CN107430754B - Drug dispensing system - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention provides a medicine dispensing system capable of informing the necessity of filling medicine at an appropriate time in consideration of the change caused by the time factor of the dispensing amount of medicine. In a medicine dispensing system (10), a setting processing unit (114) sets, for each preset filling timing, a predicted amount of each medicine to be dispensed during a period up to the filling timing a plurality of times later, based on the dispensing amount of the day to which each filling timing belongs, among the past dispensing amounts of each medicine per day. A judgment processing unit (113) judges whether or not the remaining amount of each of the medicines is equal to or less than the predicted amount of dispensing corresponding to the current filling timing for each of the filling timings, and an output processing unit (115) outputs a judgment result.

Description

Drug dispensing system

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a medicine dispensing system capable of dispensing medicines based on prescription data.

Background

In a drug dispensing process in a medical facility such as a hospital or a pharmacy, a drug dispensing apparatus that dispenses a drug based on prescription data is sometimes used. For example, a medicine box dispensing apparatus that dispenses necessary medicines in units of medicine boxes based on prescription data is known as an example of the medicine dispensing apparatus (see patent document 1).

Documents of the prior art

Patent document

Patent document 1, japanese patent No. 4755726

Disclosure of Invention

Problems to be solved by the invention

However, when a medicine is missing in the medicine dispensing apparatus, the user is required to perform a medicine filling operation, and thus, the medicine dispensing process based on prescription data is delayed. In contrast, if a message indicating that the medicine needs to be filled is given to the user when the remaining amount of the medicine is reduced, the user can fill the medicine before the medicine is missing. However, the amount of medicine dispensed from the medicine dispensing device may vary depending on factors such as the time of day (one day from monday to sunday (working day, monday to friday)) of the week. For example, when a doctor is in charge or a clinic capable of taking a visit is different depending on the day of the week, it is expected that the amount of use of the medicine prescribed by the doctor in charge or the medicine prescribed by the clinic may be greatly increased or decreased depending on the day of the week. In this case, if the presence or absence of filling at each preset filling timing is determined without considering the increase or decrease of the amount of use per day of the week, a medicine shortage may occur at a timing different from the above-mentioned filling timing, and it is necessary to frequently fill the medicine.

The present invention aims to provide a medicine dispensing system capable of notifying the necessity of filling a medicine at an appropriate timing in consideration of a change in a timing factor of a dispensing amount of the medicine.

Means for solving the problems

The drug dispensing system of the present invention comprises: a plurality of medicine storage sections for storing medicines; a dispensing processing unit that dispenses the medicine from the medicine storage unit based on prescription data; a remaining amount acquiring unit configured to acquire a remaining amount of the medicine stored in the medicine storage unit according to a type of the medicine; a setting processing unit that sets, for each of the preset filling timings, a predicted amount of each of the medicines to be dispensed during a period from the filling timing at most a plurality of times, based on the dispensing amount of the day to which each of the filling timings belongs, among the past dispensing amounts of each of the medicines for each day of week; a determination processing unit configured to determine whether or not the remaining amount of the medicine acquired by the remaining amount acquiring unit is equal to or less than the predicted amount of the medicine to be dispensed corresponding to the current filling timing; and an output processing unit that outputs a result of the determination by the determination processing unit.

According to the present invention, the dispensing prediction amount corresponding to each of the medicines at each of the filling timings is set based on the past dispensing amount on the day of the week to which each of the filling timings belongs, and it is determined whether or not to fill each of the medicines based on the dispensing prediction amount. This makes it possible to report the necessity of filling each of the medicines at an appropriate timing in consideration of a change in the amount of each of the medicines dispensed due to a timing factor. The filling timing is determined by a combination of the day of the week and the time, for example.

In addition, when the predicted dispensing amount is set to a large value, the medicine is more likely to be filled up to the predicted dispensing amount, and the efficiency of the filling operation for each medicine is reduced. On the other hand, when the predicted dispensing amount is set to a small value, the remaining amount of each of the medicines when the medicine becomes equal to or smaller than the predicted dispensing amount is small, and thus the medicine may be missing before the filling operation of each of the medicines is completed.

In this regard, the setting processing unit sets the predicted dispensing amount based on an average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the medicines for each of the weeks in a specific period set in advance in the past. The setting processing unit may set the predicted dispensing amount based on an average value of the dispensing amounts for each combination of the day of the week and the time zone in a specific period set in advance in the past for each of the medicines. Thus, the dispensing prediction amount is not set to an extremely large value or an extremely small value, and thus suppression of shortage of the medicine and efficiency of the medicine filling operation can be achieved in a well-balanced manner.

The setting processing unit may calculate a value obtained by dividing the average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the days of the week by the number of times of the filling timing for each of the days of the week as a unit predicted amount corresponding to one filling timing for each of the days of the week. The setting processing unit may set, as the predicted distribution amount, a total value of the unit predicted amounts corresponding to the respective filling timings in a period from the filling timing to the filling timing at most. Thus, for example, it is not necessary to record the dispensing amount of each of the medicines for each of a plurality of time periods for the day of the week, and the recording process of the dispensing amount can be simplified.

The setting processing unit may set, as the predicted dispensing amount, a total value of average values of the dispensing amounts corresponding to a combination of the day of the week and the time zone of each of the filling timings in a period from the filling timing to the filling timing at most. This increases the accuracy of the predicted amount of dispensing set by the setting processing unit, and can notify the necessity of filling a medicine at an appropriate timing.

The output processing unit may output the determination result only to the medicine determined by the determination processing unit that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed. More specifically, the output processing unit may output a fill list indicating a list of medicines, the medicine having been determined by the determination processing unit to have a remaining amount equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed, among the plurality of medicines. This allows the user to easily identify the medicine to be filled with reference to the determination result.

The output processing unit may output a fill list indicating a list of medicines, which are the medicines determined by the determination processing unit that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed and which have the remaining amount of the medicines stored in the medicine storage unit smaller than the maximum storage amount, among the plurality of medicines. Thus, the user can easily identify the medicine that needs to be filled and can be filled by referring to the determination result.

In the medicine dispensing system, a medicine box containing a predetermined amount of the medicine may be stored in the medicine storage unit. At this time, the dispensing processing unit dispenses the medicine in units of medicine boxes based on the prescription data. In the medicine dispensing system of the present invention, the dispensing prediction amount is used not in a period until the filling timing after one time but in a period until the filling timing after a plurality of times. Therefore, even in the medicine dispensing system that dispenses a large amount of the medicines in units of the medicine boxes, if a large amount of the medicine boxes need to be filled at the time of filling and the time required for the filling operation is long, the shortage of the medicine boxes can be suppressed.

Effects of the invention

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a medicine dispensing system capable of notifying the necessity of filling a medicine at an appropriate timing in consideration of a change in a timing factor of a dispensing amount of the medicine.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a medicine dispensing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing an example of distribution history information used in the medicine distribution system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the procedure of the medicine dispensing control process executed in the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of unit prediction amount information used in the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution prediction amount information used in the medicine distribution system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a fill list output by the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution history information used in the medicine distribution system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of unit prediction amount information used in the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution prediction amount information used in the medicine distribution system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 10 is an external view schematic diagram of a medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 11 is an external view schematically showing a medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the arrangement of the medicine storage units of the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of a stored medicine registration process performed in the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a registration screen displayed on the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a registration screen displayed on the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 16 is a diagram showing an example of a registration screen displayed on the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 17 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of a stored medicine registration process performed in the medicine dispensing device of the medicine dispensing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention are described below in order to understand the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments are merely examples embodying the present invention, and do not limit the technical scope of the present invention.

[ first embodiment ]

As shown in fig. 1, a medicine dispensing system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a medicine dispensing apparatus 1, a medication dispensing management apparatus 2, and a host system 3. The medicine dispensing apparatus 1, the medication managing apparatus 2, and the upper system 3 are communicably connected by wireless or wired communication via a communication network N1 such as a LAN, WAN, internet, or intranet. The medicine dispensing system 10 includes one or more of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1. The medicine dispensing device 1 described above may be regarded as the medicine dispensing system of the present invention alone.

The upper-level system 3 is an electronic medical record system, an ordering system, a prescription system, or the like that receives registration operation of prescription data indicating prescription contents of medicines. The prescription data includes, for example, medicine identification information for identifying the name of the medicine, and medicine information such as the dose, usage, medicine form, administration start date, administration period, and administration end date. The prescription data also includes, for example, the name, sex, age, ward, doctor in charge, pharmacist in charge, and other patient information of the patient who takes the medicine.

The medication managing apparatus 2 is a personal computer or the like that reads the prescription data from the host system 3 and inputs the prescription data to the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. Specifically, the medication management device 2 generates medication data necessary for the medication process of the medicine dispensing device 1 based on the prescription data, and inputs the medication data to the medicine dispensing device 1 as the prescription data. For example, when a plurality of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 are provided in the medicine dispensing system 10, the medication managing apparatus 2 dispenses the medicines to be dispensed to the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 based on the prescription data. Further, instead of the configuration in which the medication managing apparatus 2 reads the prescription data from the host system 3, a configuration may be employed in which the prescription data is transmitted from the host system 3 to the medication managing apparatus 2. The prescription data may be directly input from the host system 3 to the medicine dispensing apparatus 1.

As shown in fig. 1, the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 includes: a control section 11, a storage section 12, a communication I/F13, a display section 14, an operation section 15, a drive device 16, a printer 17, a medicine dispensing section 18, and the like. Specifically, the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is a medicine-box dispensing apparatus that dispenses medicines in units of medicine boxes.

The medicine dispensing device 1 may be a tablet dispensing device that dispenses medicines in units of PTP foils, a tablet dispensing device that dispenses medicines in units of tablets, or the like. The medicine dispensing device 1 may be configured by connecting a personal computer including the control unit 11, the storage unit 12, the communication I/F13, the display unit 14, the operation unit 15, and the drive device 16 to the printer 17 and the medicine dispensing unit 18.

The communication I/F13 is a communication interface for performing data communication wirelessly or by wire according to a predetermined communication protocol with an external device such as the medication dispensing apparatus 2 or the host system 3 via the communication network N1.

The display unit 14 is a display unit such as a liquid crystal display or an organic EL display that displays various information in accordance with a control instruction from the control unit 11. The operation unit 15 is an operation unit such as a touch panel or an operation switch operated by a user, and inputs various information to the medicine dispensing device 1.

The drive device 16 can read various data, control programs, and the like from a computer-readable storage medium 161. The recording medium 161 is a CD, DVD, BD, USB memory, or the like, and the drive device 16 is a CD drive, DVD drive, BD drive, USB port, or the like.

The printer 17 is mounted on the medicine dispensing apparatus 1, and can print the print data input from the control unit 11 onto a sheet-like body such as a printing paper. For example, the printer 17 is used for printing a fill list described later. The printer 17 may be an external device that is connected to the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 so as to be able to communicate with the medicine dispensing apparatus via the communication network N1 or the like.

The medicine dispensing unit 18 includes a plurality of medicine storage units 181 for storing medicines, and a plurality of dispensing drive units 182 for dispensing the medicines stored in the medicine storage units 181. Each of the medicine storage units 181 stores therein various medicines indicated by medicine identification information associated in advance with the medicine storage unit 181. A plurality of the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to one kind of medicine may be provided. The dispensing drive unit 182 includes: a driving source such as a motor or a solenoid; and a drive mechanism for transmitting the driving force of the drive source to the medicine storage unit 181 to perform a medicine dispensing operation.

For example, in the present embodiment, the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 is a medicine-box dispensing apparatus that dispenses medicines stored in predetermined amounts in units of medicine boxes. In this case, a plurality of medicine boxes can be stored in each of the medicine storage units 181, and the user fills the medicine storage units 181 with the medicines in units of medicine boxes as needed. In another embodiment, in the medicine dispensing device 1, when a PTP foil is used as a unit of a tablet dispensing device for dispensing medicines, a plurality of PTP tablets are stored in each of the medicine storage units 181. In another embodiment, in the case where the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 is a tablet dispensing apparatus that dispenses medicines in units of tablets, a plurality of tablets are stored in each of the medicine storage portions 181. In another embodiment, in the medicine dispensing device 1, in a case of a medicine powder dispensing device that dispenses medicine powder on a weight basis, the medicine powder is stored in each of the medicine storage portions 181.

The storage unit 12 is a nonvolatile storage unit such as a hard disk, SSD, or flash memory that stores various control programs and various data to be executed by the control unit 11. Specifically, the storage unit 12 has storage areas such as a program area 121 and a data area 122.

The program area 121 stores a medicine dispensing program for causing the control unit 11 to execute a process such as a medicine dispensing control process (see fig. 3) described later. In addition, the program area 121 also stores an Operating System (OS), application programs such as browser software, and the like.

The data area 122 stores various basic data (master data) such as medicine basic data, patient basic data, and storage unit basic data. For example, in the medicine basic data, there are stored, in association with each other and in association with each other, medicine identification information such as a medicine code for identifying a medicine type: the name of the medicine, the common name, the YJ code, the JAN code, the RSS code, the form of the medicine, the unit, the specific gravity, the kind of the medicine, the change of the preparation, the excipient, the effectiveness, the notice and other information. In the patient data, patient identification information such as a patient code for identifying each patient is stored in association with each other: patient name, department, ward, responsible physician and pharmacist. Further, in the storage unit base data, there are stored, in association with each other and in correspondence with each other, storage unit identification information such as a storage unit code for identifying each of the medicine storage units 181: information indicating the medicine identification information and the maximum storage amount of the medicine stored in the medicine storage unit 181. In addition, instead of the storage section basic data, storage section identification information of one or more of the medicine storage sections 181 corresponding to the types of the medicines may be stored for each of the types of the medicines in the medicine basic data. The various basic data stored in the data area 122 can be changed by the control unit 11 in accordance with, for example, a user operation performed on the operation unit 14.

The data area 122 also stores distribution history information D11 (see fig. 2), unit prediction amount information D12 (see fig. 4), distribution prediction amount information D13 (see fig. 5), and the like, which are updated by the controller 11 in the medicine distribution control process.

The distribution history information D11 includes the results of statistics of the periods in which the distribution amounts of the respective medicines are set in advance in the medicine distribution device 1. As shown in fig. 2, the distribution history information D11 has recorded the result of counting the distribution amount (number of cases) of the medicine in the medicine distribution apparatus 1 on a day of the week (any one of monday through sunday of the week (weekday is monday through friday)) by 1 day basis.

In the dispensing history information D11, the dispensing amount of each of the medicines of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 changes for each day of the week. One of the reasons for this is that the medical department that can perform medical treatment using the medical-related facility of the medicine dispensing system 10 differs from the doctor who performs medical treatment. Therefore, as will be described later, in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1, a predicted dispensing amount for determining whether or not to fill each of the medicine storage units 181 with medicine is set based on the dispensing history information D11. The unit dispensing information D12 and the dispensing prediction amount information D13 are set for each of the medicines, and the unit dispensing information D12 and the dispensing prediction amount information D13 are described later.

The control unit 11 includes control devices such as a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and an EEPROM (registered trademark). The CPU is a processor that executes various kinds of arithmetic processing. The ROM is a nonvolatile storage unit that stores information such as a control program for causing the CPU to execute various processes. The RAM is a volatile storage unit, and the EEPROM is a nonvolatile storage unit. The RAM and the EEPROM are used as a temporary storage memory (work area) in which the CPU executes various processes. The control unit 11 executes various processes in accordance with various control programs stored in advance in the ROM, the EEPROM, or the storage unit 12, using the CPU. The control unit 11 includes a time counting unit such as a hardware clock or a system clock for counting the date and time, and the current date and time can be determined by the time counting unit.

The control unit 11 includes a distribution processing unit 111, a remaining amount acquisition unit 112, a determination processing unit 113, a setting processing unit 114, and an output processing unit 115. Specifically, the control unit 11 functions as the dispensing processing unit 111, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112, the determination processing unit 113, the setting processing unit 114, and the output processing unit 115 by executing various processes according to the medicine dispensing program.

The dispensing processing unit 111 executes a process of dispensing the medicine from the medicine storage unit 181 based on the prescription data. Specifically, the dispensing processing unit 111 specifies the medicine storage unit 181 corresponding to the medicine indicated by the medicine identification information included in the prescription data, based on the prescription data, the storage unit basic data, and the like. The dispensing processing unit 111 controls the dispensing drive unit 182 corresponding to the identified medicine storage unit 181, thereby dispensing the medicine in an amount corresponding to the prescription amount indicated by the prescription data.

The remaining amount acquiring unit 112 executes processing for acquiring the remaining amount of the medicine stored in the medicine storage unit 181 for each type of the medicine in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. Specifically, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 counts the amount of medicine dispensed from each of the medicine storage units 181 from a preset calculation start time to the current time based on the prescription data input to the medicine dispensing device 1, and records the counted amount of medicine in the storage unit 12 or the like as needed. Then, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 calculates the current remaining amount by subtracting the dispensing amount from the maximum storage amount of the medicine in each of the medicine storage units 181. Here, the calculation start time is a time when the medicine storage unit 181 is filled with medicine detected by a predetermined sensor or when a user performs an operation indicating completion of filling of the medicine storage unit 181 with medicine. Further, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 resets the dispensing amount of the medicine storage unit 181 to 0 when the calculation start time has been reached for the medicine storage unit 181.

In the case where the medicine dispensing device 1 is provided with a sensor for detecting the number of medicines actually dispensed from each of the medicine storage units 181, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 can count the dispensing amount based on the detection result of the sensor. In another embodiment, when the amount of the medicine filled in the medicine storage unit 181 is input by the operation of the operation unit 15 by the user, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 may calculate an inventory amount obtained by adding the amount of the filled medicine to the remaining amount of the medicine before filling. In this case, the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 can calculate the current remaining amount by subtracting the dispensing amount from the stock amount. In another embodiment, the medication managing apparatus 2 may calculate the dispensing amount of the medicine from each of the medicine storage units 181 or the remaining amount of the medicine based on the prescription data, and may transfer the calculated dispensing amount or remaining amount to the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. In another embodiment, each of the medicine storage units 181 may be provided with a sensor for detecting the remaining amount of the medicine, and the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 may acquire the remaining amount of the medicine by using the sensor.

The determination processing unit 113 is executed to determine whether or not the remaining amount of each of the medicines acquired by the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 is equal to or less than a pre-dispensing amount preset for each of the medicines. Specifically, the determination processing unit 113 determines whether or not to fill each of the medicines, based on whether or not the remaining amount of each of the medicines is equal to or less than the predicted amount of distribution.

The setting processing unit 114 executes processing for setting the predicted amount of distribution corresponding to each of the medicines to be used as the determination index of the determination processing unit 113. Specifically, the setting processing unit 114 sets the predicted amount of dispensing of each of the medicines for each of the preset filling timings in a period up to the filling timing 2 times later, based on the dispensing amount of the medicine on the day belonging to each of the filling timings among the past dispensing amounts of the medicines on the days of the week. Here, the filling timing is a time determined according to the day of the week and the time. In the present embodiment, the dispensing prediction amount of each of the medicines during a period from the filling timing 2 times later is used for each of the filling timings, but a period reflecting the dispensing prediction amount is not limited to a period from the filling timing 2 times later, and may be a period from the filling timing 3 times later or more, for example.

The output processing unit 115 executes processing for outputting the determination result of the determination processing unit 113. Specifically, the output processing unit 115 prints a filling list indicating a list of medicines whose remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount of distribution and which need to be filled, by the printer 17, based on the determination result of the determination processing unit 113 at each of the filling timings. Thus, the user can easily determine the medicine to be filled in the medicine dispensing device 1 by referring to the filling list. The output processing unit 115 may output a fill list indicating a list of medicines, of the plurality of medicines, which have been judged by the judgment processing unit 113 to have a remaining amount equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed and which have a remaining amount of medicines stored in the medicine storage unit 181 smaller than the maximum storage amount.

In the medical facility using the medicine dispensing system 10, it is desirable to balance the suppression of the medicine shortage in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 and the efficiency of the medicine filling operation for the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. Specifically, when the medicine stored in each of the medicine storage units 181 becomes insufficient, the dispensing is delayed due to the operation time for filling the medicine, and it is desirable to suppress the shortage of the medicine in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1.

Here, when the dispensing prediction amount is set to a small value, the medicine may be missing during the filling operation of filling the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 with the medicine. In particular, when the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 is far from a place where the medicine for filling is stored, or when the amount of the medicine to be filled into the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 is large, the time required for the filling operation is long. On the other hand, when the dispensing prediction amount is set to a large value, the number of times of performing the filling operation of the medicine into the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 increases, and the efficiency of the filling operation decreases. That is, the suppression of the shortage of the medicine and the efficiency of the medicine filling operation in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 are in a trade-off relationship. In contrast, in the medicine dispensing device 1, the control unit 11 executes a medicine dispensing control process described later, thereby making it possible to balance the suppression of the medicine shortage in the medicine dispensing device 1 and the efficiency of the medicine filling operation for the medicine dispensing device 1.

[ drug dispensing control treatment ]

An example of the medicine dispensing control process executed by the control unit 11 of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 will be described below with reference to fig. 3. The medicine dispensing control process is started by the control unit 11 according to a predetermined start operation after the power of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 is turned on.

< step S1>

First, in step S1, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the prescription data is input. For example, when the prescription data is acquired from the medication managing apparatus 2, the control unit 11 determines that the prescription data is input. Here, when it is determined that the prescription data is input (S1: Yes), the process proceeds to step S2. Further, when it is determined that the above prescription data is not input (S1: No), the process proceeds to step S4.

< step S2>

In step S2, the control unit 11 executes a dispensing process for dispensing the medicine from the medicine storage unit 181 based on the prescription data. Specifically, the medicine storage unit 181 corresponding to the medicine indicated by the medicine identification information included in the prescription data is selected, and the medicine in an amount corresponding to the prescription amount indicated by the prescription data is dispensed from the medicine storage unit 181. The distribution process is executed by the distribution processing unit 111 of the control unit 11.

In this case, in the dispensing process, the control unit 11 determines whether or not a shortage of the medicine to be dispensed based on the prescription data has occurred, and when the shortage has occurred, performs an error display and temporarily interrupts the dispensing process based on the prescription data. Thereafter, when the medicine is filled to the extent that shortage has occurred, the control unit 11 resumes the dispensing process based on the prescription data. In the medicine dispensing device 1, even when the dispensing process is temporarily suspended, the dispensing process based on the prescription data including only the medicine not in short supply can be executed.

< step S3>

In step S3, the control unit 11 executes a recording process for recording the dispensing amount of the medicine in the dispensing process. Specifically, the control unit 11 updates the distribution history information D11 (see fig. 2) based on the amount of medicine distributed in the distribution process. For example, the controller 11 counts the number of dispensed medicines corresponding to the current date in the dispensing history information D11 from 0 based on the prescription data, and records the number of dispensed medicines for each day in the dispensing history information D11. The recording process is executed by the remaining amount acquiring unit 112 of the control unit 11.

< step S4>

In step S4, the control unit 11 determines whether or not a preset filling timing has come. Here, when it is determined that the filling time has come (S4: Yes), the process proceeds to step S5. When it is determined that the filling timing is not reached (No in S4), the process proceeds to step S1.

The filling timing is set by the control unit 11 based on a user operation such as initial setting of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. For example, the interval of the filling timing is an interval set in advance as a required time taken for a filling operation of filling the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 with the medicine. More specifically, the filling timing is set according to a schedule, for example, 9 dots, 11 dots, 13 dots, 15 dots, and 17 dots. Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, the filling timings are set to 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 points from monday to friday.

In another embodiment, the control unit 11 may set the time for each of the padding intervals from the traffic start time to the traffic end time as the padding timing in accordance with a setting operation of the traffic start time, the traffic end time, and the padding interval. For example, when a service start time is set to 7, a service end time is set to 17, and a filling interval is set to 2 hours, the filling timings are set to 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 points, which are periods of every 2 hours from the service start time to the service end time. The first filling timing in 1 day may be 7 points which is the service start time, and the subsequent filling timings may be 9 points, 11 points, 13 points, and 15 points which are periods of every 2 hours between 15 points 2 hours before the service end time. The number of times of the filling timing, the time, and the like may be different from day to day. Further, the medicine in each of the medicine storage units 181 may be replenished to a maximum storage amount between the time when the business is started and the time when the business is started. The business start time and the business end time are start times and end times of business hours, medical hours, window reception times, and the like of the medical-related facility.

Further, the control unit 11 may automatically set the number of times of the filling timing and the respective times of the filling timing per day based on the distribution history information D11. For example, the control unit 11 may set the number of filling timings and the respective timings of the filling timings so that the medicine is not missing and the number of filling timings is as small as possible, based on the medicine which is likely to be missing the earliest among all the medicines stored in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1.

< step S5>

In step S5, the control unit 11 executes an acquisition process for acquiring the remaining amount of each of the medicines. Specifically, the control unit 11 calculates the current remaining amount of each medicine by subtracting the dispensing amount of each medicine from the calculation start time from the maximum storage amount of each medicine in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. When a plurality of the medicine storage units 181 are associated with one medicine, the maximum storage amount of the medicine is the sum of the maximum storage amounts of the plurality of the medicine storage units 181. The acquisition process is executed by the remaining amount acquisition unit 112 of the control unit 11.

< step S6>

In step S6, the control unit 11 executes a process of setting a predicted amount of each of the medicines to be dispensed in a period from the filling timing to the filling timing 2 times later based on the past amount of each of the medicines to be dispensed on a day of the week. Thus, the dispensing prediction amount is set in consideration of a variation in the dispensing amount of each of the medicines according to a time factor. The setting process is executed by the setting processing unit 114 of the control unit 11.

Specifically, the control unit 11 calculates an average value of the amounts of the medicines dispensed for each day of the week in a predetermined past specific period, such as 3 months, based on the dispensing history information D11. For example, the previous specific period may be a period of 3 months or the like from the current time, but may be a period of the same month or season as the current time in the previous year or past years. Thus, a value that takes into account an increase in the amount of medicine dispensed due to the prevalence of a particular disease is calculated as the average value of the amount of medicine dispensed in accordance with the time, season, or the like of the prevalence of the disease. The control unit 11 divides the average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the days of the week by the number of filling timings for each of the days of the week, calculates the obtained value as a unit predicted amount corresponding to the filling timing for each of the days of the week, and sets the calculated value to the unit dispensing information D12.

Here, fig. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the unit distribution information D12. In the unit distribution information D12 shown in fig. 4, the unit prediction amount is displayed in combination with the time and the day of the week indicating the filling timing. When the unit prediction amount at one filling timing is focused, the unit prediction amount is an estimated value of the dispensing amount of the medicine from a time corresponding to a filling timing one before the focused filling timing to a time corresponding to the focused filling timing. For example, for a certain medicine, the average value of the dispensing amount on the current day of the week is 250 boxes, and the number of times of the filling timing on the current day of the week is 5 times. In this case, the predicted amount of medicine dispensed for each 1 filling timing is 50 bins, which is a value obtained by dividing the average value by the number of filling timings. Instead of the average value, the distribution prediction amount may be set using other statistical information such as dispersion or standard deviation. In addition, when data of a past specific period such as 3 months set in advance is not stored in the distribution history information D11, a preset initial value may be set as the distribution prediction amount. For example, the initial value is set based on actual data of a neighboring area or a national medical facility in which the same medicine as that used in the medical facility using the medicine distribution system 10 is used. The actual data may be statistical data such as an average of actual data of a plurality of medical-related facilities existing in a neighboring area or nationwide.

Then, the control unit 11 calculates the total of the unit predicted amounts corresponding to the respective filling timings in the period from the filling timing 2 times later as the predicted amount of distribution corresponding to the current filling timing, and sets the calculated amount of distribution to the predicted amount of distribution information D13. As described above, in the present embodiment, the filling timings are set to 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 points from monday to friday. Here, fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution prediction amount information D13. In the distribution prediction amount information D13, the distribution prediction amount is displayed in combination of the day of the week and the time indicating the filling timing.

Specifically, when the current filling timing is 9 points, the filling timing 2 times later is 13 points on the same day. In this case, the control unit 11 calculates a value 2 times the unit predicted amount corresponding to the current day of the week, and sets the calculated value as the distribution predicted amount at the current filling timing. On the other hand, when the current filling timing is 15 points, the filling timing 1 time later is 17 points on the same day, but the filling timing 2 times later is 9 points on the next day. In this case, the control unit 11 calculates the total of the unit predicted amount corresponding to the current day of the week and the unit predicted amount corresponding to the next day of the week, and sets the calculated total as the distribution predicted amount of the current filling timing. When the current filling timing is 17 points, the filling timing 1 time later is 9 points on the next day, and the filling timing 2 times later is 11 points on the next day. At this time, the control unit 11 calculates a value 2 times the unit predicted amount corresponding to the day of the week on the next day, and sets the calculated value as the predicted amount of the distribution at the current filling timing.

For example, as shown in fig. 4, when the day of the week of the current filling timing is monday and the time is 15, the unit prediction amount corresponding to 17 points on the same day as the filling timing 1 time later is 50 boxes, and the unit prediction amount corresponding to 9 points on the tuesday on the next day as the filling timing 2 times later is 40 boxes. Therefore, at this time, as shown in fig. 5, the distribution prediction amount corresponding to the current filling timing is set to 90 bins, which is the total value of both. As shown in fig. 4, when the day of the current filling timing is monday and the time is 17 points, the unit predicted amount corresponding to 9 points on tuesday on the second day which is the filling timing 1 time later is 40 boxes, and the unit predicted amount corresponding to 11 points on tuesday on the second day which is the filling timing 2 times later is 40 boxes. Therefore, at this time, as shown in fig. 5, the distribution prediction amount corresponding to the current filling timing is set to 80 bins, which is the total value of both. In the distribution prediction amount information D13, if the first filling timing is 9 on monday, the last filling timing is 17 on friday, and the filling timing 1 time after the 17-point filling timing on friday is 9 on monday.

In addition, the unit prediction amount information D12 and the distribution prediction amount information D13 indicate the unit prediction amount and the distribution prediction amount corresponding to all the filling timings, but in the step S6, the unit prediction amount and the distribution prediction amount of each of the medicines relating to at least the current filling timing may be calculated. In addition, the step S6 may be omitted in the medicine dispensing control process, and the controller 11 may execute the step S6 to update the unit predictive amount information D12 and the dispensing predictive amount information D13 every day or every time a predetermined time elapses, in addition to the medicine dispensing control process.

< step S7>

Then, in step S7, the control unit 11 executes a determination process for determining whether or not each of the medicines is to be filled. Specifically, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the remaining amount of each of the medicines acquired in step S5 is equal to or less than the predicted amount of dispensing corresponding to the current filling timing. In this way, one or more medicines, the remaining amount of which is equal to or less than the predicted amount of distribution corresponding to the current filling timing, acquired in step S5 are selected as medicines to be filled. The determination process is executed by the determination processing unit 113 of the control unit 11.

More specifically, the control unit 11 sets a fill flag set in a RAM or the like of the control unit 11 to 1 for a medicine whose remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed, and resets the fill flag to 0 when the fill list is output. Accordingly, the control unit 11 can recognize the determination result of the step S7 with reference to the fill flag.

< step S8>

In step S8, the controller 11 executes an output process for outputting the determination result in step S7. The output processing is executed by the output processing unit 115 of the control unit 11. In this case, the control unit 11 may output a filling list in which only the medicines that need to be filled out of all the medicines stored in the medicine dispensing device 1 are selected as a result of the determination in step S7.

Specifically, the control unit 11 prints the fill list by the printer 17. Here, fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the above-described fill list. As shown in fig. 6, the filling list includes information such as the number of the rack storing the medicine, the name of the medicine, the pharmaceutical effective component, the specification, and the number of the filled medicines, for each of the medicines determined to be required to be filled in step S7. Accordingly, the user can easily and efficiently perform operations of preparing medicines, filling medicines, and the like with respect to the medicine dispensing device 1 by referring to the fill list. In another embodiment, a fill list indicating whether or not all of the medicines are filled may be output so that the medicines that need to be filled can be identified.

Further, the control unit 11 may change the order of the medicines in the fill list according to a preset condition. Specifically, the storage unit 12 may store medicine arrangement information in which a movement path along which an operator performing an arrangement operation of medicines moves from an entrance to an exit of a medicine storage location such as a medicine library is associated with medicine arrangement information such as a number of a rack storing each medicine. For example, the medicine may display the arrangement order of the shelves along the movement route in the position information. The control unit 11 outputs the filling list in which the medicines determined to be required to be filled in the step S7 are arranged in the order of arrangement of the shelves for storing the medicines in the movable route, based on the medicine arrangement information. Accordingly, the operator can efficiently prepare the medicines included in the fill list while moving along the movement route, and the time required for the preparation operation can be shortened. For example, fig. 6 shows the fill list when the shelves 1, 2, and 3 are arranged in this order along the movement path, and the operator can efficiently prepare the medicines listed in the fill list without moving against the movement path by sequentially preparing the medicines listed in the fill list from top to bottom.

The number of fills shown in the fill list is the amount of medicine dispensed from each of the medicine storage units 181 from the time of starting the calculation to the present time, and is the maximum amount that can be replenished to each of the medicine storage units 181 at the present time. The output method of the fill list is not limited to printout, and the control unit 11 may display and output the fill list on the display unit 14. The control unit 11 may send and output the fill list to a destination such as a preset mail address.

Even if it is determined in step S7 that the medicine needs to be filled, if the amount of the medicine currently stored in the medicine storage 181 is the maximum storage amount of the medicine storage 181, the medicine cannot be replenished. Therefore, in step S8, the control unit 11 may output a filling list indicating only a list of medicines, of the plurality of medicines, which are determined in step S7 that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed and need to be filled, and which are the medicines stored in the medicine storage unit 181 whose remaining amount is less than the maximum storage amount.

As described above, in the medicine dispensing system 10, the dispensing prediction amount corresponding to each of the medicines at each of the filling timings is set based on the past dispensing amount on the day of the week to which each of the filling timings belongs, and whether or not to fill each of the medicines is determined based on the dispensing prediction amount. Therefore, the necessity of filling each of the medicines can be reported at an appropriate timing in consideration of the change in the time factor of the dispensing amount of each of the medicines. Further, it is possible to suppress the shortage of the medicine, compared to a case where whether or not filling is to be performed is determined based on the predicted amount of distribution at the filling timing up to the next time or a predetermined fixed value, for example, at each of the filling timings. Further, since the distribution prediction amount is set based on the distribution history information D11, the distribution prediction amount is set to a very large value, and the number of times of filling the medicine is not unnecessarily increased, so that the efficiency of the medicine filling operation can be improved. That is, in the medicine dispensing system 10, the filling list does not unnecessarily increase the types of medicines described as medicines that need to be filled, and the suppression of medicine shortage and the efficiency of the medicine filling operation can be achieved in a well-balanced manner.

In addition, when the predicted dispensing amount is set to a large value, the medicine is more likely to be filled up to the predicted dispensing amount, and the efficiency of the filling operation for each medicine is reduced. On the other hand, when the predicted dispensing amount is set to a small value, the remaining amount of each of the medicines when the medicine becomes equal to or smaller than the predicted dispensing amount is small, and thus the medicine may be missing before the filling operation of each of the medicines is completed. In contrast, in the medicine dispensing system 10, the predicted dispensing amount is set based on the average value of the dispensing amounts for each day of the week in a specific period set in advance in the past for each medicine. That is, the distribution prediction amount is set based on the distribution amount of the same day of the week in a specific period of the past, for example, 3 months back from the current date, based on the idea that the amount of change in the distribution amount is small when the day of the week is the same. In particular, the specific period in the past may be considered to be a period of the same month, season, or the like as the current one in the previous year or years, and in this case, the distribution prediction amount may be set based on the distribution amount of the same day of the week such as the time or season in which the specific disease is prevalent. Therefore, the dispensing prediction amount is not set to an extremely large value or an extremely small value, and the suppression of the lack of the medicine and the efficiency of the medicine filling operation can be achieved in a well-balanced manner. Further, since the unit prediction amount for each of the days of the week is calculated from the average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the days of the week, it is not necessary to record the dispensing amounts of the respective medicines for a plurality of time periods for each of the days of the week, for example, and the recording process of the dispensing amounts can be simplified.

In the present embodiment, the case where the medicine dispensing system 10 is connected to one medicine dispensing apparatus 1 has been described as an example, but the medicine dispensing system may be connected to a plurality of medicine dispensing apparatuses 1. In this case, the controller 11 may calculate the amount of each of the medicines dispensed from the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 for each of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 based on the medicine dispensing data and the like input from the medicine dispensing management apparatus 2, and set the predicted amount of each of the medicines and determine whether or not to fill each of the medicines. The medicine dispensing management apparatus 2 may calculate a total value of the amounts of the medicines dispensed from the plurality of medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 based on the prescription data, and may input a value obtained by dividing the total value by the number of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 to each of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 as the amount of the medicine dispensed from each of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1.

[ second embodiment ]

A second embodiment of the present invention will be described below. Note that points not described here are the same as those in the first embodiment. Specifically, in the first embodiment, a case has been described in which the dispensing amount of the medicine is recorded in units of one day in the dispensing history information D11, and the unit predicted amount for each time period is calculated from the dispensing amount.

On the other hand, in the configuration of the first embodiment, the unit predicted amounts for one day of each of the medicines are equal, but the amounts of the medicines to be dispensed may be different not only by day of week but also by time period. In contrast, the control unit 11 may store the amount of medicine dispensed by the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 for each preset time period or the like as the dispensing history information D11.

Specifically, in step S3 of the medicine dispensing control process, the controller 11 counts the dispensing amount of each medicine at intervals of the filling timing, for example, 2 hours, and records the dispensing amount as the dispensing history information D11 corresponding to each medicine. Here, fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution history information D11. The distribution history information D11 is stored in the data area 122 set for each medicine.

In the dispensing history information D11 shown in fig. 7, the dispensing amount of the medicine from the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 changes depending on the combination of the day of the week and the time period. One of the reasons for this is that not only the clinical departments available for diagnosis and treatment using the medical-related facility of the medicine distribution system 10 described above are different from the doctors responsible for the diagnosis and treatment, but also the congestion conditions in the treatment time and each time slot are different for each clinical department, for example.

In step S6 of the medicine dispensing control process, the controller 11 refers to the dispensing history information D11 corresponding to each medicine to set the unit predicted amount and the dispensing predicted amount. Specifically, the control unit 11 calculates a unit prediction amount corresponding to each combination of the day of the week and the time of each of the medicines based on the dispensing amount of each of the medicines for each combination of the day of the week and the time period recorded in the dispensing history information D11 corresponding to each of the medicines. In this case, the control unit 11 calculates an average value of the amounts of the medicines to be dispensed in a combination of day of week and time period of a specific period of past 3 months or the like, and sets the average value as the unit predicted amount corresponding to the combination of day of week and time of week of the medicines to the unit dispensing information D12. For example, the previous specific period may be a period of 3 months or the like going back from the current time, but may be a period of the same month or season as the current time in the previous year or past years. Thus, the increase in the amount of medicine dispensed in consideration of the prevalence of a particular disease is calculated as the average value of the amount of medicine dispensed in accordance with the time, season, or the like of the prevalence of the disease. Then, the control unit 11 calculates, as the predicted dispensing amount corresponding to the current filling timing, the total value of the unit predicted amounts corresponding to the respective filling timings in the period from the filling timing 2 times later based on the average value of the dispensing amounts of the respective medicines, and sets the calculated value as the predicted dispensing amount corresponding to the predicted dispensing amount information D13.

Here, fig. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the unit distribution information D12, and fig. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the distribution prediction amount information D13. In the unit distribution information D12 shown in fig. 8, the unit forecast amount is displayed for each combination of day of the week and time. In particular, in the unit distribution information D12, the unit prediction amount differs from time to time even on the same day. In the distribution prediction amount information D13 shown in fig. 9, the distribution prediction amount is displayed for each combination of day of the week and time. In particular, in the unit distribution information D12, the distribution prediction amount differs from time to time even on the same day. In the present embodiment, the filling timings are set to 9, 11, 13, 15, and 17 points from monday to friday.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 8, when the current day of the week is monday and the current filling timing is 9 points, the unit prediction amount corresponding to 11 points on the same day as the filling timing 1 time later is 40 boxes, and the unit prediction amount corresponding to 13 points on the second day as the filling timing 2 times later is 50 boxes. Therefore, at this time, as shown in fig. 9, the distribution prediction amount corresponding to the current filling timing is set to 90 bins, which is the total value of both.

As shown in fig. 8, when the day of the week of the current filling timing is monday and the time is 15, the unit prediction amount corresponding to 17 points on the same day as the filling timing 1 time later is 50 boxes, and the unit prediction amount corresponding to 9 points on the second day as the filling timing 2 times later is 40 boxes. Therefore, at this time, as shown in fig. 9, the distribution prediction amount corresponding to the current filling timing is set to 90 bins, which is the total value of both. As shown in fig. 8, when the day of the current filling timing is monday and the time is 17 points, the unit prediction amount corresponding to 9 points on tuesday on the second day which is the filling timing 1 time later is 40 boxes, and the unit prediction amount corresponding to 11 points on tuesday on the second day which is the filling timing 2 times later is 30 boxes. Therefore, at this time, as shown in fig. 9, the distribution prediction amount corresponding to the current filling timing is set to 70 bins, which is the total value of both.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the unit prediction amount and the distribution prediction amount corresponding to each of the filling timings are individually set for each combination of the day of the week and the time corresponding to each of the filling timings based on the distribution history information D11. Therefore, in the medicine dispensing system 10, whether or not each medicine is to be filled is determined in consideration of not only the day of the week but also the time period, and the necessity of filling each medicine is reported at an appropriate timing.

[ third embodiment ]

A third embodiment of the present invention will be explained below. Points not described here are the same as those in the first embodiment or the second embodiment. As described above, in the medicine dispensing device 1, the medicine identification information corresponding to the type of the medicine stored in the medicine storage 181 is set in advance for each storage identification information for identifying each medicine storage 181 in the storage base data stored in the storage 12. In the medicine dispensing control process, the necessary medicines are dispensed from the medicine storage units 181 based on the recipe data and the storage unit basic data.

As an example of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1, the medicine-box dispensing apparatus described in the first and second embodiments is disclosed in, for example, japanese patent No. 4755726 and international publication No. 2012/050120. Here, fig. 10 and 11 are views showing an example of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1. As shown in fig. 10 and 11, the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 includes: the medicine dispensing unit 18 that accommodates a plurality of medicine boxes each containing a medicine and is capable of dispensing the medicine boxes by prescription; a loading device 19 capable of loading medicine boxes into the medicine dispensing unit 18; and a replenishing device 20 capable of replenishing the medicine boxes to the loading device 19. The filling device 19 and the replenishing device 20 are provided individually for each of the medicine dispensing units 18, or are provided in common for each of the medicine dispensing units 18.

The medicine dispensing unit 18 includes the plurality of medicine box receiving units 181 as medicine box paths that can receive medicine boxes in a row and sequentially deliver the medicine boxes. The loading device 19 includes a loading rack that is movable at a position adjacent to the side where the medicine boxes are put into the medicine storage unit 181. Moreover, the above-mentioned supplementary device 20 includes: a replenishing-medicine-box placing section capable of placing the medicine boxes in an aligned state; and a transfer mechanism capable of transferring the medicine boxes to the loading rack while maintaining the arrangement state of the medicine boxes placed on the replenishing-medicine-box placing portion. In addition, the loading rack includes: a loading medicine-box placing portion on which the medicine boxes delivered from the replenishing apparatus 20 can be placed in an aligned state; and loading means capable of loading the medicine boxes loaded on the loading medicine-box loading portion by feeding the medicine boxes loaded on the loading medicine-box loading portion to the medicine storage portion 181 one by one.

Fig. 12 is a view schematically showing an example of the arrangement of each of the medicine storage units 181 of the medicine dispensing unit 18. Specifically, the medicine dispensing unit 18 shown in fig. 12 includes 18 dispensing units 180 in total, 6 rows in the vertical direction and 3 rows in the horizontal direction, and each rectangular portion in the dispensing unit 180 is the medicine storage unit 181. In the medicine dispensing device 1, the medicine storage units 181 are each provided with a storage unit code serving as storage unit identification information for identifying the medicine storage unit 181. The storage unit code is set so that the value of the storage unit code increases in order from the upper left end to the lower right end of the medicine dispensing unit 18. More specifically, the value of the storage unit code increases from the left end to the right end for each column of the medicine dispensing unit 18 in the vertical direction, and increases from the upper end to the lower end in the vertical direction of the medicine dispensing unit 18. The relationship of the size of the storage unit code of each of the medicine storage units 181 of the medicine dispensing unit 18 is not limited to this, and may be a predetermined relationship such that the value of the storage unit code increases from the upper right end to the lower left end.

In the present embodiment, the fifth digit of the storage unit code indicates the number of the medicine dispensing unit 18, and the fifth digit (highest digit) is "1", and the number is 1. As shown in fig. 10, when the medicine dispensing device 1 includes 2 medicine dispensing units 18, the number corresponding to each medicine dispensing unit 18 is set in advance. Similarly, when a plurality of the medicine dispensing devices 1 are provided in the medicine dispensing system 10, serial number sets are preset in advance for each medicine dispensing unit 18 of each medicine dispensing device 1.

The fourth and third digits of the storage unit code are two digits of a serial number indicating the dispensing unit 180 in the vertical direction of the medicine dispensing unit 18, and the upper end is "01". The second digit of the storage unit code is a digit indicating a serial number of the dispensing unit 180 in the left-right direction of the medicine dispensing unit 18, and the left end is "1". The first digit (lowest digit) of the storage unit code is an individual code of the medicine storage unit 181 sequentially assigned to the dispensing unit 180, and the left end is "1". For example, when the storage unit code of the medicine storage unit 181 is "10323", the medicine storage unit 181 is disposed at the position "03" from the top and "3" from the left in the dispensing unit 180 of the medicine dispensing unit 18 of the machine number "1" and "2" from the left.

The sizes of the medicine boxes of the medicines are different depending on the kinds of the medicines. Therefore, the number of the medicine containers 181 in one of the dispensing units 180 is variable within a range not greater than a predetermined upper limit, and the sizes of the medicine boxes that can be stored in the medicine containers 181 can be adjusted in advance. Here, the medicine storage portions 181 of one dispensing unit 180 may have the same size, but may have different sizes. The storage section basic data includes arrangement information on the arrangement of the medicine storage sections 181 and storable medicine information for specifying the types of medicines that can be stored in the dispensing units 180. The storable medicine information includes, for example, the size of the medicine box, the type of the medicine (the medicine name or the medicine code), and the like. Accordingly, the control unit 11 can determine the arrangement of the medicine storage units 181 and the types of medicines that can be stored in the medicine storage units 181 based on the arrangement information and the storable medicine information of the storage unit basic data.

In the medicine dispensing device 1 configured as described above, the medicine storage 181 can be newly dispensed for a type of medicine that is not stored in the medicine dispensing unit 18 or a type of medicine that has already been dispensed to the medicine storage 181. In this case, for example, the medicine storage unit 181 to which the medicine is newly dispensed may be automatically selected in order from the lowest number of the storage unit codes. However, in this case, when a newly dispensed medicine is already dispensed to any one of the medicine storage units 181, there is a possibility that the existing medicine storage unit 181 is distant from the newly dispensed medicine storage unit 181.

For example, in the storage unit base data, a case is considered in which the medicine a is dispensed to the medicine storage unit 181 shown in fig. 12 as the medicine stored in the two medicine storage units 181A of which the storage unit codes are "10622" and "10623". In the unused medicine storage units 181B of the medicine storage unit 181 shown in fig. 12, the storage unit codes "10112", "10124", "10131", "10211", "10212", and "10513" indicate that no medicine is currently being dispensed. On the other hand, the unused medicine storage unit 181B can store the medicines a in the storage units having the storage unit codes "10112", "10211", "10212", and "10513". At this time, when the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the medicine a are added, if the medicine a is dispensed in the order of the smallest number of the storage unit codes, the medicine a is dispensed to the unused medicine storage unit 181B which is located farther from the existing medicine storage unit 181A and has the storage unit code "10112" among the unused medicine storage units 181B capable of storing the medicine a.

In this case, for example, when the same type of medicine is loaded into the plurality of medicine storage units 181, the movement range of the loading rack of the loading device 19 becomes large, which causes a problem of lowering the efficiency of the filling operation. In addition, even when the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 does not include the loading device 19 and the replenishing device 20 and a user manually loads medicines into the medicine storage units 181, the user's operation range when loading the same kind of medicines into the plurality of medicine storage units 181 becomes large, which causes a problem of a decrease in the efficiency of the loading operation.

In contrast, in the present embodiment, a configuration will be described in which the efficiency of the filling operation can be improved when the same kind of medicine is loaded into the plurality of medicine storage units 181 in the medicine dispensing apparatus 1.

Specifically, the control unit 11 functions as a registration processing unit 116 that executes a stored medicine registration process for registering the correspondence relationship between each of the medicine storage units 181 and the type of medicine in the storage unit base data by executing various processes in accordance with the medicine distribution program. More specifically, in the present embodiment, the registration processing unit 116 can update the storage unit base data in accordance with a user operation on the operation unit 15.

[ registration processing of stored medicine ]

An example of the procedure of the stored medicine registration process executed by the control unit 11 will be described below with reference to fig. 13. The stored medicine registration process may be executed by a control unit (not shown) mounted on the medication dispensing management apparatus 2.

< step S11>

In step S11, the control unit 11 determines whether or not a registration start operation for additionally registering the medicine storage unit 181 is performed with respect to the type of medicine selected as the registration target of the stored medicine registration process (hereinafter referred to as "registration target medicine"). The drug to be registered is selected from the drugs registered in the drug basic data by a user operation such as a maintenance screen of the drug basic data. Here, when it is determined that the registration start operation is performed (S11: Yes (Yes)), the process proceeds to step S12, and when it is determined that the registration start operation is not performed (S11: No (No)), the process stands by at step S11.

< step S12>

In step S12, the controller 11 displays a registration screen D21 for additionally registering the medicine storage unit 181 on the display unit 14. Here, fig. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the registration screen D21. The registration screen D21 displays an installation type key K11 for selecting an installation type. As shown in fig. 15, the controller 11 pop-up displays on the registration screen D21 an installation type selection screen D22 for selecting either one of automatic selection and cartridge selection as an installation type in response to the operation of the installation type key K11. The automatic selection is a first registration mode in which the medicine storage units 181 are automatically selected in descending order of the storage unit codes, and the cassette selection is a second registration mode in which the medicine storage units 181 are arbitrarily selected in accordance with a user's specification. Then, the controller 11 switches the first registration mode and the second registration mode and changes the display name of the installation type key K11 in accordance with the selection operation of the installation type on the installation type selection screen D22. Further, the controller 11 may select the automatic selection as the installation type when the medicine to be registered is first registered in the storage unit base data in the medicine dispensing device 1, and may select the cassette selection as the installation type when the medicine to be registered is already registered in the storage unit base data.

In addition, as shown in fig. 14, an installation destination key K10 for selecting an installation destination is displayed on the registration screen D21. The control unit 11 pops up and displays an operation screen (not shown) for selecting either one of the manual filling and the automatic filling as the installation destination in response to the operation of the installation destination key K10. Specifically, the medicine dispensing system 10 is provided with a plurality of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1, and the plurality of the medicine dispensing apparatuses 1 may include: an automatic medicine dispensing device capable of automatically filling the medicine storage units 181 with medicine by the filling device 19, the replenishing device 20, and the like; and a manually-filled medicine dispensing apparatus including a manual filling unit (not shown) that enables a user to manually fill each of the medicine storage units 181 with medicine. In this case, the manual filling is selected when the medicine storage unit 181 of the manually filled medicine dispensing apparatus is set as the installation destination candidate of the medicine to be registered, and the automatic filling is selected when the medicine storage unit 181 of the automatically filled medicine dispensing apparatus is set as the installation destination candidate of the medicine to be registered. In the medicine dispensing device 1, when the registration target medicine is first registered in the storage unit base data, an arbitrary medicine dispensing device 1 may be selected as the installation destination, and when the registration target medicine has already been dispensed to the medicine storage unit 181, only the type of the medicine dispensing device 1 (automatic-filling medicine dispensing device or manual-filling medicine dispensing device) provided with the dispensed medicine storage unit 181 may be selected as the installation destination.

< step S13>

In step S13, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the selection operation of the mounting type has been performed. When the mounting type is selected, it is determined whether or not the mounting type is changed in step S13. Here, when the control unit 11 determines that the selection operation of the mounting type has been performed (S13: Yes (Yes)), the process proceeds to step S14, and when the selection operation of the mounting type has not been performed (S13: No), the process proceeds to step S15.

< step S14>

In step S14, the controller 11 reflects the selection operation of the mounting type on the registration screen D21. Specifically, when the automatic selection is selected as the installation type, the registration screen D21 is switched to a display state corresponding to the automatic selection as shown in fig. 14. On the registration screen D21 shown in fig. 14, operation units K12 are displayed so that the number of the medicine storage units 181 to be added can be arbitrarily input. In addition, the registration screen D21 also displays the number of registered medicine containers 181 (here, "2") and the maximum registrable number (here, "4"). In addition, at the time of the initial display of the registration screen D21 at step S12, a state is displayed in which any one of the automatic selection and the cartridge selection, which are set in advance for initial setting or the like, is selected as the mounting type.

On the other hand, when the cartridge selection is selected as the mounting type, a registration screen D23 corresponding to the cartridge selection is displayed instead of the registration screen D21 as shown in fig. 16. The registered display region K13 and the selection operation region K14 are displayed on the above-described registration screen D23 shown in fig. 16. The registered display area K13 displays the storage unit codes corresponding to the registered medicine storage units 181 for the registration target medicines. In the selection operation area K14, the storage unit codes of the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the medicine storage units 181 that can store the registration target medicines and are not currently used are displayed as candidates. The user can select one or more of the medicine storage units 181 in the selection operation area K14 of the registration screen D23. In addition, the registration screen D23 also displays the number of registered medicine containers 181 (here, "2") and the maximum registrable number (here, "4").

Instead of the selection operation area K14, the control unit 11 may display an arrangement display area schematically showing the arrangement state of the medicine storage units 181 as shown in fig. 12. Further, the control unit 11 may be configured to display, in the arrangement display area, the arrangement state of each of the medicine storage units 181, the medicine storage units 181 registered in association with the registration target medicine, the medicine storage units 181 selectable as new registration destinations, and the medicine storage units 181 not selectable as new registration destinations in a recognizable manner. For example, the display mode may be a display color of each of the medicine storage units 181 in the arrangement display area. The control unit 11 receives a selection operation of the one or more medicine storage units 181. This allows the user to easily select the medicine storage units 181 while checking the arrangement of the medicine storage units 181. Further, the control unit 11 may be configured to display the registration screen D23 such that candidates of the medicine storage units 181 are arranged in order from the near side to the far side from the medicine storage unit 181 which has been registered in the medicine storage unit 181 in association with the registration target medicine.

< step S15>

In step S15, the control unit 11 determines whether or not a registration operation for registering input content is performed on the registration screen D21 or D23. For example, when the registration key K15 displayed on the registration screens D21 and D23 is operated, it is determined that the registration operation is performed. Here, when it is determined that the above-described registration operation has been performed (S15: Yes (Yes)), the process proceeds to step S16, and returns to step S13 until the above-described registration operation is performed (S15: No (No)). When a cancel key K16 for canceling the registration process with respect to the registration target medicine is operated on the registration screen D21 or D23, the registration screen D21 or D23 is closed without reflecting the input content of the registration screen D21 or D23.

< step S16>

In step S16, the controller 11 updates the storage unit base data based on the input content of the registration screen D21 or D23, thereby registering the correspondence relationship between the registration target medicine and the medicine storage unit 181.

Specifically, when the registration operation is performed in the state of the first registration mode displayed on the registration screen D21 (see fig. 14), the controller 11 updates the storage unit base data so that the registered number of medicine storage units 181 input to the operation unit K12 is automatically allocated to the registration target medicine. At this time, the control unit 11 automatically selects the registered number of medicine storage units 181 from among the currently unused medicine storage units 181 that can store the registration target medicine in descending order of the storage unit code.

In the case where the registration operation is performed in the first registration mode, the controller 11 may select and distribute the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the same type of medicine so that the medicine storage units 181 are arranged at positions close to each other in step S16. For example, in step S16, the control unit 11 determines whether or not the medicine storage unit 181 allocated to the registration target medicine is present. Then, when the medicine storage units 181 allocated to the registration target medicines are present, the control unit 11 selects the medicine storage unit closest to the allocated medicine storage unit 181 among the medicine storage units 181 that can be allocated to the registration target medicines. For example, when there are a plurality of the medicine storage units 181 allocated to the registration target medicine, the control unit 11 may select the medicine storage unit 181 closest to the position of the medicine storage unit 181 having the smallest or largest storage unit code. When there are a plurality of the medicine storage units 181 allocated to the registration target medicine, the control unit 11 may select the medicine storage unit 181 closest to the center of gravity of the plurality of the medicine storage units 181. In addition, when there is one medicine storage unit 181 allocated to the registration target medicine, the control unit 11 may select the medicine storage unit 181 closest to the position of the medicine storage unit 181.

Further, the control unit 11 may use the medicine storage unit 181 with a frequency of use calculated based on the distribution history information D11 lower than a preset threshold as a candidate as in the case of the medicine storage unit 181 that is not used. When the medicine storage unit 181 with the frequency of use lower than the threshold value is selected so as to be associated with the registration target medicine, the control unit 11 executes a collection process of sending out all the medicines currently stored in the medicine storage unit 181 before associating the registration target medicine with the medicine storage unit 181 in step S16. As a result, the medicine storage units 181 that are used less frequently are reused in association with the registered medicines, so that efficient use of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 can be supported, and the efficiency of the filling operation when the same kind of medicine is filled into each of the plurality of medicine storage units 181 can be improved. Alternatively, instead of the frequency of use, it may be determined whether or not the total value of the dispensing amounts for a predetermined period is lower than a preset threshold value.

On the other hand, when the registration operation is performed in the state of the second registration mode displayed on the registration screen D23 (see fig. 16), the controller 11 updates the storage section basic data so that one or more of the medicine storage sections 181 selected in the selection operation area K14 are assigned to the registration target medicines. In this way, when there is a medicine storage unit 181 registered in association with the registration target medicine, the user can arbitrarily select the medicine storage unit 181 in the vicinity thereof, thereby improving the efficiency of the filling operation when the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 fills the same kind of medicine into each of the plurality of medicine storage units 181.

In addition, the following structure may be considered: in the registration screen D23, the controller 11 may select the medicine storage unit 181 with a frequency of use lower than a preset threshold value based on the distribution history information D11 and display the medicine storage unit 181 as a candidate associated with the registration target medicine. That is, even in the medicine storage unit 181 to which the medicine is already dispensed, if the frequency of use is lower than the threshold, the user can select the medicine as a registration destination associated with the registration target medicine. When the medicine storage unit 181 with the frequency of use lower than the threshold value is selected so as to be associated with the registration target medicine, the control unit 11 executes a collection process of sending out all of the medicines currently stored in the medicine storage unit 181 before associating the registration target medicine with the medicine storage unit 181 in step S16. Accordingly, the medicine storage unit 181 with a low frequency of use can be used in association with the registration target medicine again, and efficient use of the medicine dispensing apparatus 1 can be supported.

Further, in the step S16, the controller 11 may update the storage unit base data so that the medicine storage units 181 of the number corresponding to the total of the registration number instructed to be registered on the registration screen D21 or D23 and the number of medicine storage units 181 allocated to the registration target medicine are arranged at the closest position.

[ fourth embodiment ]

In the present embodiment, another example of the stored medicine registration process described in the third embodiment will be described. Specifically, in the present embodiment, a configuration will be described in which the controller 11 automatically registers the correspondence between each of the medicine storage units 181 and the type of medicine in the storage unit base data based on a past usage history.

First, in the medicine dispensing device 1 according to the third embodiment, in order for a user to arbitrarily set the correspondence relationship between each of the medicine storage units 181 and the type of medicine, the number of the medicine storage units 181 associated with the type of medicine is considered in consideration of the frequency of use of the medicine. For example, in the medicine dispensing device 1, the dispensing history information D11 is recorded in the data area 122 of the storage unit 12, so that the user can grasp the frequency of use of each medicine storage unit 181 with reference to the dispensing history information D11. However, it is troublesome for the user to investigate the number of the medicine storage units 181 associated with each type of medicine based on the distribution history information D11 and the like.

[ Another example of the storage medicine registration processing ]

In contrast, in the medicine dispensing device 1 according to the present embodiment, the control unit 11 performs a stored medicine registration process (see fig. 17) described later instead of the stored medicine registration process (see fig. 13). The stored medicine registration process described above will be described below with reference to fig. 17.

< step S21>

First, in step S21, it is determined whether or not a registration start operation for starting the update process of the storage unit base data is performed. Then, when the registration start operation is performed (S21: Yes), the process proceeds to step S21, and if the registration start operation is not performed (S21: No), the process stands by at step S21. When the registration start operation is performed, the control unit 11 executes the following process with the type of each medicine currently assigned to the medicine storage unit 181 as the registration target medicine. It is also conceivable that the controller 11 executes the following processing of step S22 and thereafter before or after execution of step S8 of the medicine dispensing control processing.

< step S22>

In step S22, the controller 11 acquires the maximum amount of the predicted amount of distribution for each of the registration target medicines based on the distribution history information D11. As described in the first and second embodiments, the distribution prediction amount is calculated based on the past distribution amount of each medicine stored in the distribution history information D11, for example, for each medicine whose filling timing is a period from the filling timing 2 times later. In step S21, the distribution prediction amount is not limited to the maximum amount, and an index regarding the distribution frequency of each of the registration target medicines, such as an average value of the distribution prediction amounts at each of the filling timings, may be acquired.

< step S23>

Next, in step S23, the controller 11 determines the number of dispenses of the medicine storage 181 corresponding to each of the registration target medicines, based on the maximum amount of the predicted dispensing amount obtained in step S22. Specifically, the control unit 11 calculates the number of the medicine storage units 181 that can store the registration target medicines of the maximum amount of the predicted dispensing amount for each registration target medicine. Then, the control unit 11 determines the number of the medicine storage units 181 capable of storing the predicted amount of dispensing as the number of the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the registration target medicine to be dispensed. The controller 11 may calculate the number of the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the maximum amount of the predicted dispensing amount based on the maximum storage amounts of the medicine storage units 181 included in the storage unit basic data.

< step S24>

Then, in step S24, the controller 11 updates the storage section basic data based on the number of the medicine storage sections 181 allocated for each of the registration target medicines determined in step S23.

For example, the control unit 11 may be configured to assign one or more of the medicine storage units 181 in descending order from the registration target medicine having a large maximum amount of the predicted amount of distribution. Specifically, the control unit 11 first allocates the registration target drug having the largest amount of the predicted amount of distribution to select the registration target drug as the target drug (hereinafter referred to as "allocation target drug"). Then, it is determined whether or not the number of the medicine storage units 181 currently assigned to the dispensing target medicine is insufficient with respect to the number of the medicine storage units 181 divided into the dispensing target medicine determined in the step S23.

Then, when the control unit 11 determines that the number of dispensed medicine storage units 181 is insufficient, the control unit selects the medicine storage units 181 that are not currently used among the medicine storage units 181 and that can store the medicine to be dispensed, and allocates the medicine to be dispensed to the medicine to be dispensed in accordance with the insufficient number. In this case, as described in step S16, the control unit 11 may automatically select the medicine storage units 181 corresponding to the same type of medicine so that the medicine storage units 181 are disposed at positions close to each other. The control unit 11 may be configured to display the medicine storage units 181 which are not currently used among the medicine storage units 181 and which can store the medicine to be dispensed, and select the medicine storage unit 181 associated with the medicine to be dispensed in accordance with a user operation.

In addition, the number of the medicine storage units 181 which are not currently used and which can store the medicine to be dispensed in the medicine storage units 181 may be less than the shortage. In contrast, as described above, the control unit 11 may use the medicine storage unit 181 with a frequency of use calculated based on the distribution history information D11 that is lower than a preset threshold as a candidate as in the case of the medicine storage unit 181 that is not used. When the medicine storage unit 181 with the frequency of use lower than the threshold value is selected, a collection process of discharging all the medicines currently stored in the medicine storage unit 181 is executed before the medicines to be dispensed are dispensed. Accordingly, the control unit 11 can select the medicine storage unit 181 having the frequency of use lower than the threshold value and associate the medicine storage unit with the medicine to be dispensed. In addition, even when the number of the medicine storage units 181 that are not currently used and that can store the medicine to be dispensed in the medicine storage units 181 is less than the insufficient number, the medicine storage units 181 whose frequency of use is equal to or greater than the threshold value do not become candidates. Alternatively, instead of the frequency of use, it may be determined whether or not the total value of the dispensing amounts for a predetermined period is lower than a preset threshold value.

The control unit 11 performs the same processing for each of the other registration target medicines as the distribution target medicine in the order of the maximum amount of the predicted distribution amount from the maximum amount to the minimum amount. In step S24, the case where the medicines with the largest amount of predicted distribution amount among the medicines to be registered are sequentially distributed has been described, but the medicines may be distributed to the medicine storage unit 181 in the order of the shortage number or in the order of other indices such as the number of times replenishment is required at the filling timing.

Description of the reference numerals

1 medicine dispensing device

11 control part

111 distribution processing unit

112 remaining amount acquiring part

113 determination processing unit

114 setting processing part

115 output processing unit

12 storage part

121 program area

122 data area

13 communication I/F

14 operating part

15 display part

16 drive device

17 Printer

18 medicine dispensing part

181 medicine storage part

182 dispense drive

2 dispensing management device

3 upper level system.

Claims (10)

1. A drug dispensing system, comprising:

a plurality of medicine storage sections for storing medicines;

a dispensing processing section that dispenses the medicine from the medicine storage section based on prescription data;

a remaining amount acquiring unit that acquires a remaining amount of the medicine stored in the medicine storing unit for each type of the medicine;

a setting processing unit that sets, for each of the preset filling timings, a predicted amount of each of the medicines to be dispensed during a period up to the filling timing a plurality of times, based on the dispensing amount of the day of the week to which each of the filling timings belongs, among the past dispensing amounts of each of the medicines for the day of the week;

a determination processing unit that determines whether or not the remaining amount of the medicine acquired by the remaining amount acquisition unit is equal to or less than the predicted amount of distribution corresponding to the current filling timing; and

and an output processing unit that outputs a result of the determination by the determination processing unit.

2. The drug dispensing system of claim 1, wherein:

the setting processing unit sets the predicted dispensing amount based on an average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the medicines in a specific period set in advance in the past.

3. The drug dispensing system of claim 2, wherein:

the setting processing unit calculates, as the unit predicted amount corresponding to the one-time filling timing for each of the days of the week, a value obtained by dividing an average value of the dispensing amounts for each of the days of the week by the number of times of the filling timing for each of the days of the week, and sets, as the dispensing predicted amount, a total value of the unit predicted amounts corresponding to the filling timings during a period from the filling timing up to the most recent filling timing.

4. The drug dispensing system of claim 1, wherein:

the setting processing unit sets the predicted dispensing amount based on an average value of the dispensing amounts for each combination of the day of the week and the time period in a specific period set in advance in the past for each of the medicines.

5. The drug dispensing system of claim 4, wherein:

the setting processing unit sets, as the predicted dispensing amount, a total of average values of the dispensing amounts corresponding to combinations of the day of the week and the time period of each of the filling timings in a period from the filling timing at most.

6. The drug dispensing system of any one of claims 1-5, wherein:

the filling occasions are determined by a combination of day of the week and time of day, respectively.

7. The drug dispensing system of any one of claims 1-5, wherein:

the output processing unit outputs the determination result only for the medicine determined by the determination processing unit that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed.

8. The drug dispensing system of claim 7, wherein:

the output processing unit outputs a fill list indicating a list of the plurality of medicines determined by the determination processing unit that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed.

9. The drug dispensing system of claim 8, wherein:

the output processing unit outputs a fill list indicating a list of medicines, of the plurality of medicines, for which the determination processing unit determines that the remaining amount is equal to or less than the predicted amount to be dispensed and for which the remaining amount of the medicine stored in the medicine storage unit is smaller than the maximum storage amount.

10. The drug dispensing system of any one of claims 1-5, wherein:

a medicine box containing a predetermined amount of the medicine, the medicine box being stored in the medicine storage unit,

the distribution processing portion distributes the medicine in units of medicine boxes based on the prescription data.

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