Patent ID: 7930060

Claim:
A medicine supply system, comprising: a plurality of carts each having a plurality of storage areas in which trays can be stored; a cart supply line on which the plurality of carts, with the plurality of storage areas empty, are disposed and aligned; a first transport unit for sequentially transporting the plurality of carts aligned on the cart supply line; a cart standby portion for receiving one of the carts, transported by the first transport unit, and putting the cart on standby; a tray supply portion for storing medicine-containing trays in the cart; a cart shift member for shifting the cart on standby from the cart standby portion to the tray supply portion; a second transport unit for transporting the cart, with the medicine-containing trays stored therein, from the tray supply portion; a cart discharge line on which a plurality of the carts, transported by the second transport unit, are aligned; an empty tray supply unit for supplying the trays in an empty state; a tray transport line for transporting the trays, supplied by the empty tray supply unit, to the tray supply portion; a medicine dispensing unit for dispensing medicine to the trays, the medicine dispensing unit being disposed on an intermediate portion of the tray transport line; a control unit operable to control supplying the trays from the empty tray supply unit based on prescription data, dispensing the medicine included in the prescription data into the trays, transporting the medicine-containing trays to the tray supply portion, and storing the trays in the carts supplied from the cart supply line; and a stack lifter provided on the tray transport line for stacking medicine-containing trays and putting the trays on standby, wherein, if the control unit determines that the medicine dispensed into one of the trays on the tray transport line by the medicine dispensing unit is a temporary prescription, the control unit allows the stack lifter to stack the trays and put the trays on standby.