Pharmaceutical dispensing systems, methods and computer program products for determining and displaying replenishment information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9361748-B2
Application number	US-201314084070-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 19, 2013
Priority date	Nov 28, 2012
Publication date	Jun 7, 2016
Grant date	Jun 7, 2016

Abstract

A pharmaceutical dispensing system includes a frame having first and second opposed sides, a plurality of cells configured to house pharmaceutical pills, and a display on the frame first side. A plurality of dispensing shelves configured to receive filled pill containers are accessible from the second side of the frame for removal of pill containers therein. The pharmaceutical dispensing system includes a processor and memory coupled thereto. A computer program resides in the memory and is executable by the processor for displaying a cell inventory graphical user interface (GUI) within the display. The cell inventory GUI includes a GUI control that is responsive to user activation for displaying replenishment information about one or more of the cells. The computer program is configured to determine a replenish point and replenish quantity for each cell and is configured to adjust the replenish quantity for each cell according to a stock-out risk.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A pharmaceutical dispensing system, comprising:
a frame having first and second opposed sides;
a plurality of cells configured to house pharmaceutical pills, each of the cells being accessible from the first side of the frame for replenishment of pharmaceutical pills therein;
a display on the frame first side;
a processor;
memory coupled to the processor; and
a computer program residing in the memory that is executable by the processor for displaying a cell inventory graphical user interface (GUI) within the display, wherein the cell inventory GUI displays cell inventory information, and wherein the cell inventory GUI comprises a GUI control that is responsive to user activation for displaying replenishment information about one or more of the cells, wherein the replenishment information for each cell comprises an identification of a drug to be replenished within the cell, a total number of pills needed to replenish the cell, and a size and total number of stock bottles needed to replenish the cell.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the GUI control displays a number of cells requiring replenishment.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is executable by the processor for determining a replenish point and replenish quantity for each cell.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the computer program is executable by the processor for adjusting the replenish quantity for each cell according to stock-out risk for each cell.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the replenish quantity for each cell is calculated as at least 1.5σ, wherein σ represents a standard deviation of daily pill dispense quantity for a respective cell.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the replenish quantity for each cell is calculated as between about 1.5σ and about 2.5σ, wherein σ represents a standard deviation of daily pill dispense quantity for a respective cell.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the cell inventory GUI information comprises the following information about each cell: cell location, drug contained within cell, NDC (National Drug Code) information, and pill quantity in each cell.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is executable by the processor for identifying any cells that are currently in operation that were not in operation during the previous day and for identifying any cells that were in operation during the previous day that are not currently in operation.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is executable by the processor for identifying any cells that are currently in operation that contain a different drug from the previous day.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computer program is executable by the processor for predicting when pills will be needed in the future for one or more cells and automatically placing an order from a drug source such that sufficient pill inventory is on hand prior to a future date.

11. A method of determining replenishment quantities for pills dispensed by a pharmaceutical dispensing system, wherein the pharmaceutical dispensing system includes a plurality of cells configured to house pharmaceutical pills for dispensing, a display, and at least one processor, the method comprising:
statistically analyzing, via the at least one processor, historical dispensing data to determine a replenish point and a replenish quantity for each cell, wherein the replenish point is a threshold amount below which requires the cell to be replenished with pills, and wherein the replenish quantity is an amount of pills to be added to the cell when a quantity of pills in the cell is below the replenish point; and
displaying a cell inventory graphical user interface (GUI) within the display, wherein the cell inventory GUI displays cell inventory information, and wherein the cell inventory GUI comprises a GUI control that is responsive to user activation for displaying replenishment information about one or more of the cells, and wherein the replenishment information for each cell comprises an identification of a drug to be replenished within the cell, a total number of pills needed to replenish the cell, and a size and total number of stock bottles needed to replenish the cell.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising adjusting the replenish quantity based upon stock-out risk for any given day.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein adjusting the replenish quantity based upon stock-out risk for any given day comprises selecting a multiple value and calculating the replenish quantity by multiplying a standard deviation of a daily dispense quantity by the multiple value.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the replenish quantity for each cell is calculated as least 1.5σ, wherein a represents a standard deviation of daily pill dispense quantity for a respective cell.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the replenish quantity for each cell is calculated as between about 1.5σ and about 2.5σ, wherein σ represents a standard deviation of daily pill dispense quantity for a respective cell.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the daily dispense quantity is a daily dispense quantity for a particular cell or for a particular pharmaceutical pill.

17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the GUI control displays a number of cells requiring replenishment.

18. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having encoded thereon instructions that, when executed on a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising:
statistically analyzing historical dispensing data to determine a replenish point and a replenish quantity for each cell, wherein the replenish point is a threshold amount below which requires the cell to be replenished with pills, and wherein the replenish quantity is an amount of pills to be added to the cell when a quantity of pills in the cell is below the replenish point; and
displaying a cell inventory graphical user interface (GUI) within a display, wherein the cell inventory GUI displays cell inventory information, wherein the cell inventory GUI comprises a GUI control that is responsive to user activation for displaying replenishment information about one or more of the cells, wherein the GUI control displays a number of cells requiring replenishment, and wherein the replenishment information for each cell comprises an identification of a drug to be replenished within the cell, a total number of pills needed to replenish the cell, and a size and total number of stock bottles needed to replenish the cell.

Assignees

• Parata Systems Llc

Inventors

• Cunningham Paul Joseph
• Morris Sasha

Classifications

• G07F11/44 Primary

  in which magazines the articles are stored in bulk · CPC title

• G07F9/026

  for alarm, monitoring and auditing in vending machines or means for indication, e.g. when empty · CPC title

• G07F17/0092

  for assembling and dispensing of pharmaceutical articles (medical dispensers for private use, A61J7/00) · CPC title

• G06Q10/087

  Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders · CPC title

• G06Q10/08724

  by shelf level inventory management, e.g. planograms · CPC title