Abstract:
A medication container includes a labeled separator disc segmenting medications in a prescription into an upper volume and a lower volume. The lower volume contains sufficient medication to enable reordering of the prescription without interruption. After the upper volume is depleted the disc is removed and the label information may be used for reordering via mail, telephone or personal purchase.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to containers for medications, and, in particular, to a medication container for improving compliance in prescription regimens through prompting for timely refilling. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Non-compliance with medication regimens represents a significant health care problem to patients who, for proper treatment and health maintenance, require prescriptive medications. It is estimated that 25-49% of all people taking prescribed medications are non-compliant for varying reasons including missed dosages oftentimes for failure to reorder a prescription. The elderly are at greatest risk where it is estimated that 50 to 75% are considered non-compliant. In 1995 medication related incidences wherein non-compliance was an important factor, resulted in $76.6 billion in direct medical costs. Furthermore, an estimated one-third of hospitalizations and one-half of nursing home admission for the elderly were linked to non-compliance or medication errors. 
     In seeking to address the foregoing, various medication aids have been proposed including pill boxes, containers, calendars, identification cards, and electronic devices. While helpful to a degree, they do not provide a complete and flexible response to the numerous factors influencing non-compliance. While facilitating timely medication, these approaches do not address a common form of non-compliance, namely lack of medicine due to lack of reorder of the prescription on a timely basis. 
     For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,850,919 to Freed a compliance closure includes a plurality of removable dividers for segmenting a medication regimen. The closure is intended only to separate into periodic intervals dosages that have been prearranged. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,017 to Bayliss discloses a safety prescription container having a separate compartment for housing a specimen medication for viewing through a magnifying lens to verify compliance in the filling of the prescription. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,789 to Lancesseur et al. discloses a packaging for pills and tablets having a removable pill compartment for the temporary storage of a patient&#39;s secondary medication when distant from the normal residence. The packaging is not intended for allocation of a single medicine. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,654 to Frutcher discloses a supplemental storage cap for a limited quantity of medicine that is carried by a main container that houses the remainder of the prescription. The purpose of the storage cap is to facilitate dispensing of the medicine. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,636 to Meadows et al. discloses a medicine container having a disc dividing the medicine container into separate compartments. The lower compartment contains a mechanical indicator for visibly denoting unauthorized prior opening of the container. The lower compartment is not intended for medications. The disc is not removable. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,420,083 to Baustin discloses a pill container having a central partition defining separated pill compartments. One compartment holds the daily dosage. The other compartment holds the remaining prescription. The partition is deflectable to allow selective dispensing of the daily dosage. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 3,162,301 to Cage discloses a pill dispenser having a telescopic member having a plurality of compartments for selectively dispensing medication dosages at discrete times. The dispenser handle the medication regiment for a single day. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,561 to Espinal discloses a pill dispenser wherein a shiftable disc is cam operated to raise and lower within a pill compartment for periodic dispensing of medications and to denote the time period of the last dosage. The disc is not removable and does not separate the medication into separate compartments. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 3,367,484 to Nelson discloses a medication container having an internal disc that establishes a lower compartment in which a specimen medication is permanently housed to enable visual verification of the filled prescription against the prescribed medication. 
     From the foregoing, it will be apparent that many approaches have been advanced for increasing compliance through the use of specially designed pill containers. Most however have focused on interval dosing, compliant filling, and ease of dispensing, rather than the equally important compliance issue of timely reordering for maintaining, without interruption, the prescribed medication regimen. While packaging of medications into dosing subpackages have been proposed wherein completing a primary volume is intended to provide notification for reordering, such approaches have required specialized and costly packaging incompatible with existing containers. Such plural compartments also do not provide tangible evidence of a reordering event, or the patient and the prescription for which reordering is intended. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention provides an affirmative reordering system for prescription medication containers that is fully compatible with standard pill and tablet containers. The system is supplementally integrated with the standards containers and does not require costly redesign, provides tangible evidence of the need to reorder in sufficient time for non-interrupted dosing compliance, uniquely identifies the patient and prescription, and creates a communication vehicle for remote or personal refilling of the prescription. The foregoing is accomplished by a removable separator that is slidably disposed in the medicine container and selectively positioned and removed by an attached stem. The separator carries indicia indicating the prescription designation and the patient. Upon filling the prescription, the pharmacy fills the container with a first volume of the medication in an amount determined to be an adequate amount to provide sufficient time for processing refilling. The separator is inserted over the initial supply with the stem projecting upwardly therefrom. Thereafter, the remaining amount of the medication is disposed over the separator, the stem placed below the container rim, and the closure applied. The patient or caregiver dispenses the medication preferentially from the upper volume until depleted. To gain access to the lower compartment, the separator must be removed by the stem, and subsequent dispensing proceeds from the remaining lower volume. The removed separator provides a tangible information and communication vehicle for reorder. Accordingly, the separator may be used as information and documentation for telephone reordering or personal delivery and pickup. Preferably, the container may be accompanied by a pre-stamped envelope addressed to the dispensing pharmacy and the separator mailed for refill and delivery, a particular benefit for patients without convenient access to the alternative communication modes, or for health care facilities aggregating reorders. 
     Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a medication container providing tangible indication enabling timely reordering of a prescription. 
     Another object of the invention is to provide a reordering system for prescription medication that may be incorporated into existing medication containers. 
     A further object of the invention is to provide a method for filling prescription medication containers that provides timely notification of the need and written information required for reordering. 
     A still further object of the invention is to provide a reordering medication container providing removable documentation when a medication is partially utilized that may be used for the convenient reordering of the prescription. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The above and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a side cross sectional view of a reorder medication container according to the invention illustrating the filled condition; 
     FIG.  2 . is a fragmentary side cross sectional view of the reorder medication container in the recorder condition; 
     FIG. 3 is plan view of the reorder separator for the reorder medication container; 
     FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of the reorder medication container; and 
     FIG. 5 is a plan view of a return envelope for submitting the reorder separator for refilling of a prescription. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring to the drawings for the purpose of describing the preferred embodiment and not for limiting same, FIG. 1 illustrates a reordering medication container  10  including an open-end cylindrical container body  12  having a circular base  13 , a cylindrical a removable closure  14 , and a reordering separator  16 . As those in the art will appreciate, the container body  12  and the closure may take many conventional forms of container widely commercially used in the filing of prescription medicines. Generally, the body  12  is a plastic molding of a clear or translucent material. The inner surfaces of the body  12  and the base  13  define an interior volume for holding the prescription contents. The closure  14  is adapted to mechanically or frictionally engage the upper end of the body for effecting secure closure of the medications therewithin. 
     The separator  16  is disposed axially intermediate the interior volume of the body and serves to separate tablet or capsule medications  20  into a lower reorder volume  22  and an upper refill volume  24  together constituting a prescribed amount, in the filled condition, of the medication for a single prescription order for a patient. As described in greater detail below, the reorder volume, in the reorder condition, holds sufficient medication to enable the patient to reorder and refill, accounting for processing times, a prescription prior to exhausting the prescription contents. While such amount for the lower volume may vary depending on patient or pharmaceutical preference, generally a five to ten day supply of medication is segmented by the separator  16  in the lower volume. Accordingly, the upper volume constitutes the remainder of the medication and is preferentially used by the patient until exhausted at the reorder condition shown in FIG. 2, at which time the separator  16  is removed to secure access to the lower volume. 
     The separator  16 , as shown in FIG. 3, includes a circular disc  30  and an elongate removal stem  32 . The disc  30  has a sliding or light compressive fit with the inner wall of the container body allowing the disc  30  to be inserted into overlying engagement with the medications in the lower volume. The removal stem  32  is attached at the side of the disc  30  and, through folding or forming, extends normal thereto along the inner wall of the container body. The arm  32  has sufficient length to enable a user to grasp the free end for removal of the separator from the container when the upper volume of medications is depleted. The stem  32  is provided with a folding or integral hook portion  36  at the distal end for enhancing grasping thereof for removal. The length of the stem is sufficiently long to handle relative allocations between the housed volumes. Any outwardly projecting portion of the arm may be folded within the interior at time of closure. 
     The disc  30  is provided with an indicia fields  40 ,  41  for displaying information related to the prescription, patient, and other data to enable the refill of the prescription for reordering through telephone, delivery or mailing communication initiatives. Generally, the indicia fields  40 ,  41  will include a prescription number  42  for the medication in the container, the name of the patient  44 , and ancillary information such as a bar code, pharmacy designation include telephone and mailing specifics, medication identity, dosage regimen, prescribing physician, and other information pertinent to the prescription. 
     The separator  16  may be formed of any suitable material such a plastic or paper product. The fields  40 ,  41  may be directly imprinted thereon or attached on a suitable carrier label. A label  50 , conventionally attached to the outer wall of the container body  12 , carries all required information regarding the prescription, including information parallel or supplemental to the information on the disk field  40 . As shown in FIG. 5, each time the prescription is filled or refilled, an addressed envelope  60  may be included for use by the patient in refilling the prescription by enclosing therewithin the removed separator tab and addressed in addressee filed  62  to the refilling pharmacy. Should the patient desire this refilling initiative, the envelope is posted to the filling pharmacy, refilled by the pharmacy, and delivered to the patient in refilled form along with another return envelope. 
     Having thus described a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention, it will now be appreciated that the objects of the invention have been fully achieved, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that many changes in construction and widely differing embodiments and applications of the invention will suggest themselves without departing from the sprit and scope of the present invention. The disclosures and description herein are intended to be illustrative and are not in any sense limiting of the invention, which is defined solely in accordance with the following claims.