Medicine dispensing apparatus

A medicine dispensing apparatus comprising:

• a housing;
• a plurality of medicine feeders configured to contain medicines and consecutively discharge the medicines, and a plurality of medicine feeder storage units each configured to store the plurality of medicine feeders;
• a plurality of medicine guide structures provided in correspondence with the medicine feeder storage units to guide the medicines discharged from the plurality of medicine feeders included in the corresponding medicine feeder storage unit to a single outlet port located at a lower part of the corresponding medicine guide structure;
• a plurality of medicine feeder storage portions each configured to store the corresponding medicine feeder storage unit and the corresponding medicine guide structure;
• a medicine collecting structure disposed in the housing under the plurality of medicine guide structures to collect the medicines having fallen from the plurality of medicine guide structures;
• a packing device provided in the housing under the medicine collecting structure to separately pack the medicines discharged from the medicine collecting structure;
• and
• a control portion configured to control operation of the plurality of medicine feeders and the packing device,
• the medicine feeder storage unit included in one of the plurality of medicine feeder storage portions including a plurality of medicine feeder mount portions in which a plurality of general-purpose medicine feeders are mounted on a plurality of drawer shelfs provided vertically and configured to be individually drawable, the plurality of general-purpose medicine feeders each including a container portion and a successive discharge mechanism portion that are integrated with each other, and
• one of the plurality of medicine guide structures that is provided in correspondence with the medicine feeder storage unit including the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions being allowed to be drawn out of the housing when all of the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions are drawn out, wherein:
• a temporary reserving structure is provided at a lower end portion of the one of the plurality of medicine guide structures that is provided in correspondence with the medicine feeder storage unit including the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions, the temporary reserving structure being operable to temporarily reserve the medicines fallen from the medicine guide structure and cause the medicines to collectively fall down into the medicine collecting structure;
• the control portion is configured to also control operation of the temporary reserving structure;
• and
• when it is detected that an excessive medicine has been discharged from the medicine feeder included in the medicine feeder storage unit including the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions during packing operation, the control portion temporarily stops the packing operation and causes the temporary reserving structure to reserve the medicines, and allows an operation to draw out the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions included in the medicine feeder storage unit for the relevant medicine feeder storage unit, and thereafter allows resuming the packing operation when it is detected that the plurality of medicine feeder mount portions are drawn out of the housing and pushed back.