IP Library Granted Patent US 12,453,414
Granted Patent B2
US 12,453,414 · App. 17/523,322 · Granted Oct 28, 2025

Medical supply cabinet with medical supply contents having machine readable codes

Inventor: Timothy John Ovenden (Upper Saddle River, NJ)
Assignee: Aero Healthcare (US), LLC
A47B67/02A61B50/10G06K7/1413G06K7/1417G06Q10/087G09F3/0297A61B2050/105A61F17/00G09F2003/0216
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,453,414
App. No.
17/523,322
Granted
Oct 28, 2025
Kind
B2
Abstract

A medical supply cabinet includes a housing; a medical supply cabinet identifying machine readable code located on the housing; and a plurality of medical supply packages, each medical supply package containing a specific medical supply. Each medical supply package includes a discarded portion created when the medical supply package is opened. The discarded portion of the medical supply package includes a medical supply package machine readable code identifying the specific medical supply associated with the medical supply package.

Claims (73)

1. A method for auditing medical supplies, comprising:

providing a medical supply cabinet, comprising:

at least one storage area for storing a plurality of medical supply packages in a predetermined location within the at least one storage area,

wherein the at least one storage area comprises a cabinet storage volume,

wherein each of the plurality of medical supply packages comprises a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag identifying a medical supply within the medical supply package,

wherein at least one of the plurality of medical supply packages comprises the RFID tag on a removable portion of the medical supply package such that the RFID tag is not scanned by an RFID reader when the removable portion is removed; and

an inventory machine-readable code associated with a list of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet;

a door having a liner removably attached thereto, the liner configured to store a subset of the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein the liner comprises a plurality of pouches, each pouch configured to store a medical supply of the subset of the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein the liner further comprises a first plurality of machine-readable codes, each of the first plurality of machine-readable codes located on the liner in a position corresponding to a pouch such that a machine-readable code is optically obscured by the medical supply when the medical supply is in the pouch and is optically machine-readable when the medical supply is removed from the pouch, and

wherein the liner further comprises a second plurality of machine-readable codes on a second side of the liner, each of the second plurality of machine-readable codes in a location corresponding to a medical supply package configured to be stored in the cabinet storage volume;

determining, based on a first RFID scan of the plurality of medical supply packages made by the RFID reader, a current supply status of the medical supply cabinet;

determining, based on a second scan of the inventory machine-readable code, the list of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet;

determining, based on a comparison of the current supply status to the list of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet, one or more needed supplies for the medical supply cabinet;

causing display of a user interface comprising an affordance actuatable to initiate a re-ordering of the one or more needed supplies for the medical supply cabinet; and

responsive to receiving actuation of the affordance, initiating the re-ordering of the one or more needed supplies for the medical supply cabinet.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, based on the first RFID scan, the second scan, and the comparison, a status for each of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet; and

causing display of the status on the user interface.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

transmitting, to a database, the status for each of the plurality of medical supply packages.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

determining, based on the status for each of the plurality of medical supply packages, whether the medical supply cabinet is in compliance,

wherein causing display of the user interface comprising the affordance actuatable to initiate the re-ordering of the one or more needed supplies is responsive to determining that the medical supply cabinet is not in compliance.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cabinet storage volume comprises one or more shelves for storing the medical supplies.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each RFID tag indicates an expiration date for a corresponding medical supply package stored in the medical supply package.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the removable portion is a shrink-wrap portion or a tear-away portion.

8. A system for auditing medical supplies, comprising:

a medical supply cabinet for storing a plurality of medical supplies, comprising:

a cabinet storage volume for storing a first subset of the plurality of medical supplies; and

a door having a liner removably attachable to the door, the liner configured to store a second subset of the plurality of medical supplies,

wherein the liner comprises a plurality of pouches, each pouch configured to store a medical supply of the second subset of the plurality of medical supplies,

wherein each of the plurality of medical supplies is configured to be stored in a preassigned location in the medical supply cabinet, and

wherein each medical supply comprises a medical supply radio frequency identification (RFID) tag on a removable portion of packaging for the medical supply;

a cabinet quick-response (QR) code located on the medical supply cabinet, the cabinet QR code indicating the plurality of medical supplies configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet;

a plurality of machine-readable codes located within the medical supply cabinet, each machine-readable code in a first location associated with the preassigned location of a first corresponding medical supply,

wherein the liner further comprises a first subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes, each of the first subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes located on the liner in a position corresponding to a pouch such that each machine-readable code is optically obscured by a corresponding medical supply when the corresponding medical supply is in the pouch and is optically machine-readable when the corresponding medical supply is removed from the pouch, and

wherein the liner further comprises a second subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes on a second side of the liner, each of the second subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes in a location corresponding to a corresponding medical supply package configured to be stored in the cabinet storage volume;

at least one scanner configured to perform a scan of the medical supply RFID tag on each of the plurality of medical supplies in the medical supply cabinet, the cabinet QR code, and the plurality of machine-readable codes; and

a user interface configured to:

display a status for each of the medical supplies configured to be stored in the medical supply cabinet,

wherein the status comprises at least one of: a missing status, an expired status, or a present status; and

display an affordance actuatable to initiate the scan of the plurality of medical supplies in the medical supply cabinet.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the scan of the medical supply cabinet is a new install scan, and wherein the new install scan identifies the medical supply cabinet based on scanned medical supply RFID tags within the medical supply cabinet.

10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising:

a database configured to store data indicative of the new install scan,

wherein the data comprises at least one of: an install date, an identity of the medical supply cabinet, a location of the medical supply cabinet, the plurality of medical supplies in the medical supply cabinet, or the status for each of the plurality of medical supplies.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the removable portion is a shrink-wrap portion or a tear-away portion.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein each medical supply RFID tag indicates an expiration date for a corresponding medical supply package.

13. The system of claim 8 , where each of the plurality of pouches is transparent.

14. A method for auditing medical supply storages, comprising:

providing a medical supply storage for storing a plurality of medical supply packages, comprising:

a cabinet storage volume for storing a first subset of the plurality of medical supply packages; and

a door having a liner removably attachable to the door, the liner configured to store a second subset of the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein the liner comprises a plurality of pouches, each pouch configured to store a medical supply package of the second subset of the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein the liner further comprises a first subset of a plurality of machine-readable codes, each of the first subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes located on the liner in a position corresponding to a pouch such that a machine-readable code is optically obscured by the medical supply package when the medical supply package is in the pouch and is optically machine-readable when the medical supply package is removed from the pouch, and

wherein the liner further comprises a second subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes on a second side of the liner, each of the second subset of the plurality of machine-readable codes in a location corresponding to a medical supply package configured to be stored in the cabinet storage volume;

reading, using a radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, a plurality of package RFID tags associated with the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein at least one of the plurality of medical supply packages comprises the RFID tag on a removable portion such that the RFID tag is not scanned by an RFID reader when the removable portion is removed;

determining, based on the reading, a status for each of the plurality of medical supply packages,

wherein the status is at least one of a missing status, a present status, or an expired status;

reading, using a second reader, a storage quick-response (QR) code located on the medical supply storage to determine a required supply status of the medical supply storage,

wherein the storage QR code indicates the plurality of medical supply packages required to be stored in the medical supply storage;

determining, based on the status for each of the plurality of medical supply packages and the required supply status of the medical supply storage, one or more needed supplies for the medical supply storage;

causing display of, on an interface device associated with the second reader, the one or more needed supplies for the medical supply storage; and

responsive to receiving actuation of an activation area on the interface device, automatically requisitioning the one or more needed supplies for the medical supply storage.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein each of the plurality of package RFID tags indicates an expiration date for a corresponding medical supply package stored in the medical supply package.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein determining that a medical supply package has the expired status is based on the expiration date indicated by the RFID tag of the medical supply package.

17. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

causing display of, on the interface device, one or more medical supply packages having the present status, one or more medical supply packages having the expired status, and one or more medical supply packages having the missing status.

18. The method of claim 14 , responsive to reading the storage QR code, retrieving, from a database, a list of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply storage.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein determining a medical supply package has the missing status is based on comparing the list of the plurality of medical supply packages configured to be stored in the medical supply storage with one or more scanned package RFID tags to determine one or more unscanned package RFID tags from the list of the plurality of medical supply packages.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein determining a medical supply package has the present status is based on scanning the RFID tag.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 9, 2022
From: OVENDEN, TIMOTHY JOHN
To: AERO HEALTHCARE US LLC
Reel/Frame 059206/0870 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation In Part 17468802 · Sep 8, 2021
Continuation In Part 17062044 · Oct 2, 2020
Provisional Application 62912162 · Oct 8, 2019
Related Publication 20220175135A1 · Jun 9, 2022
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