Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140197954A1/en
Timestamp: 2019-06-17 15:42:00
Document Index: 274343519

Matched Legal Cases: ['Application No. 61', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 300', 'art 341', 'art 341', 'art 341']

US20140197954A1 - Mobile dispensing system for medical articles - Google Patents
Mobile dispensing system for medical articles Download PDF
US20140197954A1
US20140197954A1 US14/210,287 US201414210287A US2014197954A1 US 20140197954 A1 US20140197954 A1 US 20140197954A1 US 201414210287 A US201414210287 A US 201414210287A US 2014197954 A1 US2014197954 A1 US 2014197954A1
US14/210,287
US9135482B2 (en
2014-03-13 Application filed by MEPS Real Time Inc filed Critical MEPS Real Time Inc
2014-03-15 Assigned to MEPS REAL-TIME, INC. reassignment MEPS REAL-TIME, INC. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: CAPUTO, JIMMY C., HUSSAIN, SHARIQ, SHAMBLIN, JEFFREY
2014-07-17 Publication of US20140197954A1 publication Critical patent/US20140197954A1/en
2015-09-15 Publication of US9135482B2 publication Critical patent/US9135482B2/en
A mobile dispensing cart having a plurality of locked drawers has medical articles stored therein for particular patients. The storage drawers have sizes wherein the resonant frequency of the sizes does not match the frequency of operation of the RFID system of the cart. Faraday cages and enclosures are used in the storage areas that provide robust RFID fields for exciting and reading RFID tags. An HCP for a particular patient obtains access to the drawers and opens a drawer. An RFID scanning system takes an inventory of the cart after the drawer is closed to determine if any medical article was taken, and if so which one. The identified taken article is compared to the data base of medical articles stored in the cart for the patient and if the taken article does not match the patient data base, an alarm is provided.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/776,613 filed Feb. 25, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 12/631,861, filed Dec. 7, 2009, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,384,545, and claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/780,698, filed Mar. 13, 2013, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 15 is a cutaway perspective side view of the dual probe antennae 162 and 164 of FIGS. 13 and 14, also with the drawer removed for clarity. The front probe 162 is spaced from the left side wall by ½% of the operating frequency Ff as shown. It will be noted that the probes each have a bent portion used for capacitive coupling with the ceiling 160 of the enclosure 166 as shown in FIG. 13. The front probe 162 is bent forward for coupling with the more forward portion of the enclosure while the back probe 164 is bent rearward for coupling with the more rearward portion of the enclosure 166 to obtain more spatial diversity and obtain better coverage by the EM field in the drawer. Other arrangements may be possible to achieve a robust field and further spatial diversity and coverage within the enclosure.
FIG. 18 is a schematic view showing measurements of the placement of two TE01 mode capacitive coupling probes 162 and 164 in the ceiling 160 of the frame 167 shown in FIGS. 13-15. In this embodiment, the frequency of operation with the RFID tags is 915 MHz, which therefore has a wavelength of 0.32764 meters or 1.07494 feet. One-half wavelength is therefore 0.16382 meters or 6.4495 inches. The length of the capacitive coupling bent portion 200 of each of the probes is 5.08 cm or 2.00 in. The length of the axial extension 202 of the probes into the enclosure is 3.81 cm or 1.50 in., as measured from the insulator 204 into the enclosure 166. The probe configuration and placement in the embodiment was based on an operation frequency of 915 MHz. In one embodiment, the enclosure 166 had a depth of 16.1 inches (40.89 cm), a width of 19.2 inches (48.77 cm), and a height of 3 inches (7.62 cm). It was found that the optimum probe placements for this size and shape (rectangular) enclosure and for the 915 MHz operating frequency were: the front probe was spaced from the front wall by 5.0 inches (12.7 cm) and the rear probe was spaced from the back wall by 5.0 inches (12.7 cm). As discuss above, the probes in this embodiment would only be activated sequentially.
( f c ) mn = 1 2   π  μ   ɛ  ( m   π a ) 2 + ( n   π b ) 2  ( Hz )
( f c ) 10 = 1 2   a  μ   ɛ  ( Hz )
Z TE =  E x H y =  j   w   μ γ =  j   w   μ j   β ⇒ Z TE =  k   η β
λ g = 2   π β > 2   π k = λ where k c = ( m   π a ) 2 + ( n   π b ) 2 ; and β = k 2 - k c 2
Turning now in more detail to FIG. 23, a mobile medication dispensing cart 300 is shown having a plurality of drawers 304, one or more of which is for a particular patient being treated in the area near the cart. Multiple patients may have medications and other medical articles stored in the cart. In this embodiment, the cart 300 also includes a computer 310 with a display 312 and two input devices, one of which is a standard keyboard 314. In this case, the second input device is a biometric sensor/scanner 316 and is used to control access to the drawers 304 of the cart 300. The biometric device reads fingerprints and the computer 310 has, or is connected with a server 318 (discussed below in relation to FIG. 25) that has, access to files that correlate fingerprints to personnel and access levels of those personnel. The computer 310 or remote server determines if the health care provider (“HCP”) using the biometric scanner is in the data base as being allowed access to carts and is linked to any patient in the patient data base having a drawer 304 in this particular cart 300. If the HCP meets both requirements, he or she is allowed access to the drawers of the cart. Often mobile dispensing carts have locked drawers for security reasons. However, in a typical cart, the drawers are all locked and unlocked together. It is not possible to choose which to lock and which to unlock. Thus and HCP who gains access to one drawer has access to all drawers and this is where the unfortunate activity of medication “shopping” arises. Such shopping can result in problems where the HCP takes a medication from a drawer that is not the patient's for whom he or she is responsible and the HCP does not notice that the dosage differs. Such shopping activity is curtailed due to aspects of the invention shown herein in embodiments.
FIG. 25 shows an embodiment of a mobile dispensing cart management system 340 according to aspects of the invention. A cart 341 is shown within which are eleven slidable drawers 372 (all drawers are meant to be indicated by numeral 372) in which are stored medical articles for particular patients. The cart 341 also includes four RFID enclosures 342 that comprise Faraday cages within which multiple the drawers are located when the drawers are in the closed configuration. The RFID enclosures have electrically conductive walls and make electrical contact with the front of the drawer which in this embodiment is electrically conductive to provide a six-sided Faraday cage which acts by preventing (or significantly attenuating) electromagnetic energy from entering or escaping the enclosure 342. Each Faraday cage is fitted with an RFID reader 344 configured to interrogate RFID tags located within the respective enclosure. Only one reader is shown in FIG. 25 in dashed lines due to the need to retain clarity in the drawing. The readers 344 are connected to a computer 346 through a connection 348. The connection 348 may be a wired connection, wireless connection, or any other suitable connection for data transfer. In one embodiment, the physical body of the computing system 346 may be mounted to the cart 341, similarly as shown in FIG. 23.
The computing system 346 has a non-volatile memory 354 in which is stored at least one data base (“db”) such as the patient data base described above, which may be a local database, or other. The non-volatile memory 354 comprises one or more computer readable media within the computer system 346 and may be located within the computer itself or external to the computer. The memory is shown here as being outside the computer only for clarity of illustration in the discussion and is not meant to limit the invention in any way. In another embodiment, part or all of a relevant database may be stored on a server 360 which may be remote from the cart and from the computer system 346. The computing system 346 connected to the remote server 360 has access to a first remote data base 362 and a second remote data base 364, both connected to the server. As in the local computer, these remote data bases may be stored on a memory that is internal to the server or that is external to the server and may also include patient data base or a medical article data base or other. Further, the server 360 may be located nearby the local computer 346 or may be remote therefrom. By remote, it is meant that it may be in the same room, or in the same wing, or in the same facility, or may be in the “cloud.” The connection 366 to the server 360 may likewise be a wired connection, wireless connection, or any other suitable connection for data transfer. The computer 346 also has a keyboard 336 as an input device and a display 338 as an output device. The display could take the form of a touch screen which would then provide both an input and an output device. The computers shown herein can take different forms. They may be full size desktop computers, laptops, tablets, thin clients, or other.
1. A management system for managing inventory in a medical cart, the inventory comprising medical articles for dispensing to a particular patient, each of the medical articles being identified by a wireless data carrier which is responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the wireless data carrier provides identification data, the management system comprising:
a metallic enclosure having an internal reading area, the metallic enclosure located within the medical cart and having electrically conductive walls that completely surround the internal reading area, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from the frequency f1 to which the data carriers are responsive, the data carriers not being operationally responsive to frequency f2;
a probe disposed at an electrically-conductive wall of the metallic enclosure and configured to inject EM of a frequency f1 into the metallic enclosure, wherein the position of the probe in relation to electrically-conductive walls of the metallic enclosure is selected so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure;
an active impedance matching circuit coupled to the probe and configured to actively match more closely impedance of the probe to impedance of the metallic enclosure at frequency f1;
a storage area located within the internal reading area of the metallic enclosure in the cart, the storage area configured to contain medical articles with associated data carriers identifying the medical articles, each data carrier being responsive to EM at frequency f1 but not operationally responsive to frequency f2, the storage area having an access control device that prevents access to the storage area when locked and allows access when unlocked;
a receiving antenna disposed within the metallic enclosure and configured to receive the identification data provided by the data carriers in response to the injected EM;
a non-volatile memory in which is stored a patient data base containing identifications of all medical articles stored in the storage area for use by that patient, and a data base that links a health care provider to the patient;
wherein the processor is programmed to unlock the storage area for access by a health care provider linked to the patient; and
wherein after the storage area is re-locked, the processor is programmed to read all medical articles in the storage area to determine if any have been taken, if an article has been taken, the processor is programmed to compare the taken article to the patient data base and if the taken article is not found in the patient data base, to provide and alarm.
2. The management system of claim 1 wherein the memory comprises a data base of wireless data carrier identifications linked to medical article data in which one of those medical article data is an expiration date of the respective medical article;
wherein the processor is further programmed to receive the data carrier identification data, access the data base of medical article data corresponding to that data carrier identifications and compare the expiration date of the identified medical articles to a selected date;
the processor being further programmed to provide a notice if the expiration date of a medical article falls on or before the selected date.
3. The medical cart dispensing management system of claim 1 wherein the memory includes a data base in which data pertaining to recalled articles are stored; and
the processor further being programmed to compare the identification data of the medical articles in the storage container to the recalled article data base in the memory, and if the comparison shows that a medical article is recalled, to provide a notice of such recall status.
4. A method of managing inventory in a medical cart, the inventory comprising medical articles for dispensing to a particular patient, each of the medical articles being identified by a wireless data carrier which is responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the wireless data carrier provides identification data, the management method comprising:
preparing a data base of medical devices located in a storage area of the cart that is for the particular patient;
injecting electromagnetic energy of a frequency f1 into a metallic enclosure located within the cart with a probe, the metallic enclosure having electrically conductive walls, wherein the position of the probe in relation to the electrically conductive walls is selected so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure, the electrically conductive walls completely surrounding an internal reading area of the enclosure, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from the frequency f1 and to which a data carrier that is responsive to frequency f1 is not operationally responsive to frequency f2, wherein the storage area is located within the metallic enclosure;
actively matching the impedance of a probe that is used to inject EM energy into the metallic enclosure more closely to impedance of the enclosure at frequency f1;
controlling access to the storage area within the enclosure with a locking device, the storage area being inaccessible when the locking device is locked and accessible when the locking device is unlocked;
receiving a request from a health care provider to have access to the storage area for dispensing an article to the particular patient;
unlocking the storage area if the health care provider requesting access matches as being assigned to the patient;
reading all medical articles in the storage area after the storage area has been re-locked to identify any medical article that has been taken; and
if a medical article has been taken, comparing the taken medical article to the patient data base and if the taken medical article does not match the patient data base, providing an alarm.
5. The method of claim 4 further comprising determining if a medical article in the storage area is expired through locating an article expiration date from a medical article data base, comparing that expiration date to a selected expiration date, and providing a notice of expiration if the two dates match or if the expiration date of the medical article preceded the selected date.
6. The method of claim 4 further comprising comparing the data of a medical article in the storage area to a recalled article data base on the memory, and if the comparison shows that the medical article is recalled, providing an indication of such recall status about the medical article.
US14/210,287 2009-12-07 2014-03-13 Mobile dispensing system for medical articles Active US9135482B2 (en)
US13/776,613 Continuation-In-Part US8686859B2 (en) 2009-12-07 2013-02-25 Method of identifying tagged articles
US20140197954A1 true US20140197954A1 (en) 2014-07-17
US9135482B2 US9135482B2 (en) 2015-09-15
US15/413,278 Pending US20170177832A1 (en) 2009-12-07 2017-01-23 Medical inventory management of storage container
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2017-01-23 US US15/413,278 patent/US20170177832A1/en active Pending
US10210359B2 (en) 2016-08-22 2019-02-19 Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha Reading apparatus
US20170177832A1 (en) 2017-06-22
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:CAPUTO, JIMMY C.;HUSSAIN, SHARIQ;SHAMBLIN, JEFFREY;REEL/FRAME:032454/0057