Patent ID: 7689316

Claim:
Apparatus comprising: a medical item storage cabinet including: a plurality of movable doors, a plurality of electrically controllable locks, wherein each lock is associated with at least one corresponding door, and wherein the cabinet bounds an interior area that includes a plurality of storage shelves supported by the cabinet in the interior area, wherein access to each storage shelf is controlled by a corresponding one of the doors, wherein at least one of the medical item storage shelves includes a plurality of medical item storage locations, each storage location supporting a different type of medical item, wherein the at least one storage shelf includes a shelf user interface, wherein the shelf user interface includes a plurality of manually actuatable buttons, wherein each button is associated with a corresponding one of the storage locations, wherein the shelf user interface includes a display, wherein the display is operative to output numeric indicia corresponding to a particular quantity of medical item; a terminal in adjacent relation and accessible from outside the storage cabinet, wherein the terminal includes: at least one user input device, at least one user output device, wherein the terminal is in operative connection with the cabinet and with at least one processor and at least one data store, wherein the at least one data store includes data corresponding each respective storage location to each of a type and quantity of a medical item stored in the respective storage location, and at least one door controlling access to the respective storage location, wherein responsive to at least one input through the at least one input device of the terminal corresponding to at least one medical item associated in the data store, the terminal is operative to cause to unlock the at least one door associated in the data store with the at least one storage location supporting the at least one medical item, enabling the at least one storage location corresponding to the at least one medical item to be accessed.