Patent ID: 8140186

Claim:
A system for managing an allocation of bins, the system comprising: a dispensing device for dispensing medications at a healthcare facility, the dispensing device including: one or more patient-specific bins allocated for exclusive use to a patient of a plurality of patients; and one or more item-specific bins each allocated for an item available to be used by the plurality of patients; and a central server computer system, communicatively coupled to the dispensing device, and configured to: identify a current bin allocation at the dispensing device by identifying bins allocated as patient-specific bins and bins allocated as item-specific bins; determine occupancy rates associated with the one or more patient-specific bins and the one or more item-specific bins at the dispensing device; and automatically transmit a reallocation message to direct re-allocation of a subset of the one or more item-specific bins as patient-specific bins, the automatic transmission triggered based at least in part on the identified current bin allocation and the determined occupancy rates.