Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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DRUG ADMINISTRATION KIT
FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001]The present invention relates to a system far monitoring drug delivery
in hospitals and other medical facilities. More particularly, it relates to a
kit to
be used by a pharmacist and nurse to reduce errors in the drug delivery
process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In a hospital or other institutional setting, a nurse is frequently
required
to keep track of medications for different patients and to make sure that
every
patient gets the correct medication at the correct time of day. It is known
however, that error's in drug administration do occur. Such errors pose a
threat to the patient and may interfere with their treatment and recovery. In
the worst cases, administration of an incorrect drug to patient can have
serious health effects and is some times even fatal.
[0003 There are many steps in the drug delivery process where an error can
occur. Normally, the attending physician prescribes a drug or several drugs
for a patient. The prescription is inputted into the pharmacy through a paper
prescription or through a centralized computer system. The pham~acist
prepares the prescriptions required far each patient. The actual delivery of
the drugs or medications to the patient is done by,a nurse or other hospital
staff person that goes from patient to patient, identifies the patient and
delivers the appropriate medication to that patient. The nurse or practitioner
then signs a record sheet indicating that the medication was in fact
administered at that time.
[0004] Errors can occur at any stage of the drug delivery procedure. For
example, some errors result from an erroneous prescription by the physician.
Other errors occur during the delivery chain when either the pharmacist
provides the wrong drug or the nurse administers medication to the wrong
patient or at the wrong time. The present invention is directed towards
reducing errors in the delivery chain by co-ordinating the delivery container
with a record sheet that the practitioner signs when the drug is administered.
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[0005] !n recent years, several different types of medication containers have
been developed in order to attempt to reduce the number of errors in the drug
delivery chain. For example, United States Patent No. 5,788,079 is directed
to a set of individual pill containers. A sheet of plastic material is
provided
which has a plurality of molded recesses. Each of the recesses defines a
small upwardly open cavity that can be filled with pills. After filling, a set
of
these individual pill containers, a self-adhesive sheet of paper is used to
saver and seal the containers. This type of system is particularly useful when
a patient needs to take a plurality of pills at different times of the day.
For
example, a patient may require pills (a) and (b) three times a day and pills
(a)
(b) and (c) once a day. The different medications for each time of day can be
put in a separate container in the set.
[0006] United States i~atent No. 5,050,739 discloses another type of
disposable medication package that comprises a card used in conjunction
with a blister pack to hold oral solid dace medication in the form of tablets
and
capsules. By looking at the medication card, a patient can easily see whether
or not they have taken the required medication at the required time.
[0007] Another type of known dispensing system is the unit-dose system.
Unit-dose systems have separate packages for each medication with 30-day
quantities. e.g. Tylenol 325mg has its own card, Lipitor 9 Omg has its own
card, etc. There are problems associated with this excessive packaging
including environmental pollution and operational inefficiency for nursing
staff
since much time is spent popping pills out of each and every blister pack.
[0008] Thus, there remains a need far further improvements in the tracking of
drugs from the pharmacist to the patient. There is also a need far a system
that makes it easier for a nurse to dispense the medication and to see at a
glance which medication should be given.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] It is an object of one aspect of the invention to provide a drug
delivery
System that facilitates tracking of the administration of a drug to a patient.
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[0010] The present invention is particularly useful for a mufti-dose system in
which different and multiple medications, that are to b$ administered at the
same time, are packaged together within the same container. This
dramatically reduces nursing time spent as well as the negative
environmental impacts of unit dose systems.
[0011 ] The drug delivery system of the present invention is preferably
provided as a kit. The kit comprises a plurality of pill containers coded for
administration on a certain day or time and a medication administration record
sheet coded in the same manner. The pill containers may be in the form of a
cup, an envelape or a receptacle in a plastic pill ease or a blister pack.
[0012] In a preferred embodiment, the pill containers are receptacles in a
blister pack and the sealing backsheet is color coded for times of day. The
same color coding is applied to the medication record sheet.
BRIEF DESCRIPT10N ()F THE DRAWINGS
[0013] These and other features of the invention will became more apparent
from the following description in which reference is made to the appended
drawings wherein;
[0014] Figure 1 illustrates a set of pill cantainer~ for use in a drug
delivery kit;
[0015] Figure 2 illustrates one embodiment of a dnag administration record
sheet for use in the drug delivery kit; and
[0016] Figure 3 illustrates another embodiment of a drug administration record
sheet for use in the drug delivery kit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] There is a crucial need to ensure the safe delivery of medications to
patients in hospitals, retirement homes and other institutions. This need is
highlighted when a patient may be taking more than one medication and
different medications at different times of the day.
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[op18] To facilitate the appropriate administration of medication, it is
currently
a practice for the pharmacist to review the list of medications prescribed for
a
patient and then prepare a series of pill containers where each container
contains the medications that the patient should be taking at a certain time
of
day. The medications far all the patients are then delivered to the hospital
ward or institution and the medication is given to the appropriate patient by
a
nurse or other qualfied individual. Once the medication has been given to
the patient, the person administering it signs a record sheet indicating what
medicine was given at what time. 1t is very important to keep good records of
the administration to keep track of what was actually administered (as
opposed to prescribed} for the patient at that time. This allows institutions
to
track the drugs and it also provides an important record 'in case of any
adverse effects. Furthermore, it allows a practitioner to look at a glance and
see what medicatsans'a patient is under the influence of at any particular
time
of day.
j0019] The present invention makes the tracking of medication administration
even easier by providing pill containers and sign-otf sheets that work
together
to prevent errors. in the prior art, pill containers could be identified in
various
ways, i.e. by patient name, by bed number, by prescription number, etc. The
recordation sheet could also be provided formatted in a variety of ways. The
administering practitioner would then need to ensure that they were giving the
right medication at the right time and that they were recording it properly on
the recordation sheet. The present invention simplifies the process by
providing a set of pill containers and a recordation sheet that match in terms
of cplor and orientation. The invention is particularly useful for multi-dose
systems where multiple medications are packaged together for administration
at the same time of day. Thus, the nurse has to open only one package for all
the medications prescribed for an individual patient far a Certain time of
day.
[0020] The invention is provided as a kit that comprises a set of pill
containers
arranged by day of the week and time of day and a corresponding medication
administration record sheet. In one preferred embodiment, the pill containers
are provided in a~blister pack sealed with a backsheet that is printed with
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different indicia corresponding to different times of day. Far example, the
row
corresponding to morning aauld be pink, the raw corresponding to noon could
be yellow, the row corresponding to evening could be blue and the row
corresponding to night could be green. It is clearly apparent that various
types
at color or symbol coding can be used. The medication administration sheet
also comprises rows corresponding to various times of day. An important
aspect of the present invention is that the indicia corresponding to the
different times are the same on the pill containers and on the medication
record sheet. !=or example, if morning is pink an the pill container, then the
row far morning on the medication administration sheet is also pink. In this
way, it is very clear to the nurse or whoever is administering the.
medications
that if it is morning, all the medications should be in pink containers. This
also
reduces the chance of errors in recording administration. if a pink container
is
being administered, then the sign-off should be on a pink row. By maintaining
the same coding an both the pill container and the retard sheet, the
probability of an error occurring is reduced.
[Oa2la preferred embodiments of a kit according to the present invention are
illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and 3. The kit comprises a set of pill container's
as
such as that is shown in Figure 1. The containers 't2 are preferably formed
from a sheet of molded plastic material 'f 0 and a~~e sealed with a backsheet
'E 4. The backsheet may be of a variety of materials that can be printed upon.
It is preferably paper. The backsheet includes adhesive regions for sealing
each pill container individually. Both the sheet of molded plastic defining
the
containers and the backsheet are provided with perforations 16 so that they
can separated into individual sealed pill containers.
[0422] The backst~eet is provided with differential markings or indicia which
correspond to times of the day when medication is usually administered. Far
example, in the Figures, the row corresponding to morning is identified by
horizontal fines ~ 8, the row corresponding to noon is identified by iaackward
hatching 2D, the raw corresponding to evening is identified by vertical fines
22
and the row corresponding to night is identified by fa~ward hatching 24. It is
clearly apparent that while the pill container set is Shawn with rows for four
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times of day for exemplary purposes, a set of containers could be provided
which correspond to only once a day or a set of containers could be provided
with markings corresponding to eight or mare dosage times.
[0023] The kit al' the invention further comprises a medication administration
record sheet 30. Examples of retard sheets are shown in Figures 2 and 3. In
Figure 2, the record sheet intrudes a drug identification column 32 that is
used to identify the medication to be given, Far each drug, a series of taws
34, 3~, 38, 40 corresponds tp times of day when the drug might be given.
Columns 42 correspond to days of the week. When the drug is administered,
the person administering the drug puts a signature 44 on the record sheet In
the intersection of the time of day and day of the week (e.g. Sunday noon).
[0024) A more preferred record sheet for use in tile kit of the present
invention
is shown in Figure 3. The medication administration record sheet 50 of this
embodiment is based an a monthly riecord with the option for several daily
dosages. There are thirty-one vertical columns 52 far the days of the month
and six rows a4 for up to slx dairy dosage times. There are eight boxes 56 for
up to eight medications to be delivered. It is apparent that the general
concept of the present,inventian can be applied to medication regimens with
administration of a drug from once daily only up to six, eight ar even 24
administrations per day. It is also apparent that a record sheet can be
provided that is formatted for four weeks (l.e. 28 days) monthly, bi-monthly,
semi-monthly, etc.
[002] While a preferred embodiment is illustrated using a blister-pack type of
container system, it is clearly apparent that other pill cantalner systems,
such
as envelopes, cups, cardboard sheets, reusable plastic pill containers such as
thane having a plurality of receptacles far time and day of the week and the
like could also be used in the present invention, as tang as the container
markings correspond to the markings an the sign-off sheet far the same time.
in the illustrated embodiments, the marfcings are different for different
times of
day but are the same for different days of the week. In another preferred
embodiment, unique indicia are used for days of the week. In a further
preferred embodiment different indicia are usad for both the times of day and
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the day of the week. Far exempts, Sunday could be yellow and marring could
be a horizontal stripe. Thus, Sunday morning would be yellow with a
horizontal stripe and Wednesday morning might be blue with a horizontal
stripe and so on. ft is also apparent that the orientation of the rows and
columns is flexible within the scope of the invention. Far example, while the
days are shown as columns and the times of day are shown as rows in the
drawings provided herein, the days could just as easily be aligned as rows
and the times as columns. While the important aspect is that the coding on
the pill container and on the recordation sheet match, it is preferable, but
riot
essential, that the orientation In rows and columns also matches.
[0026] A method of dispensing medications,is provided. Multiple medications
to be administered to a patient at a particular time of time are placed in a
pill
container that is coded for that time of day. A medication administration
sheet
that is ceded in the same manner as the pill container for the same time of
day is tilled in indicating the medications to be administered and the sheet
and the containers are provided to the person who will be administering the
medications_
[002Tj The present invention also provides a method of dispensing
medication. The method comprises the steps of obtaining a container coded
fior a parficulaT time of day that is filled with medications for
administration at
that time of day, administering the medications and signing off on the
administration on a medication administration record which has the same
ceding for time of day.
[0028] The present invention has been described with regard to one or more
embodiments. However, it will be apparent to persons shilfed in the art that a
number of variations and modifications can be made without departing from
the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.
