Patent Application
20090057183
This application relates to systems and packages for providing multiple customized doses of medications, particularly medications dispensed by pharmacists.
It is basic that dispensing of medicines requires extreme precautions to ensure that a patient receives the correct drug and dosage at the correct time. Since many patients may receive more than one drug and each drug may involve more than one tablet or capsule, the opportunity for error is very great. In hospitals or institutions, the source of error will usually lie with the pharmacist or nurse dispensing the medication. When the patient is taking the medications at home, there is ample room for confusion and error about correct doses and times, especially with patients having visual or cognitive impairment. There is, therefore, need for a system which allows for central packaging of drugs directed toward individual patients, so that the person administering the drug (or the patient, as the case may be) need only check a particular name or identifying code to know that the proper drug and dosage is being given to the correct patient at the correct time. Such a system with individual dosing helps assure that the prescribed medications were actually taken by the patient.
The pharmaceutical packaging industry offers a wide array of dispensers and containers for all types of medications. These packages include conventional pill vials, as well as the now popular blister cards. The present prescription vial, however, offers no checks to either remind a patient of when to take the medicine, or whether the medication has in fact been taken. In those cases where a patient is on multiple medications, a number of different vials only serves to confuse a patient.
Recently, blister cards have overcome a number of the shortcomings of prescription vials and become increasingly popular. Most of the blister packages of this type require specialized packaging machinery for assembly. Such packages have the serious economic drawback that they are difficult and expensive to manufacture on a small or customized scale. Thus it is out of the question for a pharmacist to use blister packaging to customize dosing for a particular individual, particularly when several medications are involved. Moreover, blister packaging in the prior art relies on a thin backing to the blisters or containers holding the medication, which backing is either peeled off or is frangible, so the solid medication can be pushed through it. Both of these operations can be difficult for an impaired patient.
What is needed is a packaging system having inexpensive preformed components that can be filled by a pharmacist with the correct medications for an individual patient, indicate the correct days and times of dosing, and be rapidly assembled by the pharmacist. Further, an improved system should allow the patient to easily grasp and remove an open container for immediate consumption, without the need to first, break loose a blister or capsule, and then, peel off or push through a backing.
The front sheet (110) may be any substantially transparent thermoplastic or similar material thick enough to be relatively rigid. Examples are polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene sheets having a thickness in the range of 7 to 10 mils, but other functionally-equivalent plastics could be used.
As shown in
The front side (170) of the backing sheet (160) has indicia (180), which may be printed on it or applied to it. Such indicia (180), optionally including graphic designs, would typically be forms used to enter the name of the patient, the date the system (100) was filled with medications (155) and a prescription reference. In the preferred embodiment, the indicia (180) on the front side (170) of the backing sheet (160) should also show the day of the week and the time of day the patient should take the medications (155) in a container (130) for any particular day. Such indicia (180) are therefore applied or printed on the front side (170) of the backing sheet (160) substantially in registry with the corresponding containers (130).
Preferably, the system (100) is assembled as follows: A pharmacist fills out the information in the forms provided on the backing sheet (160). Then the pharmacist places appropriate medications (155) in the containers (130) according to the prescribed dosing regimen, and places the front side (170) of the backing sheet (160) over the front sheet (110) so as to cover the openings (130) of the containers (130). The backing sheet and the front sheet are preferably permanently affixed to one another by an adhesive, so that at least some part of the plane portion (120) of the front sheet (110) is bonded to the backing sheet (160). Preferably, the adhesive is applied to the backing sheet (160) and covered with a peel-away protective sheet, as is well known in the art. Equivalently, the front sheet (110) and the backing sheet (160) could be fastened together by staples or clips.
In another embodiment, the system (100) may have a security strip (210) formed across rows or columns, or both, of the front sheet (110), passing over the containers (130). The security strip (210) acts to deter young children from removing containers (130) from the system, because it must be cut to access a container (130). The security strip (210) is preferably formed integrally with the front sheet (110), although it could be applied to the containers as a tape.
Since those skilled in the art can modify the specific embodiments described above, I intend that the claims be interpreted to cover such modifications and equivalents.
