Apparatuses, systems, and methods for transporting medications from a central pharmacy to a patient in a healthcare facility

• Main Author: Greyshock, Shawn T
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 31.12.2019
• Subjects: CALCULATING; COMPUTING; CONVEYING; COUNTING; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HEALTHCARE INFORMATICS, i.e. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE HANDLING ORPROCESSING OF MEDICAL OR HEALTHCARE DATA; INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTEDFOR SPECIFIC APPLICATION FIELDS; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PHYSICS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

Provided herein are various apparatuses, systems, and methods for improving the efficiency of medication distribution within a healthcare facility. In particular, embodiments may provide for dispensing medications needed and medications anticipated to be needed to an authorized medical person for administration to a patient in a healthcare facility. Methods may include receiving an indication of one or more unit dose medications anticipated to be needed by a patient; retrieving the one or more unit dose medications from a unit storage device; loading the one or more unit dose medications onto a transport device; transporting the one or more unit dose medications from the unit storage device to a location proximate the patient; and transferring the one or more unit dose medications from the transport device to a staging area at the location proximate the patient.