Patent ID: 7483837

Claim:
A method for sorting and tracking a drug before and after administration to a patient, the method comprising: providing a medical waste sorting system; providing a plurality of removable waste containers configured to be placed within a plurality of waste container compartments of said medical waste sorting system, wherein each of said removable waste containers comprises an opening; providing an automatically movable lid coupled with each of said removable waste containers; wherein each of the removable waste containers is associated with at least one of a plurality of waste categories, wherein the movable lid is movable to an open position and a closed position; obtaining information regarding a drug to be administered to a patient, wherein said information comprises the quantity of said drug in a drug container prior to administration of said drug to said patient; obtaining scanned barcode information from a spent drug container, wherein the spent drug container comprises the drug container and a quantity of the drug that still remains in the drug container after said drug has been at least partially administered to a patient; assigning the spent drug to at least one waste category based at least in part on the scanned information and waste item classification information; and determining the quantity of the spent drug using a weight scale, wherein the spent drug is the drug that remains in the drug container after administration to the patient; comparing the quantity of the spent drug with the quantity of the drug prior to administration to said patient, thereby tracking the drug before and after administration to the patient; and automatically moving the lid coupled to the identified removable container to the open position to permit disposal of the spent drug.