Medicinal Dispensing Device

Abstract

A medicinal dispensing device comprising a plurality of flanges having corners and being detachably connected along certain lines so that each flange may be separated from the remaining flanges, a chamber with an outer opening depending from each flange, the chamber being adapted to hold a drug, tablet, capsule, etc., a continuous closure member covering said chamber openings with certain portions of the interior surface of the closure member being in contact with the flanges, the closure member being perforated along certain lines closely corresponding to the flange lines, certain portions of the interior surface of the closure member being provided with a tacky adhesive coating which is in contact with said flanges, and certain other areas of the interior surface of the closure member being non-tacky and covering the chamber openings, at least one corner of each flange being removed in a cut-away area so that the existing corner of the closure member overlies the cut-away area to function as a lift tab to facilitate the separation of a portion of the closure member from a particular flange to provide access to the contents of the chamber. The flanges are preferably provided in groups of 25, there being a cut-away area for at least one corner of every flange that is provided by the formation of a minimum number of punched openings, which minimum number is far less than the total number of 16 intersections that exist in a 5 .times. 5 pattern of flanges.

Description

The present invention relates to a medicinal dispensing device and has as its objective the provision of a new and improved device of this general class.

The dispensing of various medicines and drugs to patients in a hospital is necessarily a time consuming task that is greatly complicated by the usual large number of patients to be serviced. This is further complicated by the ever changing composition of the patients with continuous admissions and discharges.

In view of the foregoing, it is necessary for the attending nurse carefully to examine the instructions furnished for each patient, and carefully to dispense a particular combination of pills and other medicinal items.

The present invention, however, has broader aspects in that the chamber of the dispensing device need not necessarily accept a drug, tablet or capsule, but instead could hold a liquid or even function as a receptacle for non-drug items. Furthermore, the present invention contemplates the use of a novel assembly device to produce the dispensing device.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a medicinal dispensing device which can be simply loaded and labelled by hospital or other personnel and which provides an effective device for the dispensing of medicinal items. While U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,493 discloses a multi-compartment arrangement, nevertheless, such a device is suitable only for mass production and not for manual unit dose.

The foregoing, as well as other objects of the invention, are achieved by providing a medicinal dispensing device comprised of a plurality of flanges, each having corners and being detachably connected along weakened lines. A chamber with an outer opening depends from each flange, and a continuous closure member then covers the chambers, with the closure member also being perforated along lines closely corresponding to the weakened lines of the flanges. Certain portions of the interior surface of the closure member are provided with a tacky adhesive coating that is in contact with the flanges and certain other areas of the interior surface of the closure member being non-tacky and covering the chamber openings. At least one corner of each flange is removed in a cut-away area so that the existing corner of the closure member overlies the cut-away area to function as a lift tab.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, 25 flanges are detachably connected in a 5 .times. 5 pattern, there being a first set of parallel weakened lines in said flanges and a second set of parallel weakened lines in said flanges, said first set of parallel lines being perpendicular to the second set of parallel lines, with the connection of said flanges, one to the other, being weaker along said first set of parallel lines and being stronger along said second set of parallel lines whereby it is much easier to sever the set of 25 flanges into five sets of five flanges along said first parallel lines. Furthermore, at nine of the intersections between the first and second parallel lines, there are provided circular punched openings, each of which act as a cut-away area for the four flanges meeting at the intersection of the first and second parallel lines, with the nine punched openings providing at least one cut-away area for each of the 25 flanges.

It will be seen that the first and second parallel lines meet in 16 intersections or interconnecting lines or network to define a pattern of 12 outer sections and four inner intersections. The 12 outer intersections are arbitrarily numbered from 1 to 12 in a counterclockwise sense, and there will be punched openings at at least intersections nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12. There will also be a punched opening at the intersection which constitutes the fourth corner of a square wherein the other three corners are defined by intersections nos. 1, 2 and 12. With this arrangement, a minimum number of punched openings is provided so that there will be a portion of a punched opening in a corner of each flange so that the corner of the closure member in contact with the flange is always free of the flange where the punched opening has been formed in the flange. In this way, the corner of the closure member always is readily accessible for lifting in order to facilitate the separation of the closure member from the flange when the patient desires to gain access to the material held in the chamber that depends from the flange.

Other objects and many of the attendant advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a medicinal dispensing device constituting a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevational view taken along the lines 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the lines 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view taken along the lines 4--4 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a view of two dispensing units with the cover member of one of the units partially removed;

FIG. 6 is a view showing the cover member of FIG. 5 completely removed and showing the interior surface of the cover member as well as the exposed chamber and flange of the dispensing unit;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of another embodiment of the medicinal dispensing device as an invention;

FIG. 8 is an enlarged partial sectional view taken along the lines 8--8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a fragmentary bottom plan view taken along the lines 9--9 of FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the dispensing device of FIG. 7 with the closure member removed;

FIG. 11 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the lines 11--11 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a plan view showing the underside of the closure member with the anti-stick liner partially removed;

FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG. 7 with the closure member partly removed;

FIG. 14 is a three-dimensional view showing an assembly mechanism used to produce the device of FIGS. 6 to 13;

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing the various components of FIGS. 7 to 13 laid up in proper registration;

FIG. 16 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the lines 16--16 of FIG. 15; and

FIG. 17 is an enlarged view showing the various components of a particular unit during the manufacturing process.

Referring now in greater detail to the various FIGURES of the drawing wherein like reference characters refer to like parts, there is generally shown at 10 in FIG. 1 a medicinal dispensing device 10 comprising flanges 12 having corners 14 (FIG. 4). The dispensing device 10 is actually comprised of individual units 16 that are detachably connected together along lines 18. Chambers 20 depend from the flanges 12 with each chamber 20 being adapted to hold a drug, tablet, capsule, liquid or other device. The chambers 20 each have an open end that is covered by a closure member 22 that is comprised (FIG. 3) of a base 24 bearing tacky adhesive coating 26 on one surface thereof. A non-stick liner comprised of circular portions 28 prevents the contents 30 in the chamber 20 from becoming adhered to tacky surface 26.

It should be noted from FIG. 4 that the closure member 22 may be separated along lines 31 so that each unit 16 may be severed from the other units 16. Furthermore, the outer surface of the closure member 22 is adapted to contain writing or other instructions to the patient.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 4, it can be seen that at least one corner of the closure member 22 has a cut-away portion 40, it being recognized that it is necessary for only one corner of each unit 16 to have a cut-away portion. This is sufficient to gain access to the underside of the closure member 22 to peel it, together with its adhesive surface, away from flange 12 (FIG. 5). As seen in FIG. 6, a unit 16 comprised of the flange 12 and chamber 20 is now separate from the closure member 22 with tacky adhesive coating 26 and non-stick portion 28.

Another embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 7 to 13 wherein the medicinal dispensing device 100 provides 25 units at a time, with there being at least one cut-away area 140 for each unit 116. Otherwise, the medicinal device 100 is similar in certain respects to the device 10, and similar reference characters are used. Thus, there is a first set of parallel weakened lines 118 in the flanges 116 (FIG. 10), but in the embodiment 100 there is also a second set of parallel weakened lines 117 which run perpendicular to the first set of parallel weakened lines 118.

It will be seen from FIG. 10 that the first set of weakened lines 118 carries three indentations 160 for each side of the units 116 whereas the second set of weakened lines 117 carries but a single identation 162 per unit 116. These indentations are actually strengthening welds wherein the thermoplastic material of the flanges 122 is caused to flow. Thus, in view of the three indentations 160, it is more difficult to separate the units 116 along the weakened lines 118. Instead, it is easier to separate the units 116 along weakened lines 117. For this reason, a device 100 can be more easily separated into five, five unit devices along weakened lines 117, and this gives assurance that the device 100 will aways be subdivided in a desired manner. Thus, the pharmacist, physician or nurse can be sure of the way in which the patient will use each individual unit 116 in a prescribed sequence.

As shown in FIG. 8, the closure member 124 is provided with a tacky adhesive coating 126 on its interior surface. The tacky surface 126 is covered by a non-stick liner that is subdivided into discrete circular portions 128 and sheet portion 129 along cuts 131. This construction is readily apparent from FIG. 12 which shows the removal of the sheet portion 129 of the non-stick liner, leaving behind circular portions 128 that remain adhered to tacky adhesive surface 126. Furthermore, the non-stick liner is subdivided into two portions corresponding to each unit 116 along weakened lines 170 and 172 that run perpendicular to each other.

With reference again to FIG. 10, it can be seen that openings 140 are strategically placed at the inner sections of lines 117 and 118, with the openings 140 being established by a punch in a well known manner. It had been determined that the simultaneous punching of openings at all the various intersections defining the units 116 was impractical since it was not always possible to guarantee a perfect registration of all punching dies which also would wear as time went on. Thus, the present invention has devised a technique of forming punched openings at only certain of the intersections of lines 117 and 118 separating the various units 112. By this strategic selection it is possible to insure that there will be atleast one cut away area for each unit in a 25 unit set-up.

It will be seen that the first and second parallel lines 118 and 117 meet in 16 intersections or interconnecting lines or network to define a pattern of 12 outer intersections that carry the consecutive numbers 1 to 12 in FIG. 7 and FIG. 10 as well as four inner intersections, only one of which has been labelled as intersection no. 13. As shown in FIG. 10, it is necessary only to form punched openings at intersections Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12, as well as interior intersection no. 13. By this technique, there is a cut away area in at least one corner of each unit 116. The avoidance of the necessity to form cut away areas in intersections nos. 3, 6, 8, 11 and three of the four interior intersections is sufficient to insure adequate operations of the punching dies.

For ease of use, the outer surface of the closure member 116 contains printed areas 180 which correspond to the punched openings 140 in the flanges 112. Thus, the user will know where the punched openings exist by simply looking at the printed areas 180.

From FIG. 13 it can be seen that the closure member 122 is simply adhered to exposed flanges 112 after the annular portion 129 of the non-stick liner has been separated from the remainder of the non-stick liner, as shown in FIG. 12.

In order to prepare a device 100, an assembly fixture 200 of FIG. 14 may be used. This device consists of a base 202 and a pressure applying member 204 with handle 206. The base 202 includes a liner strip 206 covering nipped corner 208 and, furthermore, the base 202 has a plurality of openings 210 corresponding to the flanges in the dispensing unit. The openings 210 possess chamfered edges to facilitate the entry of the chambers 120 of the dispensing units. Furthermore, spring loaded pins 212 are provided to facilitate the release of the pressure applying member 204 away from the base 202.

The use of the device 200 is illustrated in FIG. 16 wherein a 25 unit piece, corresponding to that shown in FIG. 11 is placed in the base 202 so that each of the flanges 120 is received in an opening 210. The closure member 122 is then stripped of the annular portion 129 of the non-stick liner and then is applied. The resilient pins are properly arranged so as to guide the placement of the closure member as can be seen in FIG. 15 wherein edges 196 of the closure member are in actual contact with the pins 210. The pressure applying member 204 is then brought down upon the closure member 122. For this purpose, the pressure applying member 204 possesses a resilient layer 230 so that the pressure of the member 204 is yieldingly applied to the closure member 122. As soon as the pressure is released, the member 204 is ejected away from the base 202 by the pins 210.

It is thus seen that the assembly device 200 provides a quick and convenient way for production of the devices 100. Furthermore, the unit dose features of devices 10 or 100 offer extensive advantages to the pharmacist and accuracy to the patient or user in the dispensing of medicine or other articles in a predetermined sequence.

Without further elaboration, the foregoing will so fully illustrate our invention that others may, by applying current or future knowledge, readily adapt the same for use under various conditions of service.

Claims

What is claimed as the invention is:

1. A medicinal dispensing device comprising 25 units arranged in a square having five units on a side, each unit including flanges having corners and being detachably connected along certain lines so that each flange may be separated from the remaining flanges, a chamber depending from each flange, said chamber having an outer opening, with the chamber being adapted to hold an article, a closure member covering said chamber openings, said closure member having an interior surface which is in contact with said flanges, said interior surface carrying a tacky adhesive which contacts said flanges, the closure member being perforated along certain lines closely corresponding to the flange lines, at least one corner of each flange being removed in a cut-away area to facilitate separation of the portion of the closure member in contact with each flange, said flanges being detachably connected along first and second groupings of weakened lines, generally perpendicular to each other, said weakened lines meeting in 16 intersections consisting of 12 outer intersections and four inner intersections with the outer intersections being numbered consecutively from 1 to 12, there being punched openings at intersections numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 12 as well as a punched opening at the intersection which constitutes the fourth corner of a square wherein the other three corners are defined by intersections numbers 1, 2 and 12.

2. The medicinal dispensing device of claim 1 wherein the intersections of the perforations in said closure member contain indicators to show the existence of the punched openings in the weakened lines of said flanges.