Lockable Medication Storage Container with Segmented Compartments
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current hospital storage systems for multi-dose medication vials, such as insulin, lead to waste, loss, and inefficiencies due to poor handling, labeling issues, and non-compliance with safety standards, particularly regarding high alert medications, as they are either patient-centric or pharmacy-centric and do not address the specific challenges of multi-dose vial management in hospital settings.
Innovation Solution
A lockable storage container with distinct compartments for different medications, exposing access ports and barcodes, ensuring secure and efficient storage and administration, while allowing easy identification of expiration dates and secure tracking of medication usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multi-dose vials are stored in loose pockets or on medicine carts, then accessibility is improved, but security and organization deteriorate leading to loss and waste
Solution Approach 1:
The storage system is divided into multiple compartments, each designed to hold specific vials in designated orientations. This segmentation allows vials to be easily accessed from the front while maintaining secure storage within the structured compartments, resolving the contradiction between accessibility and security.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage device acts as an intermediary between the vials and the user/environment. It provides a secure container with controlled access points, mediating between the need for easy retrieval and the need for secure, organized storage that prevents loss and waste.
2Ease of operation
If vials are stored without fixed orientation, then ease of retrieval is improved, but identification accuracy deteriorates increasing error risk
Solution Approach 1:
Different compartments are designed with specific local qualities - cutouts and openings positioned to hold vials in predetermined orientations that expose identification labels and barcodes. This ensures that when vials are retrieved, their orientation is already optimized for identification, maintaining both ease of retrieval and identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage device performs preliminary action by pre-positioning vials in the correct orientation during storage. This eliminates the need for manual repositioning during retrieval, ensuring that identification labels and barcodes are already exposed and readable when the vial is taken out, thus maintaining both ease of operation and identification precision.
3Reliability
If storage container is locked for security, then security is improved, but accessibility deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The locking mechanism is segmented from the main storage body, with individual access points that can be opened without requiring full container access. This allows secure storage while maintaining controlled accessibility, resolving the contradiction between security and ease of operation.
4Quantity of substance
If vials are stored in random orientations, then storage space utilization is improved, but medication error risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
Each compartment has specific local qualities with cutouts and openings positioned to accommodate vials in predetermined orientations. This ensures that even when multiple vials are stored, each maintains the correct orientation for identification and administration, preventing medication errors while maximizing storage capacity through efficient use of space.
Solution Approach 2:
The storage device utilizes three-dimensional space efficiently by designing compartments that hold vials in specific orientations. This dimensional approach allows optimal use of storage space while maintaining correct vial positioning, resolving the contradiction between storage capacity and error prevention.
Data Source
AI summary
A lockable storage container and delivery device is provided that exposes the access port of liquid medicinal vials (such as for insulin) while maintaining identification, security, organization and inventory data access, for easy and documented administration of such medicine. The container has individual compartments for various types of medication, or variants of a similar medication (such as various types of insulin) in one convenient and secure container that provides optimal, efficient, cost-saving and safe delivery of medicine to patients.