US 11,298,296 B1Granted

Medication vending device with verification that medications loaded therein match current prescription

AssigneeMedherent, LLC

InventorsJoel F. Feldman, Yeardley W. Green

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Abstract

A medication vending device is integrated into systems that ensure compliance with a medication dosing schedule of a patient. The medication vending device contains medication packages to be vended in accordance with the patient's dosing schedule. The system can check for prescription changes that occurred between the date of generation of the medication packages and the date of loading the medication packages into the medication vending device, and provide appropriate alert messages to inhibit loading of the medication packages into the medication vending device. In addition, post-loading prescription changes can be detected, and appropriate alert messages or actions can be taken regarding the medication packages currently loaded into the medication vending device.

Claims22

Dependent claims

An apparatus for ensuring compliance with a medication dosing schedule, the dosing schedule being associated with a specific patient and including one or more dosing times per day, wherein the medication is delivered to the patient via medication packages that are intended to match the dosing schedule, each medication package including a machine-readable code printed thereon that is usable to identify (i) contents of the medication package, and (ii) a specific patient that the medication in the medication package was previously prescribed for, the apparatus including:

(a) a memory that stores the patient's dosing schedule, the dosing schedule including a patient identifier;
(b) a medication vending device configured to vend the medication packages previously loaded therein, the medication vending device including:
(i) an identifier corresponding to a specific patient that the medication vending device is assigned to, and
(ii) a scanner configured to read the machine-readable code printed on selected ones of the medication packages prior to loading the medication packages into the medication vending device;
(c) an electronic translator configured to receive and process the scanned machine-readable code and output (i) contents of the scanned medication packages, and (ii) the specific patient that the medication in the medication packages was previously prescribed for;
and
(d) a comparator in electronic communication with (i) the memory that stores the patient's dosing schedule, (ii) the medication vending device, and (iii) the output of the electronic translator, the comparator being configured to:
(i) compare the patient's dosing schedule with the output of the electronic translator to identify any discrepancies between (A) the patient's dosing schedule and the contents of the scanned medication packages as outputted by the electronic translator, and (B) the patient identifier in the dosing schedule and the specific patient that the medication in the scanned medication packages was previously prescribed for as outputted by the electronic translator, and
(ii) compare the identifier of the medication vending device with one or more of (A) the specific patient that the medication in the scanned medication packages was previously prescribed for, and (B) the patient identifier in the dosing schedule, and
(iii) output a message indicating any discrepancies identified in the comparisons,
wherein the medication vending device is in electronic communication with the comparator, and is configured to output the message indicating any discrepancies identified in the comparisons,
wherein the message provides an alert to either (i) inhibit a person from loading selected ones of the medication packages into the medication vending device, or (ii) communicate a change in the patient's dosing schedule so that appropriate action can be taken when the loaded medication packages are subsequently vended.

9 more elements

An apparatus for ensuring compliance with a medication dosing schedule, the dosing schedule being associated with a specific patient and including one or more dosing times per day, wherein the medication is delivered to the patient via medication packages that are intended to match the dosing schedule, each medication package including a machine-readable code printed thereon that is usable to identify (i) an order identifier (ID) of the medication package, the apparatus including:

(a) a memory that stores the order ID's of the medication packages, each order ID being associated with a respective patient identifier, wherein a new order ID is created whenever a change is made to the patient's dosing schedule;
(b) a medication vending device configured to vend the medication packages previously loaded therein, the medication vending device including:
(i) an identifier corresponding to a specific patient that the medication vending device is assigned to, and
(ii) a scanner configured to read the machine-readable code printed on selected ones of the medication packages prior to loading the medication packages into the medication vending device;
(c) an electronic translator configured to receive and process the scanned machine-readable code and output the order ID;
and
(d) a comparator in electronic communication with (i) the memory that stores the order ID's, (ii) the medication vending device, and (iii) the output of the electronic translator, the comparator being configured to:
(i) compare the order ID as outputted by the electronic translator with the most recent order ID in the memory for the respective patient, wherein a discrepancy occurs when the order ID as outputted by the electronic translator is not the most recent order ID in the memory for the respective patient, and
(ii) compare the identifier of the medication vending device with the patient identifier associated with the order ID as outputted by the electronic translator, and
(iii) output a message indicating any discrepancies identified in the comparisons,
wherein the medication vending device is in electronic communication with the comparator, and is configured to output the message indicating any discrepancies identified in the comparisons,
wherein the message provides an alert to inhibit a person from loading selected ones of the medication packages into the medication vending device.

9 more elements

(a) a medication vending device configured to vend the medication packages previously loaded therein, the medication vending device including:
(i) a controller configured to operate the medication vending device, wherein the controller generates an electronic message whenever medication packages are loaded into the medication vending device, the electronic message including a date stamp of the loading time, and
(ii) an output device for communicating alert messages regarding the medication to the patient;
(b) a remote server in electronic communication with the controller to receive the electronic message, the remote server including a memory that stores the patient's dosing schedule, the memory storing:
(i) the patient's most current dosing schedule, and a date stamp of when the most current dosing schedule was stored in the memory,
(ii) one or more previous dosing schedules, and a date stamp of when the respective previous dosing schedules were stored in the memory, and
(iii) the date stamp of the last loading event for the patient's medication vending device;
(c) a comparator in electronic communication with the memory of the remote server, the comparator configured to:
(i) compare the date stamp of the patient's most current dosing schedule with the date stamp of the last loading event for the patient's medication vending device, and identify a potential alert condition when the date stamp of the patient's most current dosing schedule is later in time than the date stamp of the last loading event for the patient's medication vending device,
(ii) when the potential alert condition occurs, compare the patient's most current dosing schedule with the patient's dosing schedule that matches the medications that were loaded into the patient's medication vending device at the last loading event, and identify all changes therebetween, and
(iii) output the identified changes;
and
(d) a rules engine that receives the identified changes and determines from the identified changes and rules of the rules engine whether an alert message should be generated and electronically communicated to the patient's medication vending device, and what the alert message should be,
wherein the output device of the patient's medication vending device is configured to communicate the alert message to the patient.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.