Patent ID: 11923059
Assignee: MEPS REAL-TIME, INC.
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 8:
9. A method of supplying a medical storage container by reading an identification device that is attached to the medical storage container and for reading identification devices attached to medical articles located in the medical storage container to manage the inventory of the medical storage container, each of the identification devices being responsive to electromagnetic (EM) energy in response to which the identification devices provide identification data, the medical storage container and medical articles being located within an internal storage area of an enclosure, the enclosure having electrically conductive walls that surround the internal storage area and a medical storage container holding medical articles with associated identification devices placed therein, the method comprising:
positioning a medical storage container within the internal storage area of the enclosure, the storage container having an identification device identifying the storage container, the medical storage container containing medical articles, wherein each of the medical articles located therein having an associated identification device, the identification devices being responsive to electromagnetic (EM) energy to transmit identification data;
injecting EM energy into the enclosure from a location within the enclosure;
storing an electronic inventory list of the medical storage container on a non-volatile memory; and
receiving the identification data of the medical storage container by a processor, locating the inventory list of the identified medical storage container in the non-volatile memory by the processor through the identification of the medical storage container, receiving identification data of the medical articles located in the medical storage container, locating the details of the medical articles in the identified medical storage container by the processor in the non-volatile memory through the identification data of the medical articles, comparing the details of the identified medical articles against the inventory list of the medical storage container in which the identified medical articles are located, and based on the step of comparing, determining at least one of whether there are missing medical articles not in the medical storage container that are on the inventory list, and whether there are extra medical articles in the medical storage container that are not on the inventory list for the container, and
if the identification data of the medical storage container is not found in the database on the memory, providing an alarm.