US-12626817-B2 - Management of pharmacy kits

US12626817B2US 12626817 B2US12626817 B2US 12626817B2US-12626817-B2

Abstract

A system for managing pharmacy kits comprises a reading station configured to read tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with a pharmacy kit, and an information processing system operatively connected to the reading station and configured to receive the tag information from the reading station and determine a status of the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, a plurality of stored templates defining contents to be included in each of a plurality of pharmacy kits, and a plurality of kit records indicating the current contents of a plurality of pharmacy kits.

Inventors

Kevin William MacDonald
Timothy James Leo Kress-Spatz

Assignees

BLUESIGHT, INC.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20240521

Claims (12)

1 . A method, comprising: causing an antenna coupled to a pharmacy kit container to emit a radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container, the pharmacy kit container providing electromagnetic shielding; receiving tag information associated with a plurality of RFID tags coupled to a plurality of pharmacy item containers located within a pharmacy kit based at least in part on the antenna emitting the radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container, wherein the pharmacy kit is a transportable container having a collection of pharmacy items for a common purpose that can be deployed for a specific medical procedure, for a specific physician, or to a designated location, wherein the plurality of pharmacy item containers is configured to store a plurality of pharmacy items, wherein a particular RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags is coupled to a particular pharmacy item container of the plurality of pharmacy item containers and the particular pharmacy item container is configured to store a particular pharmacy item of the plurality of pharmacy items; verifying the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the received tag information, wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises at least one of: determining that a first RFID tag associated with a first pharmacy item is not located within the pharmacy kit container, and that a third RFID tag associated with a substitute pharmacy item for the first pharmacy item is located within the pharmacy kit, determining that a second pharmacy item associated with a second RFID tag of the plurality of RFID tags is subject to a recall, or identifying the second pharmacy item as an expired pharmacy item based at least in part on a determination that an expiration of the second pharmacy item does not satisfy an expiration threshold; and causing a display to display results of the verifying the pharmacy kit.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the tag information associated with the plurality of RFID tags coupled to the plurality of pharmacy item containers is first tag information, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving second tag information associated with an RFID tag associated with the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the antenna emitting the radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container; determining a kit type based at least in part on the second tag information; identifying a pharmacy kit template from a plurality of pharmacy kit templates based at least in part on the determined kit type; and verifying the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the first tag information and the identified pharmacy kit template, wherein the pharmacy kit template identifies a group of pharmacy items that form at least a portion of the pharmacy kit.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein the pharmacy kit container comprises at least one door and the antenna emits the radio signal at least within the pharmacy kit container when the at least one door is closed.
4 . The method of claim 2 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit based at least in part on the first tag information and the pharmacy kit template comprises comparing at least a portion of pharmacy item data with the pharmacy kit template, wherein the pharmacy item data is associated with the tag information.
5 . The method of claim 2 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises determining that the first RFID tag associated with the first pharmacy item is not located within the pharmacy kit container, and determining that the third RFID tag associated with the substitute pharmacy item for the first pharmacy item is located within the pharmacy kit.
6 . The method of claim 2 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises determining that the second pharmacy item is subject to the recall.
7 . The method of claim 2 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises identifying the second pharmacy item as an expired pharmacy item based at least in part on the determination that the expiration of the second pharmacy item does not satisfy the expiration threshold.
8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises determining that the first RFID tag associated with the first pharmacy item is not located within the pharmacy kit container, and determining that the third RFID tag associated with the substitute pharmacy item for the first pharmacy item is located within the pharmacy kit container.
9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein verifying the pharmacy kit comprises verifying the pharmacy kit using a pharmacy kit template.
10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the pharmacy kit template defines contents for the pharmacy kit, and includes at least a first segment, wherein the first segment indicates a first plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items that can be used to satisfy the first segment and a quantity of the first plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items to satisfy the first segment.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the first pharmacy item is identified by the first segment as one of the first plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items, and wherein the substitute pharmacy item is identified by the first segment as one of the first plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items.
12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the pharmacy kit template further includes at least a second segment, wherein the second segment indicates a second plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items that can be used to satisfy the second segment and a quantity of the second plurality of distinct permissible pharmacy items to satisfy the second segment.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/448,310, filed on Sep. 21, 2021, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/787,204, filed on Oct. 18, 2017, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/701,958, filed on May 1, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/603,730, filed on Jan. 23, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/554,342, filed on Jul. 20, 2012, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/514,231, filed on Aug. 2, 2011, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND Hospital pharmacies often manage groups of medical items in the form of pharmacy kits. A pharmacy kit can be used, for instance, to provide a group of items for a specific medical procedure, a particular physician, or a designated location of a hospital. As an example, a pharmacy kit can be used to aggregate and transport a collection of medicines for treating a patient with a specific type of stroke, heart condition, or other ailment. A pharmacy kit (or “kit”) typically comprises a group of items specified by a template. For example, the template may specify that the kit requires three vials of adenosine, two containers of albuterol solution, two vials of amiodarone, and so on. The template may also specify ways in which individual items may be satisfied. For example, it may specify that the vials of adenosine may be satisfied by certain product brands. Pharmacy kits are usually stocked by a hospital pharmacy, but they may be stocked by another entity, such as an outsourced kit stocking company. Local board-of-pharmacy regulations (e.g., state regulations) typically allow a hospital or other facility to define the contents of its kits. In other words, they allow the hospital to create its own templates. These regulations, however, also require that the hospital adhere to a template once defined. This typically requires specific procedures to ensure accuracy of kit contents. Such procedures can include, for instance, regulated kit creation and inventory procedures, and prescribed monitoring and/or update procedures. The following are examples of such procedures as used in certain conventional contexts. A kit is typically created by receiving specified items in a pharmacy, manually recording (e.g., on paper and/or electronic records) their product identifiers (e.g., National Drug Code (NDC) or Universal Product Code (UPC)), lot numbers, and expiration dates, and then loading the items into a container, such as a box, tray, or canister. During the kit's lifetime, it may be updated periodically to replace expired or consumed items. These updates are typically performed by manually inspecting the kit, comparing it to a corresponding template, modifying kit contents as required, and then manually recording any changes. Unfortunately, the above procedures tend to suffer from significant shortcomings. For instance, the manual recording of item information is generally time consuming and error prone, which drives up the cost of creating and updating the kits. Moreover, these procedures are usually performed by highly trained pharmacy staff, which may be an inefficient use of their time. Manual inspections for missing, expired, or soon-to-be expired items can also be time consuming and error prone, particularly because item expiration dates tend to vary between different products within the same kit. Due to the above and other shortcomings, there is a general need for improved techniques and technologies for managing pharmacy kits. SUMMARY According to one embodiment of the inventive concept, a system for managing pharmacy kits comprises a reading station configured to read tag information from a plurality of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags associated with a pharmacy kit, and an information processing system operatively connected to the reading station and configured to receive the tag information from the reading station and determine a status of the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, a plurality of stored templates defining contents to be included in each of a plurality of pharmacy kits, and a plurality of kit records indicating the current contents of a plurality of pharmacy kits. According to another embodiment of the inventive concept, a method of managing pharmacy kits comprises operating an RFID reader to read tag information from a plurality of RFID tags associated with a pharmacy kit, identifying a plurality of items present in the pharmacy kit based on the tag information, and comparing the plurality of items with an electronic template to determine a status of the pharmacy kit. According to another embodiment of the inventive concept, a method comprises building a pharmacy kit comprising a plurality of pharmaceutical items labeled with RFID tags, verifying contents of the pharmacy kit by operating an