Patent ID: 7941325

Claim:
A method of processing pharmacy product prescription orders within a network of pharmacy resources connected by a pharmacy computing network comprising: originating a raw electronic prescription order at a first pharmacy retail store, wherein the first pharmacy retail store releases pharmacy products directly to customers; information processing via a computer the raw electronic prescription order to produce a processed, fill-ready prescription order; computing a marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription order at a central filling facility; wherein the central filling facility is connected to the network of pharmacy resources via the pharmacy computing network; and wherein the central filling facility is a non-retail pharmacy resource separate and distinct from any pharmacy retail store; computing a marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription order at the first pharmacy retail store; wherein the first pharmacy retail store is connected to the network of pharmacy resources via the pharmacy computing network; routing the processed, fill-ready prescription order to the central filling facility when the computed marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription at the central filling facility is less than the computed marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription at the first pharmacy retail store; routing the processed, fill-ready prescription order to the first pharmacy retail store when the computed marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription at the first pharmacy retail store is less than the computed marginal cost of filling the fill-ready prescription at the central filling facility; physically preparing a type and quantity of a pharmacy product corresponding to the processed prescription order at the routed destination; and releasing the prepared pharmacy product to a customer.