Patent ID: 8588966

Claim:
A medical item storage cabinet system, comprising: a cabinet including a plurality of drawer bays and a data bus, each bay being configured to slidably accept a drawer and permit movement of the drawer between an open and closed position; a plurality of drawers, each drawer slideable within a respective bay of the cabinet, one or more of the plurality of drawers including: at least one compartment secured closed by a cover movable between open and closed positions to permit access to the compartment; an electronic memory attached to the drawer which moves with the drawer when the drawer is moved and which stores movement data representative of movement of the cover; a cover monitoring device coupled to the memory to permit the memory to store movement data; and a connector attached to the drawer and coupled to the memory, the connector being configured to make contact with the data bus when the drawer is in the closed position, and disconnect from the data bus when the drawer is in the open position; and a locking mechanism for selectively locking each drawer within its respective bay in a closed position; and a controller coupled to the data bus, the controller operating the locking mechanism, and being operable to store data representative of the information stored in the electronic memory of a drawer when the drawer is moved such that the respective connector makes contact with the data bus.