U.S. patent application number 16/564199 was filed with the patent office on 2020-04-09 for networkable medical labeling apparatus and method.
The applicant listed for this patent is CODONICS, INC.. Invention is credited to Gary KEEFE, Lawrence SRNKA.
Application Number | 20200110563 16/564199 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 63916176 |
Filed Date | 2020-04-09 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20200110563 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
KEEFE; Gary ; et
al. |
April 9, 2020 |
NETWORKABLE MEDICAL LABELING APPARATUS AND METHOD
Abstract
Provided are a system and method of generating a label
comprising label content based on information stored by a plurality
of different databases. The system includes an interface that
receives an order ID. A communication system transmits the order ID
over a communication network to a remotely-located terminal, and
receives order data comprising information obtained from a record
in a first database. A memory device that is locally connected to
the interface locally stores a second database comprising rules
defining requirements of a drug labeling standard. The memory
device stores insufficient information to locally interpret the
order ID. A label generator applies at least one of the rules using
a portion of the received order data and a portion of information
locally stored in the second database to control a label printer
that prints the label in compliance with the drug labeling
standard.
Inventors: |
KEEFE; Gary; (Brecksville,
OH) ; SRNKA; Lawrence; (Northfield Center,
OH) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
CODONICS, INC. |
Middleburg Heights |
OH |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
63916176 |
Appl. No.: |
16/564199 |
Filed: |
September 9, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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15968363 |
May 1, 2018 |
10409535 |
|
|
16564199 |
|
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62492519 |
May 1, 2017 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/1204 20130101;
G16H 10/60 20180101; G06F 3/1255 20130101; G06Q 30/06 20130101;
G06F 3/125 20130101; H04L 67/12 20130101; G06Q 50/22 20130101; G16H
20/17 20180101; G06F 3/1243 20130101; G06F 3/1285 20130101; G06F
3/1208 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/12 20060101
G06F003/12; G16H 10/60 20060101 G16H010/60; G06Q 30/06 20060101
G06Q030/06 |
Claims
1. A system for generating a label comprising label content based
on information stored by a plurality of different databases, the
system comprising: an interface that receives an order ID that
uniquely identifies an order for a drug to be administered to a
patient; a communication system that: (i) transmits the order ID
over a communication network to a remotely-located terminal that
has access to a first database storing a record corresponding to
the order ID, and (ii) receives, over the communication network,
order data comprising information obtained from the record in the
first database based on the order ID, wherein the order data is
related to the order for the drug to be administered to the
patient; a memory device that is locally connected to the interface
and locally stores a second database comprising rules defining
requirements of a drug labeling standard, wherein the requirements
are to be satisfied by the label to render the label compliant with
the drug labeling standard, and wherein the memory device stores
insufficient information to locally interpret the order ID; and a
label generator that applies at least one of the rules using a
portion of the received order data and a portion of information
locally stored in the second database to control a label printer
that prints the label in compliance with the drug labeling
standard.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein information about at least one of
the requirements of the drug labeling standard is missing from the
order data received by the communication system, and the label
generator supplements the order information with the information
about the at least one of the requirements that is missing from the
order data to produce the label in compliance with the drug
labeling standard.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the
requirements of the drug labeling standard that is missing from the
order data is a color code associated with a class of the drug that
is to be printed onto the label.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least one of the
requirements of the drug labeling standard that is missing from the
order data is formatting information defining a format of content
that is to be printed onto the label.
5. The system of claim 1, wherein the label generator supplements
the received order information with additional information about
the drug retrieved from the memory device, and produces the label
to include the received order information as supplemented by the
additional information.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
[0001] This application relates generally to a labeling apparatus
for generating labels and, more particularly, a labeling apparatus
and method for generating labels including a combination of: (i)
information obtained from a remotely-stored database based on a
machine-readable code that uniquely identifies a drug container,
and (ii) information obtained from a drug formulary locally stored
by the labeling apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
[0002] Conventional labeling systems can receive data manually
input by a user and use that information to retrieve detailed
information about a drug from a drug database. The retrieved
information is then printed onto a label that can be applied to a
syringe to identify the drug that is to be administered using that
syringe. Such a workflow is sufficient for labeling systems that
operate as a stand-alone printing solution and locally store all of
the information required to print the label for the identified
drug. However, such conventional labeling systems require redundant
information entry when used in environments where some of the
information required to identify the drug may already be accessible
to the labeling apparatus. Further, such stand-alone labeling
solutions are isolated from, and incompatible with other systems
employed at a healthcare facility to document drug usage.
Accordingly, conventional solutions are unable to control a
printing device to produce a drug label with label content specific
to a drug order when the information required to produce such a
label is not obtainable from one source.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0003] According to one aspect, the subject application involves a
system for generating a label comprising label content based on
information stored by a plurality of different databases,
optionally stored by different memory devices. The system includes
an interface that receives an order ID uniquely identifying an
order for a drug to be administered to a patient. A communication
system: (i) transmits the order ID over a communication network to
a remotely-located terminal that has access to a first database
storing a record corresponding to the order ID, and (ii) receives,
over the communication network, order data comprising information
obtained from the record in the first database based on the order
ID. The order data is related to the order for the drug to be
administered to the patient. A memory device is locally connected
to the interface and locally stores a second database comprising
rules defining requirements of a drug labeling standard. The
requirements are to be satisfied by the label to render the label
compliant with the drug labeling standard. The memory device also
stores insufficient information to locally interpret the order ID.
A label generator applies at least one of the rules using a portion
of the received order data and a portion of information locally
stored in the second database to control a label printer that
prints the label in compliance with the drug labeling standard.
[0004] The above summary presents a simplified summary in order to
provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the systems and/or
methods discussed herein. This summary is not an extensive overview
of the systems and/or methods discussed herein. It is not intended
to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of such
systems and/or methods. Its sole purpose is to present some
concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed
description that is presented later.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
[0005] The invention may take physical form in certain parts and
arrangement of parts, embodiments of which will be described in
detail in this specification and illustrated in the accompanying
drawings which form a part hereof and wherein:
[0006] FIG. 1 shows an illustrative embodiment of a labeling
apparatus for generating labels to be applied to medicinal
substances in a medical facility;
[0007] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram schematically depicting
components of a labeling apparatus for generating labels to be
applied to medicinal substances in a medical facility;
[0008] FIG. 3 shows an illustrative embodiment of a medical
labeling network arrangement for preparing and labeling delivery
containers with drugs at a medical facility;
[0009] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram that schematically illustrates a
process of publishing a label for a delivery container used to
administer a drug to a patient; and
[0010] FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of a label published
in accordance with an embodiment of a process described herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0011] Certain terminology is used herein for convenience only and
is not to be taken as a limitation on the present invention.
Relative language used herein is best understood with reference to
the drawings, in which like numerals are used to identify like or
similar items. Further, in the drawings, certain features may be
shown in somewhat schematic form.
[0012] It is also to be noted that the phrase "at least one of", if
used herein, followed by a plurality of members herein means one of
the members, or a combination of more than one of the members. For
example, the phrase "at least one of a first widget and a second
widget" means in the present application: the first widget, the
second widget, or the first widget and the second widget. Likewise,
"at least one of a first widget, a second widget and a third
widget" means in the present application: the first widget, the
second widget, the third widget, the first widget and the second
widget, the first widget and the third widget, the second widget
and the third widget, or the first widget and the second widget and
the third widget.
[0013] As shown in FIG. 1, the computer terminal 10 includes a
touch-screen display 14 that can be pivotally coupled to a cabinet
20 to display a virtual label 16 comprising label content 34. Upon
receiving approval of the label content appearing as part of the
virtual label 16 as a preview, the computer terminal 10 will print
the label content 34 onto a label 12 that will be applied to a
delivery container (e.g., an IV bag, syringe, etc.) that is usable
to administer a medicinal substance such as a drug to a patient.
The computer terminal 10 can be operable to scan a
computer-readable code and print a label to be applied to a medical
container such as a syringe as described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,639,525
to Levine et al., which is incorporated by reference herein in its
entirety. The display 14 can display soft keys that, when touched
by a technician or any other user, inputs data and/or commands into
the computer terminal 10, otherwise the computer terminal 10 can be
provided with a pointing device (e.g., computer mouse, trackball,
etc.) or other device to allow a user to input data and/or
commands. The virtual label 16 is a computer-generated rendering of
the label 12 that offers the user visual confirmation of the
appearance of the physical label 12 to be printed by a printer 26.
A computer-input peripheral such as a non-contact scanner 18 can be
provided at a convenient location, such as integrally formed in a
bottom portion of the display 14 to read a machine-readable code
supported beneath the scanner 18 for example. Integrally forming
the scanner 18 as part of the display 14 provides for space savings
over an arrangement where the scanner 18 is formed as a separate
peripheral, which can be repositioned relative to the display 14.
However, other embodiments of the computer terminal 10 can allow
for a separate and distinct scanner 18 and/or display 14.
[0014] The computer-input peripheral can be a barcode reader or
radio-frequency identification ("RFID") tag reader, or any other
device that reads a machine-readable code such as a barcode or RFID
code, respectively, or any other machine-readable code without
requiring contact between the computer terminal and the code, and
optionally the user, during entry of the code. According to
alternate embodiments, the display 14 can be utilized by a user as
the computer-input peripheral. For such embodiments, the soft keys
displayed by the display 14 can be selected to input information
such as a medicinal substance being prepared to be administered to
a patient or other information to be utilized in generating the
label as described herein. According to yet alternate embodiments,
a speaker 17 can optionally be provided to the display 14 or any
other portion of the computer terminal 10 to broadcast audible
sounds.
[0015] The computer terminal 10 also includes a cabinet 20 that
houses or supports components that are operable to produce the
label 12 in compliance with a medical labeling standard (e.g., The
Joint Commission NPSG.03.04.01; and/or meets the intent of ISO
26825, ASTM 4774 Standards and ASA Guidelines). But if what is
being labeled is anything other than the medicinal substance, then
the label 12 produced is to be compliant with a standard developed
by a trade or professional organization, governing body, government
agency, a healthcare provider or facility such as a hospital, or
any other standards body setting forth policies for labeling such
material. The internal components housed within the cabinet 20 are
schematically illustrated by the block diagram of FIG. 2. The
components can be formed from an arrangement of computer hardware
such as ASICs, computer processors, programmable logic controllers
and other circuitry; or a combination of computer hardware and
computer-executable instructions stored in a non-transitory
computer-readable medium. For example, a processing component 22 is
provided to execute computer-executable instructions stored in a
non-transitory, computer-readable memory 24 such as a hard disk
drive, read-only memory ("ROM"), random access memory ("RAM"),
optical disc, or any other suitable memory device, or any
combination thereof. The computer-executed instructions, when
executed by the computer processor 22, configure the computer
processor 22 as a label generator that performs the method of
generating a label for a medicinal substance described in detail
below. The label generator applies one or more rules defining the
requirements of a drug labeling standard as described herein, to
generate label content that is to be printed onto a label. The
label generator controls operation of the printer 26 to produce a
hardcopy of label, which can be adhesively applied to a drug
container for storing the drug. A BIOS 28 is provided to load the
operating system and other such administrative instructions 30
stored in the memory 24 and manage hardware interface permissions
of the computer terminal 10. The operating system can be configured
to only load authorized updates to prevent unauthorized changes to
a formulary 36, configuration data 32 and administration
instructions 30. Configuration data 32 controls various features of
the computer terminal 10 that are active and available for use at
any given time. The configuration data 32 can optionally be stored,
updated and deleted from the memory 24 by the introduction of a
so-called smart drive comprising a USB compatible flash memory to
the computer terminal 10. When the smart drive is introduced to the
computer terminal 10, it establishes the configuration data 32 of
the computer terminal 10. The configuration data 32 can optionally
be used to deactivate functional features that the computer
terminal 10 would otherwise be able to perform based on the model
of the computer terminal 10 purchased. Accordingly, a common
hardware platform of the computer terminal 10 can be configured in
a plurality of different functional configurations based on the
configuration data 32.
[0016] In addition to the administrative instructions 30, the
memory 24 also stores an updatable formulary 36 containing a
database of medicinal substances that can be identified by the
computer terminal 10 and select information for each
medicinal-substance entry in the database. The formulary 36 can
optionally be stored, updated and deleted from the memory 24 by the
introduction of a so-called smart drive comprising a USB compatible
flash memory to the computer terminal 10. When the smart drive is
introduced to the computer terminal 10, it establishes the
formulary 36 of the computer terminal 10. Illustrative examples of
the select information that can be provided for the
medicinal-substance entries includes, but is not limited to: an ID
number such as a National Drug Code ("NDC"), UPC code, EAN code, or
any other standard-compliant identifying data that can be used to
relate a barcode or other computer-readable code to the
medicinal-substance entries in the database; a unique identifier
that is not standardized, but uniquely identifies a delivery
container at a healthcare facility; a sound file that, when played,
audibly announces the name of the medicinal substance identified in
response to scanning a machine readable code; warning data;
dilution data including, but not limited to, the classification of
a drug as a dilution, the name of the diluent, a diluted
concentration, etc.; a color code mandated by a drug labeling
standard for the particular class of drugs that the medicinal
substance in each entry falls into; or any combination thereof.
[0017] A network adaptor 38 is operatively connected to communicate
with the processing component 22 for translating signals received
by the computer terminal 10 over a network 40 (FIG. 3) at a medical
facility. The network adaptor 38 can be compatible with any type of
network communication. For example, the network adaptor 38 can
include a hardwired, 10Base-T, 100Base-T, or 1000Base-T Ethernet
interface with an RJ-45 socket, a coaxial cable interface, a
fiber-optic interface, any format of wireless communication
interface such as an antenna compatible with any of the 802.11
standards established by the IEEE, or any combination thereof.
Embodiments including wireless network adaptors 38 can employ any
desired securing protocol such as WEP, WPA and WPA2, for example,
and other suitable security protocol. For embodiments including a
network adaptor 38 compatible to communicate over a plurality of
different network communication channels, both a hard-wired
communication portion of the network adaptor 38 and a wireless
communication portion of the network adaptor 38 can optionally be
concurrently active. Thus, the computer terminal 10 can optionally
communicate via both the hard-wired and wireless portions of the
network adaptor 38 concurrently. The network 40 can include wired
and/or wireless routers and switches commonly included in a local
area network ("LAN"), and/or public switched communication lines
(e.g., telephone lines, fiber optic cables, etc.), external
servers, etc. commonly included in a wide area network ("WAN"), and
any other network communication devices as required to facilitate
communications between the computer terminal 10 and other devices
as described herein.
[0018] As shown in FIG. 3 the computer terminal 10 can be in
communication with a network 40 at a healthcare facility such as a
hospital, and can communicate with other, possibly remotely-located
terminals at other locations within the healthcare facility and/or
external to the healthcare facility via the network 40. For
example, the computer terminal 10 can be physically located within
an operating room in which surgical procedures take place. A
pharmacy terminal 45 can also be located within a pharmacy with a
supply of drugs in the same hospital as the operating room, but at
another location outside of the operating room, where drug orders
can be fulfilled and drug delivery containers 55, 60 (FIG. 3)
according to those orders can be prepared. Communications between
the computer terminal 10 and the pharmacy terminal 45 can be
established via the network 40. Further, a server 50 can also be
physically located within the same hospital as the computer
terminal 10, within a different building forming a portion of the
same hospital system, or hosted externally of the hospital by a
third party that is not part of the hospital system. Regardless of
the physical location of the server 50, the server 50 is accessible
to the computer terminal 10 via the network 40. The server 50 can
optionally be a proprietary server, implementing security measures
to limiting access to information stored by the memory of the
server 50 to only authorized devices or parties with the requisite
credentials. For example, the server 50 can be hosted by a third
party manufacturer or proprietor of drug management, preparation
and/or dispensing technologies, that is unrelated to, or
unaffiliated with a manufacturer or proprietor of the computer
terminal 10.
[0019] Like the computer terminal 10, the pharmacy terminal 45 and
the server 50 include a processing component 22, a non-transitory
memory 24 and a network adaptor 38. However, the memory 24 of the
pharmacy terminal 45 and/or the server 50 can optionally lack the
configuration instructions 32 and the administration instructions
30 of the computer terminal 10.
[0020] The terms "local" and "remote," when used herein to describe
the storage of data, instructions or other information that can be
utilized by a processing component, establish whether the stored
content is stored by a memory 24 forming a part of the terminal
that uses the stored content. For example, the computer terminal 10
receiving data or information stored by a remotely-located
computer-readable medium of the server 50 requires the received
data and/or information to be transmitted by the server 50 to the
computer terminal 10 via the network 40 instead of being retrieved
from a storage device physically connected directly to the computer
terminal in the same physical location. In other words, receiving
information from such a remotely-located device can optionally
involve receiving the information from a storage device provided to
a different terminal, at a different location than the computer
terminal 10.
[0021] When a drug order is placed by a prescribing physician or
other individual licensed or otherwise authorized to distribute a
medicinal substance (which can optionally be a controlled
substance), that order can be assigned a unique order
identification ("order ID") that uniquely identifies that
individual drug order from all other drug orders placed at a
hospital, for example. The order ID can optionally be a string of
numeric characters, alphabetic characters, alpha-numeric
characters, and optionally other characters such as symbols and/or
any other ASCII characters, for example. The order ID can be
assigned to a record in an electronic database accessible by the
pharmacy terminal 45 via the network 40. The record in the database
that is assigned the order ID can include information pertaining to
the drug order, the drug prescribed, the specific drug preparation
(e.g., including drugs intended for administration to a human,
presented in their finished dosage form, with materials used in the
preparation and/or formulation of the finished dosage form) and/or
the recipient patient. For example, information included in the
record includes, but is not limited to, at least one of: a
prescribing physician, the recipient patient's identity (by name
and/or patient ID, etc.), the drug's identity (by National Drug
Code or other standardized identifier, and/or drug name, etc.), the
prescribed total dose and/or total volume of the drug, the
prescribed concentration of the drug, the prescribed frequency of
administration of the drug, date and optionally time drug was
prescribed, expiration information indicating when the prescribed
drug expires relative to a time when the delivery container is
prepared with the drug, the location the drug was prepared, and any
other information pertaining to at least one of the drug, the
prescription, the preparation, the patient and the physician.
[0022] The order ID can optionally be proprietary to the entity
responsible for processing the drug order, hospital specific, or
interpretable according to any metric that is not interpretable by
the computer terminal 10. In other words, the computer terminal 10
can optionally be configured without the computer-executable
instructions or locally stored data required to fully interpret the
order ID and locally determine the information in the record
assigned that order ID. However, the database record assigned the
order ID that is received by computer terminal 10 from a
remotely-located computer-readable medium of the server 50 can
optionally lack at least a portion of the information required to
publish a standard-compliant label. For example, the database
record assigned the order ID can optionally lack a color code of a
classification of the prescribed drug (e.g. the record lacks an
indication that the color code should be blue for a narcotic
according to ISO 26825 and ASTM 4774 specifications), a type of
lettering commonly used for text that is to appear on the label to
improve human readability of drugs with similar names (e.g. tallman
lettering), etc. Accordingly, labels printed based only on
information available within the database record assigned the order
ID would be basic labels that are not compliant with the applicable
medical labeling standard(s) and, therefore, inappropriate for use
in a medical setting to label a delivery container storing the
prescribed drug.
[0023] The drug order itself, or at least the order ID can be
transmitted electronically via the network 40 to the pharmacy
terminal 45. A pharmacist, physician, nurse, or other authorized
clinician can access the drug order using the pharmacy terminal 45
to prepare a delivery container such as an IV bag 60 or a syringe
55 (FIG. 3) to contain the prescribed quantity of the drug. A basic
label 65 that is not compliant with a medical labelling standard
promulgated by a governing body can be printed to be applied to the
IV bag 60 or syringe 55. Label content including a barcode 70
encoding the order ID or other information that can be used to
retrieve information from the database record assigned the order ID
can be printed onto the label 65, and the label 65 applied to the
IV bag 60 or syringe 55, as appropriate. The label content printed
onto the label 65 can also optionally include human-readable text
75 identifying the prescribed drug and optionally quantity
information 77 indicating a dose, volume, concentration, or a
combination thereof. The human-readable text 75 can be readable
without the aid of a computer or other machine translator, as is
utilized to interrogate and interpret the barcode 70. Further, the
human-readable text 75 can include only content received as part of
the order data, or content received as part of the order data as
supplemented by additional data pertaining to the drug locally
stored by the memory device 24. The human-readable text 75 can be
printed as the label content instead of, or in addition to the
barcode 70.
[0024] According to alternate embodiments, a pharmacist may prepare
a collection of syringes 55 containing a drug commonly administered
several times throughout the course of a day such as penicillin,
for example. These penicillin syringes 55 are not affiliated with
any specific drug order issued as of a time when the syringes 55 of
penicillin are prepared. Again, the pharmacist or other clinician
can prepare the syringes 55 of penicillin and, using the pharmacy
terminal 45, print a label uniquely identifying each syringe 55 of
penicillin from the other syringes 55 of penicillin and all other
drug preparations. For such embodiments, when a drug order assigned
an order ID is later issued for penicillin, the barcode uniquely
identifying each syringe 55 of penicillin that is allocated for
fulfillment of the later-issued drug order can be associated with
the database record corresponding to that drug order and the
corresponding order ID. Regardless of when the drug order is issued
relative to preparation of the syringe 55 and/or IV bag 60, the
information encoded by the barcode 70 can be utilized to retrieve
information from the corresponding database record, which is not
locally accessible by the computer terminal 10.
[0025] In other embodiments, a pharmacist may prepare a batch of
syringes 55 containing a drug commonly administered several times
throughout the course of a day such as penicillin, for example but
only print a single label with an Order ID or other drug
identifying information using pharmacy terminal 45 that is
indicative of a batch of drugs where each syringe in the batch
contains the same drug preparation. The computer terminal 10 can
optionally be configured to read the Order ID or other drug
identifying information from the single, non-compliant label (e.g.,
by scanning a barcode, reading a RFID tag, etc.) and prompt the
user on display 14 to enter the number of compliant labels required
and print a batch of labels for labeling the syringe 55 containers
in accordance the methods described herein for producing compliant
labels by scanning an Order ID on computer terminal 10.
[0026] A process of printing a standard-compliant label based on a
combination of locally-accessible information and information
obtained from a remotely-located terminal is depicted in the flow
diagram of FIG. 4. For the sake of brevity and to clearly describe
the process, publishing a standard-compliant label for a syringe 55
prepared with Fentanyl will be described, but the present
disclosure is not so limited. Instead, the barcode 70 applied to
any delivery container for any drug is considered to be within the
scope of the present disclosure. Further, the pharmacy terminal 45
or any other device remotely located from the computer terminal 10
can optionally include the computer memory storing the database
records assigned the various order ID's. But again, for the sake of
brevity and clarity the process will be described with reference to
the server 50 including the memory storing the database
records.
[0027] The process of FIG. 4 can be performed in response to the
issuance of a drug order for Fentanyl by a prescribing physician.
According to the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 4, the syringe 55
including the prescribed dose of Fentanyl prepared by at the
pharmacy as described above can be delivered to an operating room
or other location where the computer terminal 10 is located and the
drug is to be administered to the patient. The delivered syringe 55
has been prepared at the pharmacy as described above and bears the
basic label 65 including the barcode 70 encoding the order ID or
other information that can be used to retrieve information from the
database record assigned the order ID. At step 100 in FIG. 4, the
barcode scanner 18 of the computer terminal 10 is used to scan the
barcode 70 uniquely identifying the syringe 55. Although the
computer terminal 10 is programmed with computer-executable
instructions that, when executed, cause the computer terminal 10 to
decode the symbology of the barcode 70 to obtain the encoded
information, the memory 24 of the computer terminal 10 does not
include the database that can be referenced using the decoded
information from the barcode 70. Thus, the computer terminal 10 is
unable to locally obtain the required drug information to print the
standard-compliant label. Accordingly, the computer terminal 10,
via the network adaptor 38 (FIG. 2), transmits at least a portion
of the information decoded from the barcode 70 over the network 40
to the server 50 provided with the memory storing the database
including the record assigned the order ID at step 110 (FIG.
4).
[0028] At least a portion of the information included in the
database record assigned to the order ID is transmitted by the
server 50, and received by the computer terminal 10 at step 120.
The received information can include at least one of: the drug
name, the NDC of the drug, and/or any other information that can be
used by the computer terminal 10 to identify the corresponding
entry included in the locally-stored formulary 36. Examples of
additional information that can be transmitted by the server 50
include, but are not limited to: information indicative of the
identity of the person who prepared the syringe 55, information
indicative of the patient's identity, the time at which the syringe
was prepared, a diluent used to dilute the Fentanyl, the location
where the drug was prepared, etc.
[0029] At step 130, at least a portion of the information received
by the computer terminal 10 can be used to identify the entry in
the formulary 36 corresponding to the drug in the syringe 55 which,
in the present example, is Fentanyl. For example, information about
the drug such as the lettering of the drug name "fentaNYL" on the
label of syringe 55 where the final three characters "NYL" of the
drug name are to appear in all caps, in accordance with a so-called
tall-man lettering scheme. This information can optionally be
retrieved locally from the formulary 36 by the computer terminal 10
based on information such as the NDC received from the server 50.
Thus, using at least a portion of the information received from the
server 50 or other remotely-located source, the computer terminal
10 can retrieve locally-stored information about the drug in
question based on information encoded by the barcode 70. Without
communicating with, and receiving information from the server 50,
the computer terminal 10 may not be able to interpret this barcode
70 as required to retrieve the locally-stored information required
by the computer terminal 10 to print a standard-compliant label 12,
which can be placed over label the label 70 on the syringe 55.
[0030] Since the database stored by the server 50 lacks formatting
information required of a standard-compliant label for Fentanyl,
the computer terminal 10 at step 140 can locally retrieve and apply
formatting rules mandated by the standard according to which the
label 12 is to comply. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the
background of the label is to be colored blue for Fentanyl. The
color and/or pattern of colors on the label 12 corresponds to the
classification of the drug. Referring to the current example of
Fentanyl, the drug is classified as a narcotic and standards such
as ISO 26825 and ASTM 4774 for example, specify the color blue is
used on the label to identify a narcotic. The NDC received from the
server 50 as part of the information associated with the Order ID
is used to retrieve information from the formulary 36 stored
locally in computer terminal 10 that includes the information
specifying the classification of the drug. Rules configured in
computer terminal 10 use the drug classification to print the color
and/or pattern of colors on the label and the format of the label
content 34 to fit on the physical label. At step 150 in FIG. 4, the
computer terminal 10 prints the label content 34 onto the label 12
to publish the standard compliant label shown in FIG. 5. The label
content can include information received from the server 50,
information retrieved locally from the formulary 36, information
derived from application of the rules applied at step 140, or a
combination thereof. As shown in FIG. 5, the resulting
standard-compliant label 12 includes a blue background as mandated
by the standard for drugs such as Fentanyl, the drug name 80 in
tall-man lettering, the patient ID 82 in an obfuscated format
(e.g., as a patient number instead of the printed name of the
patient), expiration information, information indicative of the
person who prepared the syringe 55, the concentration 88 of the
drug in the syringe 55, and the diluent 90 used to prepare the
dilution. Additionally, the computer terminal 10 can print a
barcode 92, optionally redundant barcodes 92, encoding at least one
of: a portion of the label content 34, at least a portion of the
information decoded from the barcode 70, at least a portion of the
information received from the server 50.
[0031] Illustrative embodiments have been described, hereinabove.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above
devices and methods may incorporate changes and modifications
without departing from the general scope of this invention. It is
intended to include all such modifications and alterations within
the scope of the present invention. Furthermore, to the extent that
the term "includes" is used in either the detailed description or
the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner
similar to the term "comprising" as "comprising" is interpreted
when employed as a transitional word in a claim.
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