Patent ID: 11941938
Assignee: OMNICELL, INC.
Field: Control (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  B  A | IPC A  G

Claim 12:
13. A method of operating an automated dispensing system, the method comprising:
receiving, at a controller, a request for an article to be dispensed for a patient;
advancing a robot along a track between a first storage module and a second storage module to a location proximate a storage location of the article to be dispensed, wherein the storage location is one of a plurality of storage locations in a tray of one of the first storage module and the second storage module;
advancing the tray from a storage position to a retrieval position;
retrieving, by the robot, the article to be dispensed from the storage location in the tray;
receiving, at the controller, an on-demand medication request;
interrupting dispensing of the article to be dispensed in response to receiving the on-demand medication request;
retrieving one or more articles associated with the on-demand medication request;
advancing the robot along the track to a dispensing station wherein the dispensing station comprises a plurality of patient-specific locations, each patient-specific location configured to receive therein articles for a single patient; and
dispensing the one or more articles to a patient-specific location corresponding to the patient by dispensing the one or more articles to a storage locker of a plurality of storage lockers, each storage locker accessible from a first side to the robot and having a locking door on a second side to prevent unauthorized access.