The present invention is directed generally to the dispensing of prescriptions of pharmaceuticals, and more specifically is directed to the automated dispensing of pharmaceuticals.
Pharmacy generally began with the compounding of medicines which entailed the actual mixing and preparing of medications. Heretofore, pharmacy has been, to a great extent, a profession of dispensing, that is, the pouring, counting, and labeling of a prescription, and subsequently transferring the dispensed medication to the patient. Because of the repetitiveness of many of the pharmacist's tasks, automation of these tasks has been desirable.
Some attempts have been made to automate the pharmacy environment. Different exemplary approaches are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,337,919 to Spaulding et al. and U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,006,946; 6,036,812 and 6,176,392 to Williams et al. The Williams system conveys a bin with tablets to a counter and a vial to the counter. The counter dispenses tablets to the vial. Once the tablets have been dispensed, the system returns the bin to its original location and conveys the vial to an output device. Tablets may be counted and dispensed with any number of counting devices. Drawbacks to these systems typically include the relatively low speed at which prescriptions are filled and the absence in these systems of securing a closure (i.e. a lid) on the container after it is filled.
One additional automated system for dispensing pharmaceuticals is described in some detail in U.S. Pat. No. 6,971,541 to Williams et al. This system has the capacity to select an appropriate vial, label the vial, fill the vial with a desired quantity of a selected pharmaceutical tablet, apply a cap to the filled vial, and convey the labeled, filled, capped vial to an offloading station for retrieval.
Although this particular system can provide automated pharmaceutical dispensing, certain of the operations may be improved. For example, the offload station of the system comprises a series of stationary holding compartments of conventional configuration. It may be desirable to provide an offload station having a different configuration that can improve speed and reliability of the system.
As a first aspect, embodiments of the present invention are directed to an offloading unit for an automated pharmaceutical machine that dispenses filled, capped pharmaceutical vials. The offloading unit comprises: at least one chute including a receiving section and a pick-up section. The receiving section and the pick-up section are divided by an inlet. The receiving section has a concave sloping ramp and side walls. The pick-up section has a trough with a floor that slopes relative to a horizontal surface and a front wall at one end of the trough. The inlet is defined by a rear wall and the upper edge of the trough. The chute also includes dividers mounted to and rising above the trough and attached to the rear wall. The inlet and dividers are configured and positioned such that an object as defined in UL 61010A-1, 1740 cannot pass through the inlet from the trough.
As a second aspect, embodiments of the present invention are directed to an offloading unit for an automated pharmacy machine that dispenses filled, capped pharmaceutical vials that comprises at least one chute, the chute including a receiving section and a pick-up section, the receiving section and the pick-up section divided by an inlet, the receiving section having a concave sloping ramp and side walls, the pick-up section having a trough with a floor that slopes relative to a horizontal surface and a front wall at one end of the trough, the inlet being defined by a rear wall and the upper edge of the trough. The inlet is generally circular and has a largest dimension of no more than 2.85 inches. A distance between the sloping ramp and the rear wall is between about 2.5 and 2.75 inches, and a distance between the side walls of the receiving section is between about 2.5 and 2.75 inches.
As a third aspect, embodiments of the present invention are directed to an offloading unit for an automated pharmacy machine that dispenses filled, capped pharmaceutical vials comprising at least one chute, the chute including a receiving section and a pick-up section, the receiving section and the pick-up section divided by an inlet, the receiving section having a concave sloping ramp and side walls, the pick-up section having a trough with a floor that slopes relative to a horizontal surface and a front wall at one end of the trough, the inlet being defined by a rear wall and the upper edge of the trough. A distance between the front wall and the upper edge of the trough is between about 9 and 10 inches.
As a fourth aspect, embodiments of the present invention are directed to an offloading unit for an automated pharmacy machine that dispenses filled, capped pharmaceutical vials that comprises at least one chute, the chute including a receiving section and a pick-up section, the receiving section and the pick-up section divided by an inlet, the receiving section having a concave sloping ramp and side walls, the pick-up section having a trough with a floor that slopes relative to a horizontal surface and a front wall at one end of the trough, the inlet being defined by a rear wall and the upper edge of the trough. The rear wall includes a bottom portion that angles rearwardly from an upper portion thereof.
The present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter, in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention may, however, be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements throughout. Thicknesses and dimensions of some components may be exaggerated for clarity.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein the expression “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
In addition, spatially relative terms, such as “under”, “below”, “lower”, “over”, “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “under” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “under” can encompass both an orientation of over and under. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.
As described above, the invention relates generally to a system and process for dispensing pharmaceuticals. An exemplary process is described generally with reference to
A system that can carry out this process is illustrated in
Turning now to
The chutes 102, 104 are substantially identical mirror images of each other about a vertical plane P (see
Referring again to
Still referring to
The chute unit 100 is attached to the frame 44 via four latches 122. The latches 122 are inserted into mating apertures (not shown) in the frame 44. In the illustrated embodiment, the chute unit 100 is mounted so that the troughs 112 slope downwardly from back to front; for example, the chute unit 100 may be mounted such that the trough 112 is angled relative to a horizontal plane at an angle of between about 20 and 35 degrees.
In the illustrated embodiment, the chute unit 100 is formed as a unitary member, although those skilled in this art will appreciate that the chute unit may be formed with multiple components. The chute unit 100 may be formed of any material recognized as being suitable for the conveying of objects such as pharmaceutical vials; exemplary materials include polymeric materials such as polycarbonate, ABS and copolymers and blends thereof.
Referring now to
Also, the smoothly merging side walls 108, 109, lip 106 and ramp 110 are configured such that vials do not snag or hang thereon. In particular, vials known as “RC” vials (available from Owens-Corning, Owens, Ill.), have a finger on the edge thereof that might be susceptible to being caught on an unsmooth surface (see
Once the vial V enters the half-bowl formed by the ramp 110, the side walls 108, 109 and the lip 106, the vial V, oriented “non-capped end down”, slides through the inlet 115 (see
Also, the dividers 116, 117 may be configured such that the chute unit 100 satisfies the provisions of UL 61010A-1, 1740 (the requirements of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference), which requires that an object 2.95 in diameter be prevented from entering the inlet 115 (this test is intended to simulate a human hand entering the inlet 115 from outside of the system). In some embodiments, the leading edges 118 of the dividers 116, 117 are positioned between about 5 and 7 inches from the inlet 115 and are between about 2.5 and 2.75 inches apart.
The foregoing is illustrative of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting thereof. Although exemplary embodiments of this invention have been described, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many modifications are possible in the exemplary embodiments without materially departing from the novel teachings and advantages of this invention. Accordingly, all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of this invention as defined in the claims. The invention is defined by the following claims, with equivalents of the claims to be included therein.
The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/938,878, filed May 18, 2007 and entitled DEVICE FOR OFFLOADING CAPPED VIALS USEFUL IN SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISPENSING PRESCRIPTIONS, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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5353939 | Beeler et al. | Oct 1994 | A |
20040026442 | Hutchinson | Feb 2004 | A1 |
20050263537 | Gerold et al. | Dec 2005 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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0 656 200 | Jun 1995 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20080283544 A1 | Nov 2008 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60938878 | May 2007 | US |