Facility-wide medication management systems
A system for managing medications facilitates documentation of medication returned from remote dispensing units to a central storage location such as a pharmacy vault. The system may be especially useful in facilitating the tracking of controlled substances. The system receives an indication that a medication previously removed from the remote dispensing units has been designated for return to the medication management system. The system computes an estimated return amount of the medication, and causes a queued return list to be displayed at the central storage location. The system can accommodate multiple remote dispensing devices and multiple medications.
1. A medication management system, comprising:
a display screen; and
a computer system programmed to:
receive, over an electronic communications network, a description of a movement of a medication, the movement expected to entail a later transaction at a location within a health care facility;
obtain an estimated amount of the medication that is expected to arrive at the location; and
cause a queued list to be displayed on the display screen at the location to facilitate entry of data documenting the later transaction, wherein the queued list includes a list of one or more medications expected to arrive at the location of the expected later transaction as a result of the movement of the medication and the estimated amounts of the one or more medications expected to arrive, and wherein the queued list is generated based on one or more assumptions that tend to overestimate the number of entries on the queued list;
and wherein the queued list is editable by a user of the system at the location to modify the number of entries on the list.
2. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the medication is a controlled substance.
3. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is an advance shipping notice, and the queued list is a queued receiving list.
4. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is a description of the movement of a particular patient's medication from a first patient-specific storage location to a second patient-specific storage location; and
the queued list is a queued restock list displayed at a destination dispensing device into which the medication is to be placed.
5. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is a description of the movement of the medication from a central storage location to a dispensing device remote from the central storage location, and the queued list includes a list of one or more medications to be stocked into the dispensing device.
6. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the computer system is programmed to obtain the estimated amount of a medication that is expected to arrive at the location by computing the estimated amount based on information received over the electronic communications network.
7. The medication management system of claim 1 , wherein the queued list is editable to change the estimated amount of at least one medication expected to arrive at the location.
8. A system, comprising:
a computerized controlled substance management system;
one or more display screens; and
a number of patient-specific locations for storing medications intended for respective particular patients;
wherein the controlled substance management system tracks the movement of controlled substances into and out of the patient-specific locations;
and wherein the system causes one or more queued lists to be displayed on the one or more display screens, for facilitating documentation of movement transactions involving the controlled substances;
and wherein at least a particular one of the one or more queued lists includes a particular queued list of one or more medications expected to be placed into a particular one of the patient-specific locations as a result of a particular movement of a controlled substance, wherein the particular queued list is generated based on data transmitted via an electronic communications network, and wherein the queued list is generated using at least one assumption that tends to overestimate the number of entries on the queued list;
and wherein the particular queued list is editable to change an amount of a medication expected to be placed into the particular one of the patient-specific locations.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the system further guides a user of the system to a particular one of the patient-specific locations into which a particular controlled substance is to be deposited or from which a particular controlled substance is to be removed.
10. The system of claim 8 , wherein at least a particular one of the queued lists is editable to change an amount of a medication expected to be placed into a particular one of the patient-specific locations.
11. A method of managing medications, the method comprising:
receiving, by a computer system over an electronic communications network, a description of a movement of a medication, the movement expected to entail a later transaction at a location within a health care facility;
obtaining an estimated amount of the medication that is expected to arrive at the location, wherein the estimated amount is generated based on one or more assumptions that tend to cause overestimation of a number of entries in a queued list;
causing the queued list to be displayed on a display screen at the location to facilitate entry of data documenting the later transaction, wherein the queued list includes a list of one or more medications expected to arrive at the location of the expected later transaction as a result of the movement of the medication and the estimated amounts of the one or more medications expected to arrive; and
altering the queued list in response to inputs from a user of the system to modify the number of entries on the queued list.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the medication is a controlled substance.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is an advance shipping notice, and the queued list is a queued receiving list.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is a description of the movement of a particular patient's medication from a first patient-specific storage location to a second patient-specific storage location; and
the queued list is a queued restock list displayed at a destination dispensing device into which the medication is to be placed.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the description of the movement of the medication is a description of the movement of the medication from a central storage location to a dispensing device remote from the central storage location, and the queued list includes a list of one or more medications to be stocked into the dispensing device.
16. The method of claim 11 , wherein obtaining the estimated amount of the medication that is expected to arrive at the location comprises computing the estimated amount based on information received over the electronic communications network.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the queued list is editable to change the estimated amount of at least one medication expected to arrive at the location.