US 6,640,159 · Granted 2003-10-28
How Hospital Pharmacies Restock Medicine Without Slowing Down
Imagine a vending machine for prescription pills at a hospital—except instead of restocking every single slot, staff just swap out entire trays of pre-loaded medicine. This patent describes the process and the removable cartridges that make it work, plus how the computer keeps track of what's inside.
The plain-English version
What it protects
The claim covers a system where pharmaceutical items are stored in removable liners (cartridges or trays) with multiple compartments, and the method for swapping those liners in and out of a dispensing unit while updating a computer system to track inventory. What's protected here is the combination of the physical removable liner design and the workflow of entering restocking requests and updating the processor with information about the replacement cartridge.
Why it matters
Hospital and pharmacy automation was expanding in the early 2000s, and this patent gave Omnicell a competitive edge in designing efficient drug-dispensing systems. Instead of manually refilling hundreds of individual slots, pharmacists can prepare full cartridges offline and swap them in seconds, reducing errors and restocking time significantly—a major win for patient safety and operational efficiency.
Real-world use
When a hospital pharmacist needs to restock the automated dispensing cabinet on the pediatric ward, they remove the spent cartridge, insert a pre-loaded one from inventory, and scan it so the system knows what medicines are now available.
Original USPTO abstract
The invention provides an exemplary method for restocking pharmaceutical or medical supply items into a dispensing unit having a processor, with at least some of the pharmaceutical or medical supply items being held in removable liners having a plurality of receptacles. According to the method, a request is entered into the processor to restock pharmaceutical or medical supply items. One of the liners is then removed from the dispensing unit and is replaced with a replacement liner having a new inventory of pharmaceutical or medical supply items. Information identifying the replacement liner is also entered into the processor.
Patent details
- Publication number
- US 6,640,159
- Filing date
- 2001-04-03
- Grant date
- 2003-10-28
- Assignee
- Omnicell Technologies, Inc.
- Inventor(s)
- HOLMES WILLIAM K., HIGHAM JOHN D., ARNOLD RICHARD C.
- CPC class
- G07F17/0092
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