Medical Storage Case with Remote Unlocking Refrigerator with thermal Spoilage Protection

Abstract

A controlled access pharmaceutical storage case has storage spaces arranged vertically one above the other and a pharmaceutical refrigerator located at its base. A remotely actuable refrigerator door lock on the refrigerator door has a data port connecting with a programmed electronic control arrangement, e.g., a computer or network. The refrigerator has a compressor at the top of the case that operates on line AC or on battery DC backup power. A battery backup arrangement is located at the top of the case. When AC is detected to be absent or insufficient, i.e., during general or localized power failure, the refrigerator operates on battery, and the door lock is prevented from unlocking. Internal temperature and humidity levels are tracked and sent at intervals to a predetermined destination for action.

Description

[0001]This is a Continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 470,541, filed May 22, 2009, which is a Continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 391,986, filed Mar. 29, 2006, now abandoned. Applicant also claims priority of co-pending applications Ser. No. 11 / 653,726, Jan. 16, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,728,711, and Ser. No. 11 / 800,937, May 8, 2007, pending. The contents thereof are incorporated by reference herein.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to an electronically accessible locked storage cabinet for storing consumable items for patient care, such as pharmaceuticals. The invention is more particularly concerned with a storage cabinet or case that incorporates a pharmaceutical refrigerator for storing certain sensitive drugs that are considered perishable and need to be kept refrigerated and not exposed to temperatures outside an optimal temperature range. The invention is also directed to a cabinet with an incorpor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]It is an important object to protect patients from harm by keeping suspect refrigerated medications out of the supply chain.

[0011]It is a further object to provide a cabinet and incorporated refrigerator with remotely actuated door lock and with a power back up that permits the refrigerator to continue to function in the event of a power failure.

[0015]In the embodiments of this invention, the compressor is adapted to operate either with standard AC line power (i.e., 110 volts / 60 Hz) or with DC battery power (i.e., 12 volts). There are standard AC power cables that can connect to a wall outlet or similar a source of standard AC line power, and there are also a battery back-up system(s) that serves the refrigerator compressor and the incorporated PC computer. The battery back-up system(s) can be situated at the top of the cabinet near the compressor. The battery back up can include a 12-volt storage battery or batteries (at suitable voltage) for providing DC battery power to the compressor (and / or to the control electronics), as well as a trickle charger or similar charging mechanism coupled to the AC power cables for supplying charging power to the storage battery arrangement. A power sensor detects whether there is AC power available, and if so then the compressor is switched to the AC power and operates on normal line power. If it detects that there is no AC power available, which would mean that a power outage is occurring, or that the unit has become unplugged from the wall outlet, then the compressor is switched over to the 12 volt storage battery, and continues to operate. The power sensor means is coupled to a data input of the PC or elsewhere in the control electronics, so that an alert can be sent to a predetermined destination. The software for this may send out the alert immediately, or may send it out if the power outage continues beyond some interval, i.e., more than five minutes. Normally, the computer or control electronics is receptive to unlock commands specific to the refrigerator door lock, so that the hospital care staff can access the patient's medications. Thus, during normal power conditions, where the AC line power is available, the authorized staff can unlatch and open the refrigerator door lock with an access code. However, during a power outage, when the refrigerator is powered only by the 12 volts storage battery, the unlock facility is disabled, and the staff are prevented from accessing the contents of the refrigerator. The refrigerator can still be opened by a supervisory person with “master” access, which may be a physical key or may be a special access code. This feature keeps the refrigerator closed during the power outage (if it exceeds more than a few minutes), to minimize the risk of temperature spoilage of the refrigerator contents, and to avoid distributing or releasing suspect medications to the patient population.

[0020]The pharmacy staff or other person responsible for the refrigerated cabinet can monitor the temperature remotely for each individual patient pharmaceutical storage cabinet, using the temperature and power outage logs that are available over the computer network or over the Internet. This allows the staff to make decisions about recovery of pharmaceuticals from the refrigerated storage cabinets, and allows them to set priorities for recovery, resupply, and for disposal, if necessary, of possibly compromised materials.

Problems solved by technology

However, those drugs that need refrigeration cannot simply be stored in a conventional secured room-temperature dispensing cabinet, but have to be kept in a refrigerator until needed.

There is also no means provided to ensure that the refrigerator is kept locked, to alarm if the refrigerator is left open or unlocked, or to monitor the refrigerator's operating temperature or the humidity within the refrigerator cabinet.

An additional problem is that many pharmaceuticals, including many used for oncology, are of extreme high value, and that the value of the drugs contained in a single pharmaceutical refrigerator may exceed two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

In that case, a power failure to the refrigerator may result in a devastating financial loss to the hospital or other health care institution.

Because of holiday staffing during long weekend periods, the status of a given pharmaceutical refrigerator may be unknown, and this risk from a power failure can be quite significant.

However, because the rise in temperature can occur before pharmacy personnel can take action to halt distribution or to salvage the high-value pharmaceuticals, there is still a large risk that the medications may become unsafe and not usable, and that some may be administered to patients.

However, systems that are currently available cannot carry out all these functions.

Images