Patent ID: 7860724

Claim:
A system for optimized management of workflow associated with fulfillment of medication prescription orders in a personnel-driven pharmacy operation, and for minimizing a pharmacy workflow cost function associated with the fulfillment of the prescription orders, the pharmacy including at least two separate and different storage devices each having at least one medication storage location associated therewith, each medication storage location configured to store at least one medication, the system comprising: a control computer electronically connected to a pharmacy information system, said control computer configured to receive the prescription orders provided by the pharmacy information system and being programmed to perform the workflow optimization, said control computer including: a medication inventory database for describing the medications stored at each storage location within the pharmacy; a prescription order database for storing the received prescription orders; wherein the control computer is configured to select the medication storage location from which to obtain the medication required to fulfill each prescription within the prescription order; wherein the control computer is configured to determine a prescription sequence corresponding to the sequence in which each prescription is fulfilled, first to last, within the prescription order, the prescription sequence determined to minimize the cost function associated with fulfillment of the prescription order; wherein the control computer is configured to present, in human-readable form, the prescription sequence for the prescription order and the storage location for each sequenced prescription within the prescription order to direct the personnel to the storage locations, first to last, according to the prescription sequence; and wherein the control computer is configured to generate a print-label command; and a label printer electronically connected to the control computer configured to print a label including prescription information and machine-readable indicia for each sequenced prescription responsive to the print-label command, said label for application to a container for each prescription within the prescription order.