Compartmentalized container loading and management system
A compartmentalized container loading and management system for loading compartmentalized containers, such as blister cards. A single system may be utilized to hand-load many different types of blister cards having different numbers of wells arranged in different patterns. Systems of the types described herein may include a docking station, a container locator, and a controller. The docking station may include visible information locations which provide visible information proximate wells of a docked blister card to indicate the well which should be loaded. The visible information locations may be changed to match the number, arrangement and pattern of the wells. A container locator may locate the blister card with wells at known positions of the docking station so that visible information may be associated with each well. A controller may control the visible information locations to provide visible information matching the pattern of the wells of each blister card.
1. A container loading system for rapid and accurate hand-loading of items into compartments of a container, the system comprising:
a docking station including a video display providing visible information locations on the display which are operable in a plurality of different patterns;
a container locator associated with the display, the locator including a fixture for locating a container, wherein location of the container locates the compartments of one or more selected containers at specific positions of the display;
a database including a record of each of a plurality of available fixture configurations and respective patterns of compartment locations; and
a controller operative to control the visible information locations on the display, the controller being responsive to a patient order, the controller configured to associate the fixture with the patient order, the controller further configured to direct the display to match the pattern of compartment locations of the one or more selected containers to provide the visible information at each compartment location according to the patient order.
2. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 1 wherein each container is a blister card.
3. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 2 wherein the compartments are wells.
4. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 3 wherein the visible information locations on the display are operable to provide the visible information through each well of each compartment pattern.
5. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 1 wherein the visible information locations provide visible information on the display selected from the group consisting of light information and image information.
6. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 1 wherein the display is selected from the group consisting of a light emitting diode (LED) display, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD) display, and a plasma display.
7. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 3 , wherein the fixture has at least one tray-locating position overlying the display, and wherein the container locator further comprises at least one portable tray receivable at a single position in each tray-locating position to support a blister card thereon with the wells over known positions of the display such that visible information is viewable through the wells.
8. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 wherein each at least one each tray-locating position is defined by a plurality of fixture walls and the tray is sized to fit within the walls in the single position.
9. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 wherein the fixture defines a plurality of the tray-locating positions enabling plural trays to be simultaneously over different portions of the display.
10. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 1 wherein the fixture is a first fixture and the first fixture is interchangeable with a second fixture which has a number of tray-locating positions different from the first fixture.
11. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 10 wherein the tray-locating positions of the first fixture are configured to hold trays of a first configuration and the tray-locating positions of the second fixture are configured to hold trays of a second configuration that is different than the first configuration.
12. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 1 wherein the fixtures include stacking structure enabling each fixture to be loaded with at least one tray and stacked atop another fixture.
13. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 wherein the tray comprises:
a top side supporting a blister card and defining well-receiving openings in a pattern matching the pattern of the wells and through which the wells are inserted; and
an open bottom under each opening enabling the visible information to be viewed through the opening when the tray is over the display.
14. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 wherein the tray includes handles.
15. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 further including a removable temporary cover configured to overlie the tray and a blister card supported thereon.
16. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 7 further including a unique machine-readable identification element associated with each of the fixtures and each tray such that association of a tray with the fixture enables the system to identify the known positions of the wells over the display.
17. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 16 wherein the machine-readable identification elements are selected from the group consisting of a linear barcode, a 2-D barcode, and a radio frequency identification tag (RFID).
18. The compartmentalized container loading system of claim 3 further including a further video display operatively connected to the controller to display information indicating each well into which an item is to be loaded.
19. A container loading system for rapid and accurate hand-loading of items into compartments of a container, the system comprising:
a docking station including a video display providing visible information locations on the display which are operable in a plurality of different patterns;
a container locator associated with the display, the locator including a fixture for locating a container, the fixture having at least one tray-locating position overlying the display, wherein location of the container locates the compartments of one or more selected containers at specific positions of the display, and wherein the container locator further comprises at least one portable tray receivable at a single position in each tray-locating position;
a database including a record of each of a plurality of available fixture configurations and respective patterns of compartment locations; and
a controller operative to control the visible information locations on the display, the controller being responsive to a patient order, the controller configured to associate the fixture with the patient order and to associate each of the one or more trays with a respective one of the one or more containers, the controller further configured to direct the display to match the pattern of compartment locations of the one or more selected containers to provide the visible information at each compartment location according to the patient order.