Automatic prescription filling, sorting and packaging system

In an automated prescription dispensing and packing system, empty prescription bottles are labeled and loaded in assigned locations in carriers. Pills are automatically dispensed into the prescription bottles in the carriers. Ranks of carriers containing filled prescription bottles are assembled at stations where the bottles are unloaded and packed into shipping containers with literature printed by the system. Multiple bottles of an order are automatically packed in the same shipping container.

This invention is directed to an integrated system for automatically 
filling prescriptions and then assembling multiple prescriptions in a 
common package or unit with literature which relates to the prescription 
and/or marketing materials. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The use of mail service to fill prescriptions has been highly successful in 
lowering the costs of providing drugs to consumers. The filling of 
prescriptions and mailing the filled prescriptions to consumers is labor 
intensive and a pharmacy can significantly reduce its costs, improve 
quality, and reduce turn around time by automating the prescription 
filling and assembling procedures. 
Semi-automated prescription dispensing machines which can automatically 
count the tablets or capsules of a unique prescription have had a 
significant impact in the drug industry. However, use of these machines 
still require many manual steps to complete a patient's order. For 
example, the positioning of the bottle under the proper chute is 
controlled by a technician or pharmacist and after filling the bottle, the 
prescription has to be further handled manually to effect mailing of the 
prescription to the patient. 
Patients or families using mail services to fill prescriptions often 
receive multiple prescriptions. Data suggests that about 50 percent of 
mail service for prescription drugs involves orders for at least two 
separate prescriptions. The advantages of a system which automatically 
fills the respective separate prescriptions, combines the prescriptions of 
each order and prepares the orders for mailing are readily apparent. An 
automated system would produce great labor savings in what heretofore has 
been a highly labor intensive process and at the same time would reduce 
time required to process prescriptions. 
While the advantages of such a system are apparent, there are a number of 
problems which have to be solved in order to automatically fill and 
combine multiple prescription orders into a single package. The multiple 
parts of an order have to be brought automatically into close proximity at 
a packaging location. There is a need to place literature about the 
prescriptions in each shipping container along with the prescription. Any 
system which automatically distributes drugs must have a number of 
controls and checks to insure that the correct prescription is filled into 
the correct bottle which has been labeled correctly and the correct bottle 
is placed in the correct shipping container. Any deviation from the 
correct operations and handling of the prescription could be expected to 
have serious consequences. Lastly, in order to be economical for its 
intended purpose, the system must operate a high volume throughput. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In the system of the invention, a computer system called a Pharmacy 
Automation Computer () controls print, apply, and load stations ( 
stations), which print prescription labels, apply the labels to 
prescription bottles and load the labeled prescription bottles onto 
carriers, a carrier conveyer system which moves the carriers containing 
the prescription bottles from one station to the next, automatic drug 
dispensing machines which dispense pharmaceutical tablets or capsules into 
the labeled empty bottles in the carriers, bottle cappers which apply caps 
to the bottles, printers which print information corresponding to each 
prescription order, order consolidation and packing stations (OCP 
stations) which unload the bottles from the carriers and transport the 
bottles into shipping containers and which pack the printed information 
into the shipping containers along with the prescription bottles. The 
system dispenses both tablets and capsules and the word "pill" is used 
herein to refer to pharmaceuticals, both tablets or capsules, or any other 
kind of solid pharmaceutical dose in countable form. In accordance with 
the invention, will receive the orders for prescriptions, each of 
which may contain an order for multiple prescriptions or a single 
prescription. The multiple prescriptions of an order may be for a single 
patient or two or more patients in a patient group, such as a family. 
stores the information for each order and controls the stations to 
print and apply labels to the bottles corresponding to each prescription. 
Bottle loaders at the stations load the labeled bottles into assigned 
locations in carriers. The identification of the assigned locations for 
each order is stored by . When the order is for two or more 
prescriptions to be automatically dispensed, these prescriptions will be 
normally assigned carriers progressing through the system simultaneously. 
In most instances, the several bottles of a given order will be placed in 
a common rank of carriers progressing synchronously through corresponding 
parts of the system in separate lanes. 
Following loading of the bottles in the carrier, the conveyer system will 
transport the carriers with the labeled bottles to the automatic drug 
dispensing machines, where tablets or capsules of the prescriptions are 
automatically dispensed into the prescription bottles. Following this 
operation, the conveyer system transports the now filled bottles in the 
carriers to the bottle cappers where the prescription bottles are capped, 
whereupon the bottle carriers holding the now filled and capped 
prescription bottles are transported to the OCP stations. 
The OCP stations are provided with bottle unloaders, each of which 
comprises a turntable designed to receive four bottle carriers 
simultaneously. The rank of carriers progressing synchronously through the 
lanes will all be received on the turntable of the same station. A robotic 
arm picks out the bottles from the carriers on the turntable corresponding 
to a given order and places them on a bottle conveyer, which carries the 
bottles to a loading mechanism. In the loading mechanism, the prescription 
bottles are bar code verified and then the bottles are loaded in a 
shipping container. 
also controls printers to print literature corresponding to each 
patient order. The printers print the information and enclose it in 
envelopes and place each envelope on a conveyer which transports the 
envelopes from the printers to the OCP stations. At each OCP station, the 
envelopes corresponding to the orders in the carriers on the turntable are 
received and are placed in a literature dispensing mechanism. Each 
envelope is inserted into a shipping container before the prescription 
bottles for the corresponding patient order are loaded into the shipping 
container. When the literature and the prescription bottles have been bar 
code verified and have been loaded into the shipping container with an 
envelope containing printed information, the shipping container is sealed 
and in most cases will be dropped onto a mail conveyer which carries the 
completed order to mailing where the packages are sorted by destination 
and sent to the patient.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The operation of the automated system of the invention is initiated by the 
entry of customer orders. From a customer order, a production order is 
generated, which upon being entered in the system is classified in 
accordance with a pre-established protocol. The production order will be 
classified as either a Manual-Dispense Production Order, an Auto-Pack 
Production Order, a Large Production Order, and/or a Marriage Production 
Order. The Manual-Dispense Order is one that is assigned to be manually 
filled and packed because of the nature of the prescription, such as 
because it is for a narcotic or a controlled substance, because it is for 
a compound, or because it is for a drug which is not in a solid dose 
countable form. The present invention is concerned with the automatically 
handled orders which include the Autopack Production Order, the Large 
Production Order and the Marriage Production Order. An Autopack Production 
Order is one containing one to four prescriptions for tablets or capsules, 
all of which are to be automatically dispensed and automatically assembled 
in a shipping container. A Large Production Order is like an Autopack 
Production Order except that it is for more than four prescriptions or 
requires more than four prescription bottles to be filled. In the specific 
described embodiment, only four prescription bottles can be automatically 
assembled in one shipping container. A Marriage Production Order is one in 
which some of the order must be manually filled and packed and some of 
which is to be automatically dispensed and packed. 
As shown in the schematic illustration of FIG. 1, the orders are received 
by a host computer 9 which forwards the orders to a distributed computer 
system including a central computer called Prescription Automation 
Controller 10 (). maintains an order file of the information about 
each prescription to be filled in an order including all of the 
information needed to fill each prescription, prepare a prescription label 
for each prescription and the information to print literature to go in a 
shipping container with the prescription or prescriptions. updates the 
order file to maintain a record of the current status of each prescription 
being filled as it progresses through the automated system. 
In the specific embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 1, 10 
controls a set of stations 14 which print prescription bottle labels, 
apply the prescriptions to prescription bottles, and load the labeled 
bottles onto bottle carriers, a carrier conveyer system 21 which carries 
the bottle carriers to different parts of the system, automatic drug 
dispensing machines 23 which dispense tablets or capsules into the 
prescription bottles in the bottle carriers as they are carried by the 
conveyer system 21, bottle cappers 25 which apply caps to the bottles, and 
OCP stations 29 at which the bottles are unloaded from the carriers and 
placed in the shipping containers corresponding to the patient orders. The 
conveyer system 21 carries the bottles in the carriers from the 
stations through the automatic drug dispensing machines 23 to the bottle 
cappers 25 and then from the bottle cappers to the OCP stations 29. The 
conveyer system 21 also carries the empty carriers back to the 
stations 14. The OCP stations each also have a literature dispensing 
mechanism which inserts printed literature into each shipping container 
with the filled and capped prescription bottles. 10 controls 
literature printers 31 which print literature for each prescription order 
and enclose the literature for each prescription order in an envelope, 
print a bar code that shows through a window in the envelope identifying 
the prescription order, and then place each envelope on a literature 
conveyer 34 which carries the envelope from the literature printers 31 to 
the OCP stations 29. 
As shown in FIG. 2, bottles to be automatically filled with the 
prescription drugs are introduced to the automated system by hoppers 37 
which receive the bottles in bulk form and automatically feed the bottles 
to unscramblers 39. One of the hoppers 37 and one of the unscramblers 39 
will be for large bottles of 160 cc. and the remaining hoppers and 
unscramblers will be for small bottles of 110 cc. The small bottle size 
can accommodate a majority of the automatically filled prescriptions. The 
large bottles are large enough for 91 percent of the prescriptions and are 
used to fill the prescriptions in that 91 percent which are too large for 
the small bottles. The remaining 9 percent of the prescriptions which are 
too large for the large bottles are filled by using multiple bottles. A 
large bottle and a small bottle will contain a volume required for 97.5 
percent of the automatically filled prescriptions. In the unscramblers, 
the bottles are singulated and oriented so that the bottle opening first 
faces downward. The bottles are then righted and directed to stations 
14 on bottle conveyers 41 and 43, one for large bottles and one for small 
bottles. The unscramblers are purchased equipment and are available from 
Palace Packaging Equipment Co. 
In the specific embodiment of the invention, there are four stations 14 
as shown in FIG. 2. At the stations 14, prescription labels are 
printed under control of the corresponding to the prescriptions being 
automatically filled and the printed labels are applied to the bottles. As 
shown in FIG. 3, which illustrates a typical bottle label, the bottle 
label contains the usual prescription information plus a bar code 28 
representing a 14 digit decimal number called the Bottle Identification 
Number (BIN). The first ten digits of the BIN will the same as the order 
number which uniquely identifies a patient order. The other four digits of 
the BIN represent a prescription item number within the patient order. 
This BIN will also be stored by the 10 in the order file. 
As shown in FIGS. 4a and 4b, a bottle carrier has 24 wells 44 to receive 
bottles which are arranged in a 4.times.6 array. The leading row which 
consists of four wells are sized to accommodate the large sized bottles 
and the remaining five rows are sized to receive the small bottles. This 
breakdown is a close approximation to the anticipated requirements for 
large and small bottles. The bottles all have the same diameter, as do the 
wells, but the wells in the first four rows are deeper to accommodate the 
larger bottles which have a greater axial dimension. The well bottoms in 
the carriers are positioned so that the tops of the bottles loaded in the 
carriers are all at the same level. 
The bottle carrier is also provided with an RFID tag 46 which uniquely 
identifies the carrier. The carrier identification can be read out from 
the RFID tag by radio frequency transducers. The RFID tags and transducers 
are available from Data Logic Company. After a carrier is loaded at a 
station, the RFID tag on the carrier is read and stored by 10 in the 
order file associated with the prescription orders of bottles loaded on 
the carrier. 
Each bottle becomes unique when the label is applied to the bottle, and it 
must be placed at a predetermined scheduled position within the bottle 
carrier by a station 14. It is critical that no deviation occur 
between the logical position of the bottle determined by and the 
physical location of the bottle on the carrier. Also a given Auto-Pack 
Production order for more than one prescription may have prescription 
bottles in up to four different carriers, but the carriers will usually 
all be in the same rank in their progression through the system so that 
they will be loaded at approximately the same time by the stations. 
must maintain in the order file the identification of the carrier in 
which the bottle of each prescription is located, and the location in the 
carrier where each bottle is located. will obtain the carrier 
identification after the carrier is loaded by the reading of the carrier 
RFID tag when the carrier is positioned for transfer out of the 
station. 
Station 
As shown in FIG. 5a, the empty bottles are fed to a station on bottle 
stream conveyers 41 and 43. At the station, the bottles are received 
in a star wheel 48 which transports the bottles in sequence to a label 
applying position 49. At the label applying position, a label printed by a 
label printer 42 is applied to the prescription bottle by rotating the 
bottle on its axis at the position 49. After application of the label, the 
bar code on the label is read by bar code reader 35 and is received by the 
station controller to verify the BIN on the label. After verification 
of the bar code, the star wheel advances the labeled bottle to the drop 
position 30. As shown in FIG. 5b, the bottle is dropped through a trap 
door from the drop position into a telescoping guide 32, which guides the 
bottle into a carrier 38 positioned beneath the star wheel 48. Empty 
carriers are delivered to the station by a conveyer, from which they 
are received into a carrier buffer 40, and then are loaded on an XY 
indexing table 57 positioned beneath the star wheel 48. The indexing table 
57 is moved in a serpentine path to move each well in the carrier on the 
table 57 in sequence under the drop position 30 to receive a prescription 
bottle through the guide 32. As each prescription bottle is dropped from 
the drop position 30, the guide 32 telescopes downwardly to guide the 
bottle into the appropriate carrier well positioned directly under the 
drop position. In this manner, the carrier is loaded with labeled 
prescription bottles in scheduled positions in the carrier. 
After the loading cycle, an RFID tag reader will read the unique RFID tag 
identification and communicate it to . The carrier will then be 
released by the station onto a conveyer 45 which carries the carrier 
loaded with the labeled empty prescription bottles to an automatic 
dispensing machine 23, of which there are four, one for each station 
14. 
Automatic Drug Dispensing Machines 
As shown in FIG. 2, the conveyers 45, under control by , carry the 
bottle carriers from the four stations 14 to carrier buffers at the 
entrances of the four automatic drug dispensing machines 23 in which the 
tablets or capsules of the prescriptions are automatically dispensed into 
the prescription bottles under the control of . Because of the 
organization provided by the carriers, the bottles are arranged into four 
columns approaching each automatic dispensing machine 23. Since there are 
four automatic dispensing machines 23, 16 parallel prescription bottle 
columns approach the dispensing machines. In the specific embodiment of 
the invention, the four automatic drug dispensing machines each have 384 
drug dispensers arranged four columns wide and 96 rows deep to provide a 
total of 1,536 pill dispensers. The automatic drug dispensing machines are 
similar to those described in the copending application Ser. No. 
08/455,398 filed May 31, 1995 which is hereby incorporated by reference. 
Each dispensing lane is divided into 32 buffer assemblies each containing 
twelve drug dispensers oriented six on each side of a conveyer within the 
dispensing machine. 
As shown in FIG. 6, which schematically illustrates one of the dispensing 
machines with bottle carriers 38 being indexed there-through, each of the 
32 buffer assemblies of the machine contains three rows of dispensers 50. 
The carrier conveyer in each dispensing machine is an indexing conveyer, 
which moves each carrier in the dispensing machine forward one row at a 
time. The carriers in a dispensing machine are juxtaposed head to toe in a 
continuous line throughout the dispensing machine so that there are no 
gaps between carriers and the indexing conveyer moves all the carriers in 
the continuous line forward simultaneously one row at a time. The carriers 
in the continuous line are spaced from each other a fraction of an inch on 
the indexing conveyer, but the distance between the last row on a 
preceding carrier in the continuous line and the first row on a succeeding 
carrier is equal to the distance between rows on a carrier and to the 
distance between dispenser rows in the automatic dispensing machines 23. 
At each position in which the carriers are stopped in the automatic 
dispensing machine, the prescription bottles in the carriers will be 
aligned under the drug dispensers. Accordingly, each row of bottles is 
successively brought under each of the 96 rows of four dispensers in the 
machine. Each time the bottle carriers containing the prescription bottles 
are stopped in the machine, each of the bottles in the line which is 
underneath a drug dispenser containing tablets or capsules to be dispensed 
in such bottle is filled with the prescribed number of tablets or capsules 
and then the continuous line of carriers is indexed to the next row 
position. When a conveyer 45 transports a carrier newly filled with empty 
prescription bottles to a dispensing machine 23, the carrier will come 
into position adjacent the preceding carrier at the entrance to the 
dispensing machine in a carrier buffer 51. An RFID tag reader 58 verifies 
the presence of the correct new carrier in the buffer 51. The indexing 
conveyer will not index the line of juxtaposed carriers in the dispensing 
machine forward unless a new carrier with empty bottles is within the 
carrier buffer 51 so that no gaps will be formed between the carriers in 
the dispensing machine. When the new carrier reaches the indexing 
conveyer, it will become a part of the line of juxtaposed carriers in the 
dispensing machine being indexed forward one row at a time. Each of the 
automatic drug dispensing machines 23 operates to fill prescriptions in 
the above-described manner as the bottle carriers containing the 
prescription bottles move through the machines. Preferably, the buffer 
assemblies of each dispensing machine 23 are divided into groups of eight 
separated by a selected number of dispensing rows so that the indexing 
conveyer can be accessed and technicians on opposite sides of a dispensing 
machine can more readily communicate. When a carrier moves out of the last 
row position in a dispensing machine, all of the prescription bottles in 
that bottle carrier should be filled and a conveyer 56 transports the 
prescription bottles now filled with the prescriptions to a bottle capper 
25 as shown in FIG. 2. 
The individual drug dispensers and their organization into buffer 
assemblies is similar to that described in the above-mentioned copending 
application. As described in this application, and as shown in 
schematically in FIG. 6a, the tablets or capsules are counted out one at a 
time from a hopper 52 by a counter 53 into an upper buffer 54, then 
released into a lower buffer 55 and then released from the lower buffer 
into a prescription bottle (designated 59 in FIG. 6a) when it comes into 
position under the dispenser. The releasing of the tablets or capsules 
from the upper buffer 54 into the lower buffer 55 is referred to as 
"staging". While the tablets or capsules of a first prescription are held 
in the lower buffer 55 waiting to be released into a prescription bottle, 
the tablets or capsules of the next prescription to be filled from that 
dispenser after the first prescription will be counted into the upper 
buffer 54 as described in the above-mentioned copending application. To 
control the release of tablets or capsules from an individual dispenser 
into the correct prescription bottle, maintains an index count for 
each automatic dispensing machine 23 which is incremented each time the 
automatic drug dispensing machine indexes the carriers one row forward 
within the machine. 10 maintains a prescription work-to list for each 
drug dispenser and this list is loaded with index numbers each 
corresponding to a prescription for the tablets or capsules of the 
dispenser and indicating when the dispensing cell is to dispense the 
tablets or capsules of the prescription. The index number for a 
prescription is loaded into the work-to list at the time the prescription 
bottle for the prescription is loaded into a carrier. The index number is 
determined from the current index count plus the number of carrier rows 
between the dispenser and the carrier row into which the prescription 
bottle is loaded. When the index count for the dispenser reaches the index 
number in the work-to list for a dispenser, the tablets or capsules from 
the lower buffer in the dispenser are released into the prescription 
bottle. 
Because more than one bottle may be approaching a drug dispenser to be 
filled from that dispenser, each work-to list may contain several index 
numbers one for each of the prescription bottles to be filled from the 
dispenser loaded in a carrier approaching the dispenser. The lowest index 
number is processed first in each work-to list so that each successive 
bottle will receive the corresponding counted out prescription by the 
dispenser. If a drug dispenser in the dispensing machine senses that the 
dispenser may have failed to count out the correct number of tablets or 
capsules or fails to operate to release the tablets or capsules into the 
intended prescription bottle, this failure would be reported to the 10 
which will record the failure in the order file. The faulty dispenser is 
taken out of service by the 10, which schedules no new prescriptions 
for that dispenser until it has been serviced and rendered operative. 
Prescription Bottle Cappers 
After the prescription bottles in the carrier have been filled by one of 
the automatic drug dispensing machines 23, a conveyer 56 transports the 
carrier to a bottle capper 25 where the bottles capped while the bottles 
remain in the carrier. At the bottle capper 25, the carrier is loaded on 
an XY indexing table and the carrier is moved on the indexing table to 
position each bottle under the bottle capper where the bottle is capped. 
If the bottle capper detects that a bottle is not properly capped, this 
information is communicated to and entered in the order file. 
OCP Stations 
As explained above, the carriers are organized into ranks with a rank of 
four carriers progressing through the automatic drug dispensing machines 
23 and the bottle cappers 25 synchronously so that the four carriers of a 
rank exit from the cappers 25 at the same time. From the bottle cappers 
25, the conveyers 56 feed the carriers onto an endless conveyer loop 71 
which will transport the four carriers of a rank to one of six OCP 
stations 29. 
As shown in the OCP station of FIG. 7, the four carriers of a rank are 
first received in a carrier buffer 75 from which they are loaded onto a 
turntable 77. An RFID tag reader verifies that the correct carriers are in 
place on the turntable. The turntable 77 selectively rotates the carriers 
into a position to have the bottles removed by a robotic arm 79. The OCP 
station also contains equipment 91 for packing literature into shipping 
containers, which take the form of bags, along with the prescription 
bottles of a given order. The OCP station also includes a bagging machine 
81 which presents the bags for successive orders to be loaded in sequence 
at a loading position. The bagging machines are purchased equipment 
manufactured by Concept Packaging Company of Carson City, Nev. The bagging 
machine also prints a bar code identifying the order directly on each bag. 
The printed data may include the mailing address to which the shipping 
container is to be sent. In FIG. 7, a bag 83 is shown at the loading 
position with its mouth open. The opening of the mouth of bag 83 is 
accomplished by a blower provided as part of the bagging machine. The 
conveyer 34 brings envelopes 85 containing literature to be packed in 
shipping containers to the OCP station in the reverse sequence that the 
patient orders are to be packed at that OCP station for a given rank of 
carriers. At the OCP stations the literature conveyor 34 is in the form of 
a literature sortation system of the type used in mail sortation by the 
U.S. Post Office. The literature sortation system comprises a pair of 
belts 88 at each OCP station and the pairs of belts pass the envelopes 
along from station to station. Between each pair of belts is a gap in 
which a deflector 89 is located. The deflector 89 under control of the OCP 
station controller can deflect selected literature envelopes into a 
literature dispensing mechanism 91 at the OCP station. When a rank of 
carriers is directed to a given OCP station by 10 from bottle cappers 
25, 10 will send an unload message to the controller for the OCP 
station. The unload message will contain an indication of the sequence 
that the orders are to be unloaded from the rank of carriers at the 
station as well as containing the information as to the scheduled position 
of the bottles of each order in the four carriers of the rank of carriers 
to be unloaded. At the same time that sends an unload message to the 
controller of the OCP station, it sends a corresponding autopublish 
message to the printers 31. This message will contain the information to 
be printed for the complete orders contained in the rank of carriers being 
sent to an OCP station. The autopublish message will also contain the 
sequence in which the corresponding orders are to be unloaded at the OCP 
station. In response to the autopublish message, one of the printers 31 
will print literature for the orders and deposit the literature packs for 
the orders on literature conveyer 34 in reverse order from that in which 
the orders are to be unloaded at the OCP station. Each literature pack is 
enclosed in an envelope having a die cut window through which a bar code 
is readable by a bar code reader. This bar code which will be printed by 
the appropriate printer 31 will identify the order for which the 
literature pack is printed. As the envelopes containing literature packs 
are carried past the OCP station in the literature sortation system, the 
bar code readable through the window in each envelope will be read by a 
bar code reader 87. When the bar code read by the bar code reader verifies 
that the bar code coincides with an order in the unload message received 
by the controller for the OCP station, the controller for the OCP station 
will cause the deflector 89 to deflect the envelope into the literature 
dispensing mechanism 91 at the OCP station. Since the conveyor brings the 
literature envelopes to the station in the reverse sequence that the 
corresponding patient order is to be packed at the packing station, the 
envelopes will be packed into the dispensing mechanism in that sequence. 
When a bag 83 is ready to be packed at the OCP station, the literature 
dispensing mechanism 91 first inserts a literature envelope into the bag 
83 where it will be positioned at one side of the bag by gravity. This 
effect is achieved by orienting the bag at a slight tilted position at the 
bagging machine. After the literature has been inserted, the robotic arm 
79 unloads the bottles of the order from the scheduled positions in the 
four carriers on the turntable in accordance with the unload message. The 
robotic arm includes a bar code reader and each time a bottle is lifted 
out of a carrier by the robotic arm, the label on the bottle is read and 
verified. The prescription bottles are then loaded into the bag 83 by a 
bottle loading mechanism 93. 
If, because of a malfunction, a literature envelope is not deflected by the 
deflector 89, because of, for example, an improper bar code on the 
envelope, the envelope will continue on the conveyer 34 to the end of the 
conveyer and be dumped into a receptacle at the package quality assurance 
station 96 as will be described in more detail below. In this 
circumstance, the bottles of this order will not be packed with a 
literature pack. When the shipping containers 83 have been verified and 
filled with a literature pack and with a patient's order, the bag is 
sealed and dropped onto a conveyer 95 which carries the sealed shipping 
container to a mailing area where the bag is read and logged and then 
mailed to the customer. If the bag does not contain a literature pack, 
then the bag is diverted into a tote 99 which will then be transported by 
a conveyer 101 to the package quality assurance station 96 where the 
shipping container will be assembled with the literature pack manually. As 
shown in FIG. 7a, the bag is dropped from the loading position onto an 
inclined table 102 and normally slides under a gate 103 onto conveyer 95. 
If the bag is to be sent to the package quality assurance station 96, the 
gate 103 will be down to prevent the bag from sliding onto conveyer 95 and 
the table 102 is pivoted to dump the bag into a waiting tote on conveyer 
101. 
As shown in FIG. 7b, the bag loading mechanism comprises a horizontal star 
wheel 120 which receives the bottles from a bottle stream conveyer. 
Bottles are placed on the bottle stream conveyer by the robotic arm 79. 
The horizontal star wheel feeds the bottles into a vertical star wheel 122 
which rotates the bottles from a vertical axis orientation to a horizontal 
axis orientation and drops the bottles into a bottle nozzle device 124, as 
shown in FIG. 7c. A bar code reader 106 reads the bar code on each bottle 
as it is carried by the star wheel 120. The bottle nozzle device 124 
receives all the bottles of the order and then deposits the bottles in the 
waiting open bag. 
As shown in FIG. 7c, the bottle drops from the vertical star wheel 122 into 
the open top of the box shaped nozzle device 124. One vertical side of the 
nozzle device 124 has a slot 126 into which a movable arm 128 extends. 
When the first bottle of an order is received into the nozzle device 124, 
the arm 128 will be relatively close to the open top of the nozzle device 
124. The arm 128 is movable upwardly and downwardly by means of the 
actuator 130 and as each successive bottle is received in the nozzle 
device, the arm 128 indexes downwardly. When all of the bottles of an 
order have been received in the nozzle device 124, the actuator 130 lowers 
the arm 128 to the bottom of the slot 126 and then withdraws the arm 128 
from the nozzle device 124 so that the bottles drop to the bottom of the 
nozzle device. The nozzle device then moves downwardly into the open bag. 
The bottom of the nozzle device 124 is provided with a normally closed 
flap 132 and the flap 132 is opened after the nozzle device lowers into 
the bag to allow the bottles to drop to the bottom of the bag. 
The operation of the literature dispensing mechanism 91 is schematically 
illustrated in FIG. 7d. As shown in FIG. 7d, envelopes deflected from the 
conveyor 34 travel through a chute 136 to one side of a magazine 137 and a 
pusher mechanism 138 pushes the envelope sideways into the magazine. The 
magazine 137 is one of a pair of magazines 137 and 139 positioned one 
above the other. When all of the envelopes for a rank of carriers on the 
turntable have been received in the upper magazine 137, the assembly of 
the two magazines is rotated to 180 degrees so that upper magazine becomes 
the lower magazine and vice versa. A vacuum pick-up 142 removes the 
envelopes from the lower magazine and carries the envelopes to a guide 
143, which directs each envelope to a bar code read position. After a bar 
code reader 144 reads the bar code on the envelopes, an actuator 145 moves 
the envelope into position over a waiting open bag, where the envelope is 
dropped into the bag. 
While the lower magazine of the pair of magazines 137 and 139 is being 
unloaded and packed in a bag from the lower position as shown in FIG. 7c, 
the magazine in the upper position will be packed with literature 
envelopes for the next rank of carriers to be received by the OCP station. 
As described above, the bar code on the bottles transported by the 
horizonal star wheel 120 are read by a bar code reader 106. The patient 
order represented by the bar code read by the bar code reader 106 must 
agree with the bar code read from the literature pack by bar code reader 
144 and with the bar code printed on the shipping container by the bagging 
machine 81. If there is any discrepancy, the package will be directed into 
the waiting tote 99 and sent on conveyer 101 to the package quality 
assurance area 96 where the shipping container and its contents will be 
manually inspected for resolution of any problem identified. 
The above-described operation of the packing of the shipping containers 
with a literature pack and the bottles of the patient order is carried out 
for an order comprising a single bottle or containing multiple bottles up 
to four bottles of an order if the bottles of the patient order are all in 
the same rank of carriers which will be positioned on the turntable 77. In 
some instances a patient order will have one or more bottles in two 
different ranks of carriers. In that instance, this fact will be recorded 
in the order file by 10 and 10 will direct the robotic arm to 
place the bottles of the split order on a bottle stream conveyer 108 from 
which they are sent to bottle sortation and packing station 112 (BSP 
station) to be described below. 
As described above, each bottle unloaded from a carrier at one of the OCP 
stations has its bar code read and verified by a bar code reader in the 
robotic arm 79. A discrepancy in this verification will cause OCP station 
to place the bottle in a bottle stream conveyer 108 to be sent to the 
bottle quality assurance area 109 where the bottle is manually and 
electronically inspected. Any bottle which has been identified by as 
one which may have not been filled with the correct number of tablets or 
capsules by the automatic dispensing machine is also sent via conveyer 108 
to the bottle quality assurance area 109. Also when a bottle capper 25 
detects that it failed to properly cap the bottle, this failure will be 
recorded in the order file and 10 will direct the OCP station to place 
the corresponding prescription bottle in the bottle stream conveyer 108, 
which transports the bottle to the bottle quality assurance area 109. 
In addition, bottles which require verification that the replenishment of 
the automated dispensers in the automatic dispensing machines 23 has been 
accomplished with the correct drug are also sent to the bottle quality 
assurance area. This latter function is accomplished as follows: 10 
maintains a count of the number of tablets or capsules to be dispensed 
from each drug dispenser in the automatic drug dispensing machines 23. 
When the number of tablets or capsules in the hopper of a dispenser 
reaches a predetermined low level, a prescription for the tablets or 
capsules of that dispenser is selected from the que of prescriptions 
awaiting filling stored in 10. The prescription is selected to call 
for a sufficient quantity of tablets or capsules to exhaust the remaining 
tablets or capsules in that dispenser. The corresponding dispenser is then 
caused to dispense tablets or capsules in accordance with the 
predetermined prescription so that the hopper at the dispenser is 
exhausted of tablets or capsules. This operation is carried out before the 
station 14 labels a bottle for this corresponding prescription. The 
tablets or capsules for the prescription will be counted out into the 
upper buffer of the corresponding dispenser but will not be released from 
the upper buffer to the lower buffer because the number of tablets or 
capsules counted out is incomplete. Then when that drug dispenser has been 
refilled with tablets or capsules, the dispenser will then complete its 
counting out of the number of tablets or capsules required for the 
prescription into the upper buffer. When the count is successfully 
completed, the prescription bottle for this prescription will be labeled 
and loaded in a carrier by the appropriate station in the appropriate 
column of the carrier. When this bottle reaches the dispenser, the tablets 
or capsules will be released into the bottle. Such a bottle which is 
filled in this manner with part of the tablets or capsules before the 
dispenser is exhausted and part of the tablets or capsules coming from the 
next refill of the dispenser is called a crossover bottle. All crossover 
bottles upon being unloaded at an OCP station 29 are placed in the bottle 
stream conveyer 108 by the robotic arm 79 to send the crossover bottles to 
the bottle quality assurance area 109. 
In addition to the crossover bottles, the first bottle after the crossover 
bottle to be filled by any dispenser is also sent to the bottle quality 
assurance area 109 by being placed in the bottle stream conveyer 108 by 
the OCP station. When a bottle requiring inspection at the bottle quality 
assurance area is part of a multiple bottle order, all of the remaining 
bottles of that order are sent via the conveyer 119 to BSP station 112. 
Bottle Quality Assurance Area 
The bottle quality assurance area 109 has several stations at which 
pharmacists will scan the bar code on the bottles and visually inspect the 
contents of the bottles. The scan of the bottle bar code will bring up a 
display on the pharmacist's terminal which includes all the information 
regarding the particular prescription and order including the drug name, 
and instructions which identify the reason for the verification. All of 
the bottles that pass this inspection are inserted by the pharmacist on a 
bottle stream conveyer 111 to send the inspected bottles to the BSP 
station 112. 
As described above, the robotic arms at the order consolidation and packing 
stations place individual bottles in the bottle stream conveyer 108 to be 
sent to BSP station 112 or to the bottle quality assurance area 109. The 
conveyer 108 leads to a star wheel diverter mechanism 114 which under the 
control of a controller for the BSP station deposits the bottle in a 
bottle stream conveyer 116 leading to the bottle quality assurance area 
109 or into a bottle stream conveyer 118 leading to BSP station 112. 
BSP Station 
As shown in FIG. 8, the BSP station comprises a rotary buffer 113 in which 
slots 115 are defined by carriers sliding on an oval table top and rotate 
around a central hub on the table top. The bottle stream conveyer 118 
leads to the table top of the rotary buffer 113 and each of the slots 115 
rotates in succession past the exit end of the bottle stream conveyer 118. 
As the bottles approach the buffer 113, the bar codes on the labels are 
read by a bar code reader 117,. The controller for the BSP station 
controls the buffer 113 to receive the bottles presented on conveyer 118 
in slots corresponding to patient orders as determined from the BIN 
numbers read on the prescription bottles. The prescription bottles of a 
given order are all accumulated in the same slot 115 in the rotary buffer 
113. When a complete order has been accumulated in the rotary buffer 113, 
will direct the printers 31 to print a literature pack for the order. 
Literature on the conveyer 34 passes the BSP station 112 before the OCP 
stations and the bar codes on the literature packs on the conveyer 34 are 
read by a bar code reader 125 at the BSP station. The conveyor 34 at the 
BSP station 112 comprises a literature sorting conveyor like those at the 
OCP stations. When a literature envelope containing literature for a 
patient order which is scheduled to be packaged at the BSP station passes 
by this station, this fact will be detected by the bar code reader 125. In 
response to this detection, a deflector 127 will deflect the literature 
from the conveyer 34 and direct it into literature dispensing mechanism 
129. The literature dispensing 129 is the same as the dispensing 
mechanisms 91 at the OCP stations 29. The BSP station 112 also has a 
bagging machine 123 like the bagging machines 81 at the OCP stations 27 
and the literature will be dispensed and packed in a bag 121 in the same 
manner as described in connection with the OCP stations. When the 
literature dispensing mechanism 129 feeds a literature pack to the 
shipping container, the bar code of the literature pack will be read by a 
bar code reader. This bar code should identify an order in a slot in the 
rotary buffer 113. In response to the bar code read by the bar code 
reader, the controller for the BSP station will operate the rotary buffer 
113 to move the corresponding buffer slot 115 into position to be unloaded 
into bottle loading mechanism 119, which is of the same construction as 
the bottle loading mechanisms 93 at the OCP stations. Then after the 
literature pack has been inserted into the waiting bag 121, the bottles of 
the order will be loaded into the bag 121 by the mechanism 119. The BSP 
station, like the OCP stations, drops the completed and sealed bags on the 
conveyer 95 for carrying the completed package to the mailing area. When 
the bar code reader 131 detects that the envelope does not correspond to 
an order in the buffer 113, then this envelope will be packed without 
bottles and the bag will be diverted into a tote 135 which will be carried 
by the conveyer 101 to the package quality assurance area 96 where the 
package will be manually assembled with the correct prescription bottles. 
If the literature pack is on the conveyer 34, but because of failure of the 
bar code reader 125 or the literature sorting mechanism, does not get 
diverted at station 112, the conveyer 34 will carry the literature package 
to the package quality assurance area where it can be manually added to 
the package. 
Manual Packing Area 
When the order is a marriage order requiring some of the order to be 
manually filled and some of the order to be automatically filled, a 
portion of the order to be automatically filled will be filled by the 
automatic dispensing machines 23 capped by the bottle cappers 25 and 
inserted into a bag or shipping container at an OCP station 29 along with 
the literature of this order. This bag will then be diverted into a 
waiting tote 99 and sent on the conveyer 101 to manual packing area 149 
where the rest of the marriage order requiring manual dispensing and 
packing will be packed with the automatically dispensed portion of the 
order. 
When the order is a large production order requiring more than four bottles 
for the order, all items of the large production order should be found in 
the same rank of carriers and loaded onto a turntable at an OCP station. 
Four bottles of the order will automatically be inserted into a shipping 
container as described above along with the literature for the order and 
then this order upon being bagged will be diverted into a waiting tote 99 
which will remain at the OCP station to receive the rest of the order. The 
remaining bottles of the order will then be packed in an additional bag or 
bags and also diverted into the tote 99 so that all the bags corresponding 
to a single large order will be assembled in a tote 99. When the order is 
complete in the waiting tote 99, the tote is sent on the conveyer 101 to 
the manual packaging area 149 where the order will receive any manually 
dispensed prescriptions and be packed manually into a mailing package for 
sending to the patient. 
Control System Architecture 
As shown in FIG. 9, 10 controls the components of the system through a 
distributed logic system. 10 receives the prescriptions from the host 
computer and stores the prescriptions in the order file. 10 controls 
the stations 14 via controllers 153. 10 makes a batch file for 
each carrier containing the prescription information for each prescription 
to be loaded into the corresponding carrier and the exact locations in the 
carrier where the prescription bottles of the prescriptions are to be 
placed. These batch files are transmitted to the controller 153 which 
controls label printers of the stations 14 to print the bottle 
prescription labels, label the bottles, and control the stations to 
load the labeled bottles in the scheduled locations in a carrier. 
Transducers 155 read the carrier identification from the RFID tag when a 
carrier has been loaded at a station and the loaded carrier is 
dispatched to an automatic drug dispensing machine and controllers 153 
transmit the carrier identification to 10. 10 stores the carrier 
identifications of the carriers in association with the scheduled 
locations for the prescription bottles loaded in these carriers and with 
the corresponding orders so that for each order, can retrieve the 
carrier identifications and the scheduled locations in the carriers of the 
prescription bottles for the order. 
The conveyer system is controlled by 10 via carrier conveyer controller 
159. When the stations have completed loading of the orders in the 
batch file into a rank of carriers, 10 issues a move instruction to 
the conveyer controller 159 to cause the conveyers 45 to transport the 
rank of carriers now filled with labeled empty prescription bottles to the 
automatic drug dispensing machines 23. The controller 159 also controls 
the cappers 25. 
The automatic drug dispensing machines are controlled by 10 via 
automatic dispensing machine controllers 165. Each time a dispensing 
machine 23 indexes a line of carriers in the machine forward one row, the 
controller 165 for that dispensing machine will report the indexing to 
10 which increments the index count for the dispensing machine 23. In the 
preferred embodiment of the invention, the dispensing machines 23 are 
indexed synchronously so that only one index count is required to be kept 
for all four machines. After each indexing of the carrier trains by one 
row, 10 instructs the controllers 165 to dispense the tablets or 
capsules from the lower buffers of those dispensers for which the work-to 
list contain an index number equal to the index count. 10 also 
instructs the controller 165 to count tablets or capsules into the upper 
buffers and stage the tablets or capsules in the lower buffers at the 
appropriate times as described in the abovementioned copending 
application. When a dispenser exhausts the tablets or capsules from its 
storage hopper in counting out tablets or capsules into the upper buffer, 
10 will wait until the hopper has been replenished and then will 
instruct the controller 165 to complete the count from that dispenser. If 
an automatic drug dispensing machine 23 detects an error in counting out 
tablets or capsules or in the staging of the tablets or capsules in the 
lower buffer or in releasing the tablets or capsules from the lower buffer 
into a prescription bottle, the existence of this error will be signaled 
to the controller 165 which will report the error to 10 which will 
store the information indicating a potential error in the filling of the 
bottle in the order file. 
The OCP stations 29 are controlled by the 10 via controllers 169. When 
a rank of four carriers leave automatic drug dispensing machines 23, 
10 determines an OCP station 29 to receive the rank of carriers and 
directs the carrier conveyer controller 159 to control the carrier loop 71 
to move the rank of four carriers to the selected OCP station 29 after the 
bottles in the carriers have been capped. As the carriers travel to the 
assigned OCP station 29 from the cappers 25, 10 will send autopublish 
messages to printers 31 to print documents for each order which has been 
loaded in the rank of carriers and which is to be packed in OCP station. 
Each of the stations 29 will be assigned one of the printers 31 and the 
assigned printer will print literature packs for the orders in a rank of 
carriers in the reverse sequence that the orders are to be unloaded from 
the corresponding rank of carriers. When a rank of carriers is sent to an 
OCP station, 10 will send an unload message to the OCP station 
controller 169 for that station. This unload message will include the 
information necessary to unload the bottles, and print the patient order 
ID on a bag to be presented by the bagging machine at the OCP station. The 
unload message identifies which carriers contain the bottles of each 
order, the locations of the bottles of each order in each of the carriers 
and the sequence in which the orders are to be unloaded. Also, bottles of 
split orders, bottles to be sent to the BSP station 112 and bottles to be 
sent to the bottle quality assurance station will be identified in the 
unload message. From this information, the controller 169 controls the OCP 
station to unload the bottles from the locations in the four carriers on 
the turntable as specified in the unload message. The OCP station 
controllers 169 receive the carrier ID information from RFID tag readers 
and the BIN numbers read by bar code readers from both the bottles 
unloaded at the station and the information packets at the station. The 
controllers 169 also operate the tables 102 and gates 103 at the stations 
29 to divert into totes those shipping containers which are to be sent to 
the package quality assurance area 96 or to manual packing 137. 
10 also instructs a BSP controller 187 which controls the BSP station 
112. The controller 187 controls the rotatory buffer 113 and controls the 
printer of the bagging machine 123 to print labels on the bags presented 
by the bagging machine 123. The controller 187 also receives prescription 
BIN numbers read from the bottles and the order numbers read from the 
information packets at the station 112 and controls the diverting 
mechanism comprising an inclined table and gate at the BSP station 112 to 
divert selected bags into totes at the BSP station 112. The controller 187 
also controls the star wheel 114 to direct bottles received on bottle 
stream conveyer 108 to the BSP station 112 or to the quality assurance 
station 109. 
The deflectors 89 at the stations 29 and the deflector 127 at the station 
112 are controlled by means of controller 194 which receives the patient 
order ID bar coded on the literature packets read by the bar code readers 
87 and 125. The controller 194 verifies that the bar codes read from the 
literature packs by the bar code reader 87 at an OCP station corresponds 
with the orders in the unload message received from the 10. The 
controller 194 operates the deflectors 89 to direct the literature packs 
into the literature dispensing mechanisms at the OCP station. The 
controller 194 compares the order identification received from with 
order numbers read from the literature pack by bar code reader 125 at the 
BSP station and when a match is detected, controller 194 actuates 
deflector 127 to direct the literature pack into the literature dispensing 
mechanism at the BSP station. 
10 controls the tote conveyer 101 by means of a tote conveyer 
controller 197. The totes on the tote conveyer 101 are identified by RFID 
tags and these RFID tags are read by an RFID tag reader 199. These tote 
IDs are transmitted to 10 by the controller 197 so that 10 can 
match the orders in the totes on the tote conveyer 101 with the tote ID. 
10 also interfaces with computers 201 at the quality assurance area 109 
and with computers 203 at the package quality assurance area 96. The 
computers 201 and 203 provide information to pharmacists or technicians 
about the orders and prescriptions in the packages and prescription 
bottles received at these quality assurance areas. 
The above-described system automatically dispenses tablets and capsules 
into prescription bottles, assembles the prescription bottles for a common 
order into shipping containers, prints literature packs for each order and 
automatically inserts the literature packs into the shipping containers 
and prints the mailing labels on the shipping containers so that upon 
completion of the automatically operated system the order is ready to be 
mailed. 
The above automatic system is accomplished with a very high throughput of 
orders and, at the same time, provides for checks and balances to make 
sure that the system is operating properly and provides for automatically 
diverting orders and bottles for manual inspection for problems in the 
automatic system that have been detected. 
The above description is of a preferred embodiment of the invention and 
modification may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and 
scope of the invention which is defined in the appended claims.