Granted Patent B1

US 8,271,128 · App. 12/350,684 · Granted Sep 18, 2012

Abstract

Claims (95)

1. A prescription fulfillment system which counts manually-poured tablets and tablets fed from a cassette, comprising:

a housing;

an upright chute mounted with respect to the housing through which objects fall into the housing;

a first automatic tablet counter within the housing which receives tablets from the chute and counts plural tablets simultaneously moving past a sensor;

a cassette dispenser integrated with the system having a cassette mount which positions a cassette mounted thereon to feed tablets to the chute and first automatic tablet counter;

a cassette dispenser drive system which powers a mounted cassette to feed tablets therefrom;

a second automatic object tablet counter which counts single tablets moving past a sensor fed from a mounted cassette; and

a data processing platform within the housing operatively connected to the first and second automatic tablet counters and the cassette dispenser drive system, the data processing platform being operative to:

receive and store data for a plurality of prescriptions;

retrieve data for fulfillment of a user-selected stored prescription, the data including a required tablet type and a required quantity:

verify that a user-selected container or cassette contains the required type of tablet,

if the required tablets are in the cassette, activate the cassette dispenser drive system to feed the required tablets from the mounted cassette to the first and second automatic tablet counters, deactivate the cassette dispenser drive system once the count of the second automatic tablet counter equals the required quantity;

maintain the count of the first automatic tablet counter for the tablets poured from the user-selected container or fed from the cassette past said first automatic tablet counter; and

indicate the count of the first automatic tablet counter.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the data processing platform is further operative to compare the counts of the first and second tablet counters during counting to determine whether the counts differ by more than a predetermined amount.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the data processing platform is further operative to generate a signal if the counts differ by more than the predetermined amount.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the data processing platform is further operative to stop the drive system responsive to the signal.

5. The system of claim 3 further including a display and the data processing platform is further operative to display a visual message to a user responsive to the signal.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the data processing platform is further operative to compare the counts of the first and second tablet counters to determine whether the counts match the required quantity.

7. The system of claim 1 further including a display and the data processing platform is operative to display the first automatic tablet counter count thereon.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first automatic tablet counter counts tablets both fed from a mounted cassette and poured manually while the cassette is mounted.

9. The system of claim 8 further including a funnel connected to the chute which directs tablets to the first automatic tablet counter, said funnel having an inlet sized to receive tablets fed from the mounted cassette or poured manually.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the second automatic tablet counter comprises:

a cassette dispenser detector which detects a tablet fed from a mounted cassette and generates a signal responsive to the detection; and

a cassette dispenser controller which increments a count responsive to the detector signal for use by the data processing platform.

11. A pharmacy workflow management system including automatic tablet counters, comprising:

a housing;

a first automatic tablet counter within the housing;

a cassette dispenser having a cassette mount which positions a cassette mounted thereon to feed tablets to the first automatic tablet counter;

a cassette dispenser drive system which powers a mounted cassette to feed tablets therefrom;

a second automatic tablet counter which counts tablets fed from a mounted cassette; and

a data processing platform within the housing programmed with instructions that, when executed, perform a method of pharmacy workflow management, the method comprising:

receiving data for a plurality of prescriptions;

storing the received data for the prescriptions;

retrieving the data for one of the stored prescriptions for fulfillment, the data including a type of tablet and a tablet quantity;

verifying that a user-selected container or cassette contains the required type of tablet,

if the required tablets are in the cassette, activating the cassette dispenser drive system to feed the tablets from the mounted cassette to the first and second automatic tablet counters, and deactivating the cassette dispenser drive system once the count of the second automatic tablet counter equals the quantity;

maintaining the count of the first automatic tablet counter for the tablets poured from the user-selected container or fed from the cassette past the first automatic tablet counter;

indicating the count of the first automatic tablet counter; and

creating a record that the quantity of tablets required by the retrieved data for the prescription has been counted.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising a display associated with the housing.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises displaying at least one of the stored prescriptions on the display.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises:

displaying data for the retrieved prescription on the display; and

comparing counts of the first and second automatic tablet counters for the displayed prescription data.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises comparing the counts to determine whether the counts differ by more than a predetermined amount.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises displaying a visual message on the display if the counts differ by more than the predetermined amount.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises stopping the drive system if the counts differ by more than the predetermined amount.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises comparing the counts to determine whether the counts match the quantity of tablets required by the retrieved prescription data.

19. A pharmacy workflow management system including an integrated automatic tablet counter, comprising:

a housing;

a code reader;

a display;

an upright chute mounted with respect to the housing through which tablets are manually poured into the housing;

an automatic tablet counter within the housing which counts the tablets; and

a data processing platform within the housing, the tablet counter and data processing platform being interfaced together and contained within the housing such that the housing, tablet counter and data processing platform comprise an integrated unit, the data processing platform being programmed with instructions that, when executed, perform a method of pharmacy workflow management, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving a plurality of prescriptions;

(b) storing the received prescriptions;

(c) retrieving one of the stored prescriptions for fulfillment;

(d) displaying the retrieved prescription on the display together with information identifying an item required for fulfillment of the prescription;

(e) if the prescription-required item is a quantity of manually-pourable tablets which require counting, then

(i) reading with the code reader a code associated with a user-selected container of the prescription-required item;

(ii) verifying that the user-selected container contains the prescription-required item;

(iii) counting with the tablet counter the quantity of tablets manually poured from the verified container;

(iv) creating a record with the data processing platform that the retrieved prescription was fulfilled; and

(v) repeating step (c) and the subsequent steps for the next prescription; and

(f) if the prescription-required item does not require counting, then

(i) reading with the code reader a code associated with a user-selected container of the prescription-required item; and

(ii) verifying that the user-selected container contains the prescription-required item;

(iv) creating a record with the data processing platform that the retrieved prescription was fulfilled;

(v) repeating step (c) and the subsequent steps for the next prescription.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the automatic tablet counter is a first automatic tablet counter and the system further comprises:

a cassette dispenser having a cassette mount which positions a cassette mounted thereon to feed tablets to the chute and first automatic tablet counter, thereby enabling the system to count manually-poured tablets and tablets fed from a mounted cassette;

a cassette mounted to the cassette mount, said cassette containing the tablets required by the retrieved prescription;

a cassette dispenser drive system which powers the mounted cassette to feed the tablets therefrom;

a second automatic tablet counter which counts the tablets fed from the mounted cassette; and

the method performed by the instructions further comprises, after step (d), the steps of:

(g) if the prescription-required item is a quantity of tablets in the cassette which require counting, then

(i) verifying that the cassette containing the prescription-required tablets is mounted to the cassette dispenser;

(ii) operating the cassette dispenser drive system to feed tablets from the cassette;

(iii) counting with the first and second tablet counters the tablets fed from the cassette;

(iv) comparing counts of the first and second tablet counters;

(v) creating a record with the data processing platform that the retrieved prescription was fulfilled; and

(vi) repeating step (c) and the subsequent steps for the next prescription.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the comparing step further comprises comparing counts of the first and second tablet counters to determine whether the counts differ by more than a predetermined amount.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises generating a signal if the counts differ by more than the predetermined amount.

23. The system of claim 21 wherein the method performed by the instructions further comprises stopping the drive system if the counts differ by more than the predetermined amount.

24. The system of claim 20 wherein the comparing step (iv) further comprises comparing the counts to determine whether the counts match the quantity of tablets required by the retrieved prescription.

25. A system for feeding and counting discrete objects, comprising:

a first automatic object counter which counts plural objects simultaneously moving past a sensor;

a cassette dispenser having a cassette mount which positions a cassette mounted thereon to feed discrete objects to the first automatic object counter;

a cassette dispenser drive system which powers a mounted cassette to feed objects therefrom;

a second automatic object counter which counts single objects moving past a sensor fed from a mounted cassette; and

a data processing platform which compares counts of the first and second object counters,

wherein the first automatic object counter counts objects both fed from the mounted cassette and poured manually while the cassette is mounted.

Assignments (14)