carrier for each patient when all the necessary completion signals are received to collect the drugs, non-drug articles and drug-related items for each patient in the carrier and feeding them to the distribution station.
In this control method, it is preferable to provide a plurality of carrier receiving units in the distribution station, feed carriers for respective patients in the order in which preparations for feeding carries, preparations for drugs, non-drug articles and drug-related items in the processing units, and preparations for accepting carriers are finished, and loading each carrier into a predetermined one of the carrier receiving units based on patient data stored in the logic control circuit.
Either of the above control methods may further comprise the steps of attaching an indicator that shows a patient's name or code and drug preparation data to each carrier at the feed end, reading the data stored in each indicator with a data reader provided near the distribution station, and loading each carrier into a predetermined one of the carrier receiving units at a position based upon the data stored in each indicator.
When the necessary data including patients' names or codes and drug preparation data are sent to the logic control circuit, it starts preparations for feeding carriers on the feed line, preparations for discharging medications prepared in the respective processing units, and preparations for receiving carriers.
These preparations are started in the order in which the patient data is entered in the logic control circuit. But preparations in the respective processing units may not necessarily finish in this order. For example, preparations for the drugs for a certain patient may be considerably delayed.
If many carriers are loaded into the carrier receiving units one after another, they will eventually become full of carriers, making it impossible to receive any more carriers.
According to the present invention, a carrier is fed on the feed line only after all preparations have been made in the carrier feed unit and in the processing units. With this arrangement, the carrier will never be stopped for an unduly long time at any processing unit due to a delay in the preparation for drugs in this unit. It is thus possible to smoothly collect drugs in trays and send them to a distribution station in a minimum time period.
In the control method according to this invention, drugs are not inspected while they are being fed automatically on the feed line. Drugs are inspected after being delivered to nurse stations in respective hospital wards by pharmacists. That is, this control method is used in what is known as a satellite pharmacy.
In the arrangement in which a plurality of carrier receiving units are
Morimoto Takuo
Nose Hiroshi
Yuyama Shoji
Butler Michael E
Ellis Christopher P.
Kabushiki Kaisha Yuyama Seisakusho
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
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