Abstract:
The medical safety box is a system using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to ensure that correct delivery of the correct treatment in the form of medication or injection to in-hospital patients is consistently carried out. The system includes a medical box containing whatever medication or injection that needs to be administered to a specific patient. The box has a locking mechanism that can only be opened by an RFID wristband, which is worn by that same specific patient, thus assuring that the medicine in the box is administered to the correct patient.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to medicine dispensing systems, and particularly to a medical safety box. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0004]    An important healthcare issue is clinical errors in medication administration that sometimes occur in hospitals and clinics. Nurses, who are often in charge of supplying the inpatients with their prescribed medications, injections, or simple operations, are often subject to mistakes, confusing one patient with another. Many errors and mistakes can occur, and wrongful administration could cause disastrous consequences to those patients, leading to worsening of illness and, in the worst case scenario, death. These mistakes can occur due to the fact that nurses that administer these drugs might be too relaxed and take their duty too easily, which can cause mix-ups of drugs. A solution to deal with this problem is to limit access to these drugs in such a way that specific drugs are given to the respective patient. 
         [0005]    Thus, a medical safety box solving the aforementioned problems is desired. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The medical safety box is a system using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to ensure that correct delivery of the correct treatment in the form of medication or injection to in-hospital patients is consistently carried out. The system includes a medical box containing whatever medication or injection that needs to be administered to a specific patient. The box has a locking mechanism that can only be opened by an RFID wristband, which is worn by that same specific patient, thus assuring that the medicine in the box is administered to the correct patient. 
         [0007]    These and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0008]      FIG. 1A  is a perspective view of a medical safety box according to the present invention. 
           [0009]      FIG. 1B  is a front view of the medical safety box of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a side view of a plurality of medical safety boxes according to the present invention, showing how multiple medical safety boxes can be stacked for storage until needed. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a bottom view of the medical safety box of  FIG. 1 . 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a side view of a plurality of medical safety boxes according to the present invention stacked on a power-charging tray. 
       
    
    
       [0013]    Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0014]    As shown in  FIGS. 1A through 4 , the medical safety box  10  is included in a system using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology to ensure that correct delivery of the correct treatment in the form of medication or injection to hospital in-patients is consistently carried out. The medical box  10  can contain whatever medication or injection is needed to be administered to a specific patient. As most clearly shown in  FIG. 1A , the medical box  10  has a lid  14  and hinges  12  that pivotally attach the lid  14  to the open-top container portion  16  of the box, allowing the lid  14  to be pivoted, thereby opening or shutting the container portion  16 . In the open configuration, the container portion  16  of the box  10  can be filled with vials, syringes, pillboxes, and the like, which should be delivered to a specific patient. An electronically controlled opening/closing system is comprised of an RFID-controlled lock  36  (shown in  FIG. 1B ), which secures the lid  14  in the shut configuration once the box  10  has been loaded with medicine for the patient. 
         [0015]    The bottom face  37  of the medical box  10  has an RFID reader  28  that is pre-programmed to scan for a specific, unique RFID code. The subject patient wears a tag that has the specific, unique RFID code. When the box  10  is brought in proximity of the patient having the correct RFID tag, the RFID reader  28  responds by sending a signal to the lock  36 , which allows the lid  14  to be opened. The caregiver can then retrieve the contents of the box  10  to administer patient-specific medicine to the patient having the proper RFID code. The box  10  is configured automatically by its computer system and the hospital ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. The hospital&#39;s ERP computer system can program and track multiple devices  10 . Information, such as patient name and identification, prescribing practitioner, department or hospital section, prescription information, time of issue, and any supplemental information that might be of use, is entered into the system. The details of an exemplary computer system of the type used in connection with the present invention are described and disclosed within U.S. patent application No. 2009/0043253, published on Feb. 12, 2009, entitled “Smart Medical Compliance Method and System,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
         [0016]    The structure of the medical box  10  includes a computer interface connector  22  on its side, and combined power and signal metal strip connectors  20   a  on the top of lid  14 . The lid also includes an LCD display  18 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , a plurality of medical safety boxes  10  can be stacked on top of each other. The combined power and signal ball bearing connectors  26  (shown in  FIG. 3 ) are connected to the combined power and signal metal connectors  20   a , allowing the medical boxes  10  to be electrically interconnected for charging and programming purposes when they are stacked on top of a smart cart  40 , as shown in  FIG. 4 . The control of the boxes  10  occurs through the power/signal terminals using one of the boxes at the top of the stack. One mode of operation will allow operators to display information related to a box  10  that is stacked under several layers of boxes  10 . The box  10  is selected through an intuitive user interface that is displayed in a hierarchical tree, where the root of the tree is the top box and the different nodes are the layers. A simple discovery protocol can be implemented to build the tree every time access is needed. On the bottom side  37 , the decision to make the connectors in the form of balls  26  has been specifically selected because of possible stacking over multiple boxes simultaneously. This makes the identification of the number and type of the boxes in the bottom much easier than if strips are used. The box  10  is configured by the hospital pharmacy at the time the prescription is processed. Medications destined for the same patient are put in the same box  10 . 
         [0017]    The medical box  10  has computer memory to save relevant information regarding medication contained in the medical box  10  and regarding the patient to whom the medication should be administered. The display screen  18  allows hospital staff to inquire about the contents of medical box  10 , and to be able to perform other processing duties related to the patient and the medication to be administered from the medical box  10 . Via the computer interface  22 , the medical box  10  can optionally be attached to an external RFID reader. Built-in battery/batteries are accessible via a battery compartment  24 . Preferably the box  10  has a recharging circuit, and a built-in calendar clock accessible via the display  18 . 
         [0018]    In hospital operations, multiple medical boxes  10  are filled and closed by the pharmacist, who then sends the medical boxes  10  to the concerned section of the hospital. Nurses receive the several boxes  10 , which are destined to the many patients they have in their section of the hospital. When it is time to administer the prescribed medication to its target patient, the nurse takes the medical box  10  to the patient&#39;s bed. The nurse then takes the RFID tag attached to the patient&#39;s wrist band and slides the tag onto the RFID tag reader  28  after sliding his or her own RFID tag for identification. Responsive to correct reading and verification of the nurse&#39;s ID RFID tag and the patient&#39;s RFID tag, the electronic lock  36  unlocks box  10 , allowing the lid  14  to pivot open. If the patient is not the right one, the electronic lock  36  keeps the box  10  locked and an error notification is displayed on the screen  18 . 
         [0019]    As shown in  FIGS. 2 and 4 , medical boxes  10  can be of different sizes, depending on the size of the items that need to be placed in them. Preferably, the box sizes are specified to enable stacking of the boxes  10  above one another, even if the sizes are different. A suggested method is to select a minimum dimension for the smallest box of H×W×D where H, W and D represent the minimum Height, Width and Depth respectively. Larger size boxes will have dimensions of kH×mW×nD, where k, m and n are positive integer values.  FIG. 2  shows a typical stacking configuration of boxes  10 . 
         [0020]    A set of boxes  10  organized in a stack, as depicted in  FIG. 2 , should be rechargeable and should be easily movable from one location to another. To do so, transportation and power tray/cart  40  is provided. The tray or cart  40  incorporates a power converter. The tray/cart  40  can be used to transport the boxes  10  as well. The tray/cart  40  includes a power cord and a power connector that can be plugged in to a standard wall power outlet. Preferably, the tray/cart  40  also has a power supply to convert the AC power into the required DC voltage necessary to charge the batteries. Tray/cart  40  includes an information panel that is used to display the patient information and box status of the different boxes being carried. 
         [0021]    It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.