Pharmaceutical Tray Filling System and Method

Abstract

A system for facilitating the manual filling of a pharmaceutical tray is provided. The system includes an electronic display device configured to display information adjacent the wells of the pharmaceutical tray. The system includes a controller configured to control the electronic display device to display information representative of a first type of pharmaceutical adjacent to a first well to direct manual placement of the first type of pharmaceutical into the first well and to control the electronic display device to selectively display information representative of a second type of pharmaceutical adjacent to a second well to direct manual placement of the second type of pharmaceutical into the second well.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of controlling a pharmaceutical filling workstation to facilitate the manual filling of a pharmaceutical tray including a plurality of wells each configured to hold a pharmaceutical, the method comprising:
 controlling a display device to display information indicative of a first pharmaceutical below a first well of the plurality of wells;   receiving a first input indicative of the first pharmaceutical being placed in the first well;   controlling the display device to display information indicative of a second pharmaceutical below a second well of the plurality of wells; and   receiving a second input indicative of the second pharmaceutical being placed in the second well.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the display device is controlled to display the information indicative of the first pharmaceutical below a bottom wall of the first well and to display the information indicative of the second pharmaceutical below a bottom wall of the second well, and further comprising viewing the information indicative of the first pharmaceutical through the bottom wall of the first well, and viewing the information indicative of the second pharmaceutical through the bottom wall of the second well. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the first input is received from an input device and the second input is received from the input device. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising receiving a tray fill order including data indicative of the first and second pharmaceuticals, data indicative of the first well and data indicative of the second well. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising displaying information indicative of the first and second pharmaceuticals, indicative of the first well and indicative of the second well on a touch screen device located adjacent the display device. 
     
     
         6 . A method of manually filling a pharmaceutical tray including a plurality of wells each configured to hold a pharmaceutical, the method comprising:
 placing the pharmaceutical tray above a flat panel display, wherein the flat panel display is viewable through the pharmaceutical tray;   displaying information indicative of a first pharmaceutical adjacent a first well of the pharmaceutical tray;   filling the first well with the first pharmaceutical;   displaying information indicative of a second pharmaceutical adjacent a second well of the pharmaceutical tray; and   filling the second well with the second pharmaceutical.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein the information indicative of the first pharmaceutical is displayed below a bottom wall of the first well and the information indicative of the second pharmaceutical is displayed below a bottom wall of the second well. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6  further comprising entering at least one of the lot number and expiration date of the first pharmaceutical and entering at least one of the lot number and expiration date of the second pharmaceutical. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising:
 removing the pharmaceutical tray from above the flat panel display; 
 filling a packaging cabinet with the pharmaceutical tray; 
 packaging the first pharmaceutical into a package at the packaging cabinet; and 
 printing at least one of the lot number and expiration date of the first pharmaceutical on the package. 
 
     
     
         10 . A system for filling a prescription medication orders, comprising:
 a medication tray including at least one row of medication channels passing through the tray and a unique machine-readable tray identifier;   a workstation including a first display device configured to display medication information and to display information input at the workstation, a second display configured to display images at the bottom of a plurality of channels, a reader assembly configured to read the tray identifier and to read a machine-readable medication identifier from a medication container; and   a database including tray data representative of the tray identifier, data representative of medication items to be manually placed in the medication tray, data representative of the respective channels within which the respective medication items are to be placed, prescription data representative of information for a plurality of medication items where such information includes data useable by the workstation to generate of images of a plurality of medication items on the first and second displays, and association data which associates the medication identifier with the medication items;   the workstation configured to communicate with the database and the reader assembly, to display information on the first display representative of at least one medication item associated with a tray identifier, to display information on the first display representative of medication from a medication container and to generate an image representative of the medication item at the bottom of the channel in the tray at which the medication item is to be placed.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the tray and medication identifiers are bar codes and the reader assembly is a barcode reader. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the tray and medication identifiers are barcodes and the reader assembly includes a first barcode reader located to read the tray identifier and a second barcode reader configured to read the medication identifier. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , which includes a non-opaque, panel which is moveable to close the bottoms of the channels and to permit viewing of images generated by the second display through the panel when medication items are placed in the channels, and moveable to open the bottoms of the channels when items in the channels are to be dispensed from the channels. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the second display is at least one display panel moveable to close the bottoms of the channels and permit viewing of the images generated by the second display when medication items are placed in the channels, and moveable to open the bottoms of the channels when items in the channels are to be dispensed from the channels. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the workstation is configured to receive an input indicative of at least one of the lot number and the expiration date of the medication item and to store the received lot number and expiration date in the database. 
     
     
         16 . A filling system configured to facilitate placement of items within the wells of a multi-welled tray comprising:
 a first display screen;   a tray including a plurality of wells, each well configured to hold an item, each well including a bottom wall formed from a light transmitting material, wherein the tray is positioned above the first display screen; and   a controller configured to control the first display screen to display information related to a first item at a first region of the first display screen such that the displayed information is viewable from above the tray through the bottom wall of a first well of the tray to direct the user of the workstation to fill the first well with the first item.   
     
     
         17 . The filling system of  claim 16  further comprising a second display screen adjacent the first display screen, and a tray support structure surrounding the first display screen. 
     
     
         18 . The filling system of  claim 16  wherein the first item is a first pharmaceutical item.