Patent Application
20210193284
The invention relates to a method and a system for monitoring and controlling the use of drugs and/or medical supplies in a pharmaceutical distribution process.
The operation of hospitals, health clinics and private health centres requires continuous close monitoring and control of drugs and supplies used in medication and other treatments, in the different steps of their storage, dispensing and/or use. Therefore, these functions and related processes also play a key role in securing patient safety as well as in controlling losses of drugs and medical supplies, and the costs involved. Storing, transferring, and monitoring the use of drugs and medical supplies still involve a number of manual work stages, wherein e.g. ensuring that correct drugs are transferred from drug stor-ages and cabinets further is based on the vigilance and diligence of the person performing each work stage.
In hospitals and health clinics, drugs to be administered to patients are nor-malty dispensed once per 1 to 7 days, according to the prescription and/or the instructions on the drug package. Before the dispensing, the drug packages are stored and recorded in a storage, from which they are transferred, either in the original packages or packed in separate containers, such as bags or jars. These may be transferred to the storage and transfer systems, such as drug cabinets or trolleys, of the wards. At the stage of dispensing the drugs, a nurse has to separately make sure that they comply with the dose according to the prescription, and that the drugs are in an appropriate condition. Moreover, the nurse often prepares e.g. ampoules, drugs to be administered as an injection or intravenously, to be ready for administration. After that, the nurse goes to the patients and administers the drugs. Logging systems also make it possible for the nurse to dispense drugs in an order deviating from the normal dispensing process.
It is an aim of the invention to provide a method in which the monitoring and the control of drugs and medical supplies in the different steps of their dispensing processes can be made more reliable and flexible than before, and the probability of errors can be reduced further to a level lower than before. Moreover, it is an aim of the invention to present a system for applying the method according to the invention.
The aim of the invention is achieved by a method and a system, in which drug packages stored in drug storage devices, or drugs transferred from drug packages to various storage containers for storage, are arranged in transfer containers equipped with remotely readable tags, and in which method and system, location data on the transfer containers equipped with remotely readable tags are recorded, upon situations of changing the location, in one or more data processing devices controlling the storage and dispensing data on the drugs and/or medical supplies, by readers for the remotely readable tags, connected to the data processing device/devices. Consequently, e.g. data on the locations, and on the quantities in different locations, of the drugs described to patients, and/or the medical supplies used in treatments of the patients, are available to the storage device itself as well as to other devices connected to the system according to the method of the invention. To put it more precisely, the method according to the invention is characterized in what will be presented in the independent claim 1, and the system is characterized in what will be presented in the independent claim 7. Dependent claims 2 to 6 present some preferred embodiments of the method according to the invention, and dependent claims 8 to 17 present some preferred embodiments of the system according to the invention.
The method and the system according to the invention have the advantage that an outdated drug product or dose which is possibly defective can be withdrawn before it is administered to a patient. Also, a drug which has not been administered because of a changed prescription or for another reason can be allocated to another use. Thus, it does not have to be disposed of, or for example encoded for a new storage location; the same encoding may also be applied to include data relating to access rights, origin, and new dispensing. This reduces the checking work which is time consuming and susceptible to errors. The remotely readable encoding relating to the transfer containers also increases medical safety. The encoding and the logging-in by the user make it possible to see who has moved an encoded container to make its contents accessible.
In the following, the invention will be described in more detail with reference to the appended drawings, in which
In the simplest way, the method according to the invention is implemented by a system comprising at least one storage device for storing drugs and/or medical supplies. According to the method of the invention, the drugs and/or medical supplies are stored in transfer containers placed in storage locations in the storage device. The storage device may be, for example, a drug cabinet 10 as shown in
The storage locations 11 in the drug cabinet 10 are arranged in a shelving unit 14 closable by a door, several storage locations 11 being provided next to each other on each shelf 15 of the shelving unit 14. In this embodiment, the width of the shelves 15 is designed so that each shelf 15 accommodates a given number of transfer containers 11 placed tightly next to each other. The distance between the shelves 15 in the height direction of the drug cabinet 10 is approximately equal to the height of the transfer containers 12, so that drugs or medical supplies placed in a transfer container 12 next to an empty storage location 11 cannot be accessed via the empty storage location 11 next to the transfer container 12 without removing the transfer container 12 from its storage location 11.
In the drug cabinet 10, the reader for remotely readable tags may comprise one reading head (not shown in the figures) which is manually movable with respect to the drug cabinet, for reading remotely readable tags on transfer containers. Furthermore, in this case, each storage location 11 of the drug cabinet 10 is equipped with a reading head placed on the rear wall of the drug cabinet and configured to read the remotely readable tag of the transfer container 12 (e.g. at given intervals) when the transfer container 12 is inserted in any of the storage locations 11 of the drug cabinet. Thanks to this arrangement, the data processing device 13 of the drug cabinet 10 receives constant real-time information on which transfer container 12 is inserted in any particular storage location 11 of the drug cabinet. Thanks to this, it is insignificant into which storage location a given transfer container 12 is inserted, because the computer program can constantly update the location data on the transfer containers 12 and thereby, for example in a dispensing situation, guide the user always to pick up the desired drugs and/or medical supplies from the correct transfer container 12. Moreover, drugs and/or medical supplies stored in a transfer container 12 inserted in a given storage location 11 cannot be removed without leaving a log entry in the memory of the data processing device 13 of the drug cabinet 10, because each time a transfer container 12 is drawn out to a given extent from its storage location 11, or removed from the storage location, the data processing device 13 will record the absence of the remotely readable tag 16 of the transfer container 12 from the vicinity of the reading head, i.e. record the change relating to the transfer device 12. In such a case, the computer program may, for example, include the time and the data on the user who was logged-in on the computer program of the drug cabinet (e.g. for opening the locking of the doors of the drug cabinet) and moved the transfer container 12, in the combined data recorded with the ID code corresponding to the transfer container.
The manually movable reading head of the drug cabinet 10 may include a bar code and/or a QR code reader in addition to the RFID and NFC reader. The reading head for NFC tags may be used for identifying the transfer container 12 when drugs and/or medical supplies are being added to or removed from a transfer container 12. After that, bar and/or QR codes on drug packages can be read by the bar and/or QR code reader of the reading head. By reading the bar and/or QR codes, the data processing device 13 receives the data on the drugs to be added to a given transfer container 12, their quantity, and other data (e.g. expiry date). The bar or QR code may be configured to control the data processing device 13 to retrieve data on the drugs to be added to (or removed from) the transfer container directly from a database maintained by the respective pharmaceutical manufacturer and simultaneously, for example, to authenticate the drug on the basis of its serial/production number.
In this case, the data processing device 13 is a tablet computer with a touch sensitive screen. A computer program is installed in the data processing device 13 to control the filling of transfer containers 12 in the drug cabinet 10 with drugs and/or medical supplies. The computer program also controls the arrangement of the transfer containers 12 in the storage locations 11 in the drug cabinet. For this, the storage locations 11 may be equipped with indicating means (e.g. LEDs) by which the data processing device 13 may indicate to the user which storage location 11 a transfer container should be placed in, and particularly which storage location 11 a specific transfer container 12 (containing drugs and/or medical supplies ordered by the user) can be found in, to be transferred to another storage device or to be removed from the drug cabinet 10, for removing some or all of the drugs and/or medical supplies from the transfer container 12.
The dispensing trolley 20 of
Also, the reader of the dispensing trolley 20 for remotely readable tags may also comprise a reading head for reading remotely readable tags other than the remotely readable tags on the transfer containers. For example, when drugs and/or medical supplies in the transfer containers 12 are being carried by the dispensing trolley 20 to patients, it can be used for reading a remotely readable patient tag for identifying the patient. The reader for remotely readable tags may comprise one manually movable reading head connected to a data processing device (in a wired or wireless manner). In addition to the movable reading head, a reading head is provided on the rear wall of each compartment in the organizer for reading the remotely readable tag 16 on the rear wall of the transfer container when the transfer container is inserted in the storage location 21. Thanks to this feature, when transfer containers 12 are being added to the storage locations 21 in the dispensing trolley 20, it is insignificant which storage location 21 each transfer container 12 is placed in, because the reading head for remotely readable tags in the storage location 21 always reads the remotely readable tag 16 on the transfer container 12, whereby the data processing device 24 is always informed of the storage location 21 in which a given transfer container 12 is placed. This makes the processes of dispensing drugs and/or medical supplies simpler and faster.
Also, the storage locations 21 of the dispensing trolley 20 may be equipped with indicating means for indicating the storage location 21 in which a given transfer container 12 is placed in the dispensing trolley 20. For example, when the drugs placed in the transfer containers 12 of the dispensing trolley 20 are being dispensed in inpatient wards of a hospital or a health clinic, the indicating means may be configured to indicate the transfer container 12 containing the drug to be administered next to a given patient after the patient's data have been entered in the data processing device (e.g. by reading a remotely readable tag on the patient and/or the patient's bed by the reader for remotely readable tags in the dispensing trolley 20). The indicating means are, for example, LEDs turned on and off by the data processing device 24. Furthermore, if these LEDs are polychromatic (have changing colours), the location of the transfer container 12 may be indicated, for example, by changing the colour of the LED to indicate the storage location 21 where the desired transfer container 12 can be found. Coloured LEDs may also be applied to indicate other information relating to the transfer containers 12, for example shortage or expiry of the drugs and/or medical supplies in the transfer container 12.
The dispensing trolley 20 shown in
In the drug dispensing process according to the method of the invention, transfer containers and storage devices of the above described types are utilized. For example, in an embodiment of the method according to the invention, drugs in drug packages and/or various medical supplies (such as drug syringes, drug vials, drug cups, surgical instruments, dressings, etc.) are placed in transfer containers 12 shown in
Thus, the reader reads the ID code from the remotely readable tag 16 of the transfer container 12, whereby the data processing device 24 of the dispensing trolley 20 automatically updates the changed data on the transfer container 12 in the data processing devices of the drug cabinet 10 and the dispensing trolley 20, as well as all the other data processing devices connected to or communicating with the system. After this, the nurse makes the drug dispensing rounds. Having arrived at the inpatient ward, the nurse selects a patient via a user interface, or applies the reader of the dispensing trolley 20 for remotely readable tags to read the patient's tag, or identifies the patient in another way as used in each case (e.g. on the basis of the room and bed number, or a name sign on the bed, by entering this data in the data processing device of the dispensing trolley). After entering the patient's data, the indication means of the dispensing trolley 20 indicate the storage location 21 in the dispensing trolley where the transfer container(s) 12 containing said patient's drugs are found. Thus, the data processing device and the computer program therein also register the drugs being administered by the nurse to the patient. When administering drugs contained in the transfer containers 12 to the patients, the nurse only needs to enter the quantity of the drugs administered. Thus, the data is automatically updated in the data processing device 24, which also updates the data, via a network connection, in the data processing device 13 of the drug cabinet 10 and possibly the drug stock balance of the hospital or health clinic (depending on the data systems). In other words, the complete drug distribution process in said hospital or health clinic can be monitored and controlled in real time, from the loading platform down to the administration to the patient. For the next patients, the dispensing of drugs continues in a way corresponding to that described above. After the dispensing rounds, the nurse brings the dispensing trolley back to the vicinity of the drug cabinet 10 and returns some or all of the transfer containers from the drug dispensing trolley back to the drug cabinet, for example depending on the drugs needed on the next drug dispensing round, and on the time of the next drug dispensing round.
The method and the system according to the invention may be implemented in a way deviating, in many respects, from the example embodiment presented above. For example, the system according to the invention may also comprise storage devices of types other than the above mentioned drug cabinet 10 or dispensing trolley 20. In an embodiment of the system according to the invention, the storage device is a “handling tray” separate from the drug cabinet or dispensing trolley, provided with transfer container seats in which the transfer containers may be placed for replenishment or emptying of dispensing units (e.g. dispensing cups). The transfer container seats of the handling tray may be equipped with indicating means controlling the replenishment of the dispensing units (e.g. placed in dispensing cup recesses within the transfer containers shown in
In the process of dispensing drugs and/or medical supplies according to the invention, in which handling trays are utilized, the process of dispensing e.g. drugs according to the method of the invention may be the following: A nurse is at a drug cabinet 10 and applies the user interface of the computer program of the data processing device to select the dispensing of drugs for the morning round of the ward in question (e.g. cardiology ward). Thus, the computer program of the drug cabinet instructs the nurse to place an empty transfer container 12 (e.g. of the type shown in
Also, the transfer containers may be implemented, in many respects, in ways different from the above described boxes open at the top. In some cases, the transfer containers may be boxes with an openable and closable lid. The shape of the transfer containers might also be e.g. cylindrical, polygonal, conical, adapted to the shape of the product stored in them, or even spherical, whereby their single wall is provided with an opening or an open section via which the drugs and/or medical supplies can be inserted in the transfer container. The transfer containers may also be equipped with internal intermediate walls or e.g. recesses formed on the bottom, for dispensing units, medical supplies, ampoules, etc. to be fitted in them.
The method and the system according to the invention are not limited to the above described example embodiments but may vary within the scope of the appended claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FI2018/050403 | 5/28/2018 | WO | 00 |
