Patent ID: 8380346

Claim:
An indicator-directed medicament-loading system for enabling pharmacy personnel to rapidly and accurately perform repetitive manual tasks of hand-loading a holder having medicament-holding cells with at least one type of medicament in an organization required for medicament packaging, the system comprising: a plurality of portable controller-free holders each having a configuration for interchangeable docking with a single pharmacy docking station, each holder further having a plurality of medicament-holding cells in a pattern required for medicament packaging, each cell defining a cell upper opening through which a medicament is hand loaded into the cell and, next to each cell, at least one indicator controlled through the pharmacy docking station between at least yes and no states when the holder is docked to rapidly indicate by the yes state the cell into which the medicament is to be hand-loaded, each at least one indicator when in the yes state being simultaneously viewable with the cell next to the indicator, the cell upper opening and the medicament as the hand-loaded medicament enters the cell thereby confirming the accuracy of the medicament loading; the single pharmacy docking station including structure to which a one of the plurality of holders is interchangeably and temporarily docked during hand-loading of medicaments into the cells, the pharmacy docking station further including a circuit operatively connected to each at least one indicator next to each cell during holder docking to control operation of each at least one indicator between at least the yes and no states to indicate the cell into which each medicament is to be hand-loaded for the packaging; and at least one controller apart from the holder operatively connected to the docking station circuit and programmed with instructions including each cell location and the medicament type to be hand-loaded into each cell in the organization required for the medicament packaging which, when executed, are operable through the docking station circuit to control operation of each at least one indicator of a docked holder between at least the yes and no states to indicate by the yes state the cell into which each medicament is to be loaded and to control operation of each at least one indicator between at least the yes and no states until the cells are loaded as required by the instructions, thereby enabling the pharmacy personnel to rapidly and accurately perform the repetitive manual tasks of hand-loading the cells with the medicaments for packaging thereof.