Dispensing system for pharmacies
There is disclosed a dispensing system for pharmaceutical products, the dispensing system comprising: a plurality of individually lockable storage bins for storing respective pharmaceutical products, each storage bin comprising a lock coupled to an actuator; a database which associates respective bin identifiers with respective product codes of the pharmaceutical products; and a dispensing server comprising a dispensing module which is configured to: receive a selection of one of said pharmaceutical products; receive scan data indicative of a product code for the selected product; determine, from said database, a bin identifier associated with the product code; and send an unlock signal to the actuator of a storage bin corresponding to said bin identifier.
1. A dispensing system for pharmaceutical products, the dispensing system comprising:
a plurality of individually lockable storage bins for storing respective pharmaceutical products, each storage bin comprising a lock coupled to an actuator and at least one visual indicator device;
a database which associates respective bin identifiers with respective product codes of the pharmaceutical products;
a plurality of scanning devices, each having a scanner identifier, respective scanner identifiers being associated with respective colors of the at least one visual indicator device; and
a dispensing server comprising a dispensing module which is configured to:
receive a selection of one of said pharmaceutical products;
receive first scan data indicative of a product code for the selected product;
determine, from said database, a bin identifier associated with the product code;
receive second scan data indicative of a scanned bin identifier of a storage bin; and
if the scanned bin identifier matches the bin identifier associated with the product code, send an unlock signal to the actuator of the storage bin corresponding to said scanned bin identifier, and an actuation signal to change a visual appearance of the at least one visual indicator device of the storage bin corresponding to said bin identifier, allowing a user having used at least one of the plurality of scanning devices to identify respective colors of the at least one visual indicator device associated with respective scanner identifiers to retrieve the selected product from the storage bin.
2. A dispensing system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of storage bins is arranged in, or is configured to be arranged in, a gondola display.
3. A dispensing system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one visual indicator device is a light emitting diode (LED).
4. A dispensing system according to claim 1 , wherein the storage bins are arranged in groups each associated with a group identifier in said database, and wherein respective group identifiers are associated with respective colors of the visual indicator devices.
5. A dispensing system according to claim 4 , wherein the respective scanner identifiers are associated with respective group identifiers in said database.
6. A dispensing system according to claim 2 , wherein the at least one visual indicator device is a light emitting diode (LED).
7. A dispensing system according to claim 2 , wherein the storage bins are arranged in groups each associated with a group identifier in said database, and wherein respective group identifiers are associated with respective colors of the at least one visual indicator device.
8. A dispensing system according to claim 3 , wherein the storage bins are arranged in groups each associated with a group identifier in said database, and wherein respective group identifiers are associated with respective colors of the visual indicator devices.
9. A dispensing system according to claim 1 , wherein the storage bins further comprise at least one machine readable bin label chosen from a group comprising a barcode, a QR code, and an RFID tag.
10. A method of controlling access to pharmaceutical products, the method comprising:
providing a plurality of individually lockable storage bins for storing respective ones of the pharmaceutical products, each storage bin comprising a lock coupled to an actuator and at least one visual indicator device;
providing a database which associates respective bin identifiers with respective product codes of the pharmaceutical products;
providing a plurality of scanning devices, each having a scanner identifier, respective scanner identifiers being associated with respective colors of the at least one visual indicator device; and
providing a dispensing module which is configured to:
receive a selection of one of said pharmaceutical products;
receive first scan data indicative of a product code for the selected product;
determine, from said database, a bin identifier associated with the product code;
receive second scan data indicative of a scanned bin identifier of a storage bin; and
if the scanned bin identifier matches the bin identifier associated with the product code, send an unlock signal to the actuator of the storage bin corresponding to said scanned bin identifier, and an actuation signal to change a visual appearance of the last least one visual indicator device of the storage bin corresponding to said bin identifier, allowing a user having used at least one of the plurality of scanning devices to identify respective colors of the at least one visual indicator device associated with the respective scanner identifiers to retrieve the selected product from the storage bin.