U.S. patent application number 10/918388 was filed with the patent office on 2006-04-06 for drug administration kit.
Invention is credited to Faisal Khawaja.
Application Number | 20060070895 10/918388 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 36035878 |
Filed Date | 2006-04-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060070895 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Khawaja; Faisal |
April 6, 2006 |
Drug administration kit
Abstract
A novel drug dispensing and tracking system is provided. In one
aspect, the system is provided as a kit comprising a plurality of
coded containers and a correspondingly coded medication
administration record sheet. The invention also includes a method
of dispensing medications.
Inventors: |
Khawaja; Faisal; (Ontario,
CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
GOWLING, LAFLEUR HENDERSON LLP
ONE MAIN STREET WEST
HAMILTON
ON
L8P 4Z5
CA
|
Family ID: |
36035878 |
Appl. No.: |
10/918388 |
Filed: |
August 16, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
206/223 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B42D 15/00 20130101;
A61J 1/035 20130101; A61J 1/03 20130101; A61J 7/04 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
206/223 |
International
Class: |
B65D 71/00 20060101
B65D071/00 |
Claims
1. A kit for multi-dose delivery of medications, said kit
comprising a plurality of pill containers coded for administration
on a certain day or time and a medication administration
recordation sheet having corresponding coding for the day or
time.
2. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the pill containers and the
record sheet are correspondingly color coded.
3. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the pill containers are
provided in the form of a cup, an envelope or a receptacle.
4. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the plurality of pill
containers are provided in a blister pack comprising a sheet of
thermoplastic material having a plurality of molded recesses and a
backsheet.
5. A kit according to claim 2 wherein the backsheet is coded
according to time of day and the record sheet includes the same
coding for the same time of day.
6. A kit according to claim 5 wherein the backsheet and the record
sheet are correspondingly color-coded.
7. A kit according to claim 5 wherein the pill containers and the
record sheet are coded with a different color for each daily dosage
time.
8. A kit according to claim 5 wherein the pill containers and the
record sheet are coded with a different color for each day of the
week.
9. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the pill containers and the
record sheet are arranged in columns according to day of the week
and rows according to the time of day.
10. A kit according to claim 1 wherein the pill containers and the
record sheet are arranged in columns according to the time of day
and rows according to the days of the week.
Description
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a system for monitoring
drug delivery in hospitals and other medical facilities. More
particularly, it relates to a kit to be used by a pharmacist and
nurse to reduce errors in the drug delivery process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In a hospital or other institutional setting, a nurse is
frequently required to keep track of medications for different
patients and to make sure that every patient gets the correct
medication at the correct time of day. It is known however, that
errors in drug administration do occur. Such errors pose a threat
to the patient and may interfere with their treatment and recovery.
In the worst cases, administration of an incorrect drug to patient
can have serious health effects and is some times even fatal.
[0003] There are many steps in the drug delivery process where an
error can occur. Normally, the attending physician prescribes a
drug or several drugs for a patient. The prescription is inputted
into the pharmacy through a paper prescription or through a
centralized computer system. The pharmacist prepares the
prescriptions required for each patient. The actual delivery of the
drugs or medications to the patient is done by a nurse or other
hospital staff person that goes from patient to patient, identifies
the patient and delivers the appropriate medication to that
patient. The nurse or practitioner then signs a record sheet
indicating that the medication was in fact administered at that
time.
[0004] Errors can occur at any stage of the drug delivery
procedure. For example, some errors result from an erroneous
prescription by the physician. Other errors occur during the
delivery chain when either the pharmacist provides the wrong drug
or the nurse administers medication to the wrong patient or at the
wrong time. The present invention is directed towards reducing
errors in the delivery chain by coordinating the delivery container
with a record sheet that the practitioner signs when the drug is
administered.
[0005] In recent years, several different types of medication
containers have been developed in order to attempt to reduce the
number of errors in the drug delivery chain. For example, U.S. Pat.
No. 5,788,079 is directed to a set of individual pill containers. A
sheet of plastic material is provided which has a plurality of
molded recesses. Each of the recesses defines a small upwardly open
cavity that can be filled with pills. After filling, a set of these
individual pill containers, a self-adhesive sheet of paper is used
to cover and seal the containers. This type of system is
particularly useful when a patient needs to take a plurality of
pills at different times of the day. For example, a patient may
require pills (a) and (b) three times a day and pills (a) (b) and
(c) once a day. The different medications for each time of day can
be put in a separate container in the set.
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,739 discloses another type of disposable
medication package that comprises a card used in conjunction with a
blister pack to hold oral solid dose medication in the form of
tablets and capsules. By looking at the medication card, a patient
can easily see whether or not they have taken the required
medication at the required time.
[0007] Another type of known dispensing system is the unit-dose
system. Unit-dose systems have separate packages for each
medication with 30-day quantities. e.g. Tylenol 325 mg has its own
card, Lipitor 10 mg has its own card, etc. There are problems
associated with this excessive packaging including environmental
pollution and operational inefficiency for nursing staff since much
time is spent popping pills out of each and every blister pack.
[0008] Thus, there remains a need for further improvements in the
tracking of drugs from the pharmacist to the patient. There is also
a need for a system that makes it easier for a nurse to dispense
the medication and to see at a glance which medication should be
given.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] It is an object of one aspect of the invention to provide a
drug delivery system that facilitates tracking of the
administration of a drug to a patient.
[0010] The present invention is particularly useful for a
multi-dose system in which different and multiple medications, that
are to be administered at the same time, are packaged together
within the same container. This dramatically reduces nursing time
spent as well as the negative environmental impacts of unit dose
systems.
[0011] The drug delivery system of the present invention is
preferably provided as a kit. The kit comprises a plurality of pill
containers coded for administration on a certain day or time and a
medication administration record sheet coded in the same manner.
The pill containers may be in the form of a cup, an envelope or a
receptacle in a plastic pill case or a blister pack.
[0012] In a preferred embodiment, the pill containers are
receptacles in a blister pack and the sealing backsheet is color
coded for times of day. The same color coding is applied to the
medication record sheet.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] These and other features of the invention will become more
apparent from the following description in which reference is made
to the appended drawings wherein:
[0014] FIG. 1 illustrates a set of pill containers for use in a
drug delivery kit;
[0015] FIG. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a drug administration
record sheet for use in the drug delivery kit; and
[0016] FIG. 3 illustrates another embodiment of a drug
administration record sheet for use in the drug delivery kit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] There is a crucial need to ensure the safe delivery of
medications to patients in hospitals, retirement homes and other
institutions. This need is highlighted when a patient may be taking
more than one medication and different medications at different
times of the day.
[0018] To facilitate the appropriate administration of medication,
it is currently a practice for the pharmacist to review the list of
medications prescribed for a patient and then prepare a series of
pill containers where each container contains the medications that
the patient should be taking at a certain time of day. The
medications for all the patients are then delivered to the hospital
ward or institution and the medication is given to the appropriate
patient by a nurse or other qualified individual. Once the
medication has been given to the patient, the person administering
it signs a record sheet indicating what medicine was given at what
time. It is very important to keep good records of the
administration to keep track of what was actually administered (as
opposed to prescribed) for the patient at that time. This allows
institutions to track the drugs and it also provides an important
record in case of any adverse effects. Furthermore, it allows a
practitioner to look at a glance and see what medications a patient
is under the influence of at any particular time of day.
[0019] The present invention makes the tracking of medication
administration even easier by providing pill containers and
sign-off sheets that work together to prevent errors. In the prior
art, pill containers could be identified in various ways, i.e. by
patient name, by bed number, by prescription number, etc. The
recordation sheet could also be provided formatted in a variety of
ways. The administering practitioner would then need to ensure that
they were giving the right medication at the right time and that
they were recording it properly on the recordation sheet. The
present invention simplifies the process by providing a set of pill
containers and a recordation sheet that match in terms of color and
orientation. The invention is particularly useful for multi-dose
systems where multiple medications are packaged together for
administration at the same time of day. Thus, the nurse has to open
only one package for all the medications prescribed for an
individual patient for a certain time of day.
[0020] The invention is provided as a kit that comprises a set of
pill containers arranged by day of the week and time of day and a
corresponding medication administration record sheet. In one
preferred embodiment, the pill containers are provided in a blister
pack sealed with a backsheet that is printed with different indicia
corresponding to different times of day. For example, the row
corresponding to morning could be pink, the row corresponding to
noon could be yellow, the row corresponding to evening could be
blue and the row corresponding to night could be green. It is
clearly apparent that various types of color or symbol coding can
be used. The medication administration sheet also comprises rows
corresponding to various times of day. An important aspect of the
present invention is that the indicia corresponding to the
different times are the same on the pill containers and on the
medication record sheet. For example, if morning is pink on the
pill container, then the row for morning on the medication
administration sheet is also pink. In this way, it is very clear to
the nurse or whoever is administering the medications that if it is
morning, all the medications should be in pink containers. This
also reduces the chance of errors in recording administration. If a
pink container is being administered, then the sign-off should be
on a pink row. By maintaining the same coding on both the pill
container and the record sheet, the probability of an error
occurring is reduced.
[0021] Preferred embodiments of a kit according to the present
invention are illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. The kit comprises a
set of pill containers as such as that is shown in FIG. 1. The
containers 12 are preferably formed from a sheet of molded plastic
material 10 and are sealed with a backsheet 14. The backsheet may
be of a variety of materials that can be printed upon. It is
preferably paper. The backsheet includes adhesive regions for
sealing each pill container individually. Both the sheet of molded
plastic defining the containers and the backsheet are provided with
perforations 16 so that they can separated into individual sealed
pill containers.
[0022] The backsheet is provided with differential markings or
indicia which correspond to times of the day when medication is
usually administered. For example, in the Figures, the row
corresponding to morning is identified by horizontal lines 18, the
row corresponding to noon is identified by backward hatching 20,
the row corresponding to evening is identified by vertical lines 22
and the row corresponding to night is identified by forward
hatching 24. It is clearly apparent that while the pill container
set is shown with rows for four times of day for exemplary
purposes, a set of containers could be provided which correspond to
only once a day or a set of containers could be provided with
markings corresponding to eight or more dosage times.
[0023] The kit of the invention further comprises a medication
administration record sheet 30. Examples of record sheets are shown
in FIGS. 2 and 3. In FIG. 2, the record sheet includes a drug
identification column 32 that is used to identify the medication to
be given. For each drug, a series of rows 34, 36, 38, 40
corresponds to times of day when the drug might be given. Columns
42 correspond to days of the week. When the drug is administered,
the person administering the drug puts a signature 44 on the record
sheet in the intersection of the time of day and day of the week
(e.g. Sunday noon).
[0024] A more preferred record sheet for use in the kit of the
present invention is shown in FIG. 3. The medication administration
record sheet 50 of this embodiment is based on a monthly record
with the option for several daily dosages. There are thirty-one
vertical columns 52 for the days of the month and six rows 54 for
up to six daily dosage times. There are eight boxes 56 for up to
eight medications to be delivered. It is apparent that the general
concept of the present invention can be applied to medication
regimens with administration of a drug from once daily only up to
six, eight or even 24 administrations per day. It is also apparent
that a record sheet can be provided that is formatted for four
weeks (i.e. 28 days) monthly, bimonthly, semi-monthly, etc.
[0025] While a preferred embodiment is illustrated using a
blister-pack type of container system, it is clearly apparent that
other pill container systems, such as envelopes, cups, cardboard
sheets, reusable plastic pill containers such as those having a
plurality of receptacles for time and day of the week and the like
could also be used in the present invention, as long as the
container markings correspond to the markings on the sign-off sheet
for the same time. In the illustrated embodiments, the markings are
different for different times of day but are the same for different
days of the week. In another preferred embodiment, unique indicia
are used for days of the week. In a further preferred embodiment
different indicia are used for both the times of day and the day of
the week. For example, Sunday could be yellow and morning could be
a horizontal stripe. Thus, Sunday morning would be yellow with a
horizontal stripe and Wednesday morning might be blue with a
horizontal stripe and so on. It is also apparent that the
orientation of the rows and columns is flexible within the scope of
the invention. For example, while the days are shown as columns and
the times of day are shown as rows in the drawings provided herein,
the days could just as easily be aligned as rows and the times as
columns. While the important aspect is that the coding on the pill
container and on the recordation sheet match, it is preferable, but
not essential, that the orientation in rows and columns also
matches.
[0026] A method of dispensing medications is provided. Multiple
medications to be administered to a patient at a particular time of
time are placed in a pill container that is coded for that time of
day. A medication administration sheet that is coded in the same
manner as the pill container for the same time of day is filled in
indicating the medications to be administered and the sheet and the
containers are provided to the person who will be administering the
medications.
[0027] The present invention also provides a method of dispensing
medication. The method comprises the steps of obtaining a container
coded for a particular time of day that is filled with medications
for administration at that time of day, administering the
medications and signing off on the administration on a medication
administration record which has the same coding for time of
day.
[0028] The present invention has been described with regard to one
or more embodiments. However, it will be apparent to persons
skilled in the art that a number of variations and modifications
can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as
defined in the claims.
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