Method for controlling a drug dispensing system

A method for dispensing a packaged item for medical treatment comprising:

• storing a plurality of coded medical treatment packaged items in a housing;
• dispensing a packaged item from the housing having a first code;
• forming a second code;
• optically reading the first code and the second code;
• and
• verifying the packaged item by electronically comparing the first code and the second code.

A method of dispensing packaged pharmaceuticals comprising:

• storing a plurality of coded packaged pharmaceuticals in a housing;
• displaying patient information on a computer display;
• performing a plurality of required patient data entry operations;
• and
• automatically electronically enabling or disenabling a dispenser controller after completion of the patient data entry operations such that a package dispenser can dispense a coded package only upon receipt by the dispenser controller of an enabling command from the computer.

A method for dispensing packages and of loading packages in the housing comprising;

• storing a plurality of coded packaged items in a housing;
• receiving request signals to dispense a package at a controller;
• generating dispense signals in response to the received request signals;
• displaying package information on a computer display;
• dispensing a package from the housing in response to the dispense signal;
• reading the code of a dispensed package with a code reader;
• verifying that the requested package was dispensed monitoring an amount of packages within the housing;
• generating a reload signal;
• opening the housing;
• scanning packages with a bar code reader as the packages are loaded into the housing;
• and
• recording data in a memory regarding the loaded packages.