Method and apparatus for inter-pharmacy workload balancing
원문보기
IPC분류정보
국가/구분
United States(US) Patent
등록
국제특허분류(IPC7판)
G06Q-010/00
G06Q-050/00
출원번호
UP-0252775
(2005-10-18)
등록번호
US-7765108
(2010-08-13)
발명자
/ 주소
Goodall, Charles
Jhaveri, Nimesh
Wielgos, Russell Alan
출원인 / 주소
Walgreen Co.
대리인 / 주소
Kowalik, Francis C.
인용정보
피인용 횟수 :
5인용 특허 :
70
초록
The system distributes workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy resources that are connected by a computer network. Work orders are queued at each pharmacy resource and redistributed based on existing workload distribution, capacity of pharmacy resources, and/or product demand.
대표청구항▼
What is claimed is: 1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a computer network of pharmacy resources of a corporate entity, the method comprising: receiving, into electronic queues corresponding to computers of pharmacy resources in the computer network of pharmacy resources of the
What is claimed is: 1. A method of managing drug prescription orders within a computer network of pharmacy resources of a corporate entity, the method comprising: receiving, into electronic queues corresponding to computers of pharmacy resources in the computer network of pharmacy resources of the corporate entity, prescription work orders for execution, wherein each prescription work order includes a physical preparation part and an information processing part, each pharmacy resource in the computer network of pharmacy resources is at a different physical location and includes at least one employee and a corresponding computer, each corresponding computer is configured to execute at least a portion of each queued prescription work order, and the computers of the pharmacy resources in the computer network are communicatively coupled to each other via a network server; calculating, at the network server in the computer network of pharmacy resources, a workload for each pharmacy resource, the workload based on an employee type of the at least one employee and the employee type selected from a group of employee types including a pharmacist, a pharmacy technician, and a clerk; determining, at the network server, a current workload distribution of the plurality of pharmacy resources based on the calculated workload of each pharmacy resource; designating, via the network server, a particular pharmacy resource as one of a sender or a receiver pharmacy resource based on the calculated workload of the pharmacy resource and the current workload distribution; automatically routing at least a portion of a particular prescription work order from a sender electronic queue corresponding to the first computer to at least one receiver electronic queue corresponding to at least one second computer corresponding to at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource based on the current work load distribution; fulfilling at least the portion of the particular prescription work order at the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource and fulfilling a remainder portion of the particular prescription work order at the designated sender pharmacy resource; and delivering the fulfilled particular prescription work order to a desired physical location. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the workload for each pharmacy resource is further based on a number of current prescription work orders and a capacity of each pharmacy resource to complete the prescription work orders, the capacity of each pharmacy resource based on a level of expertise of the at least one employee. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the workload of each pharmacy resource is further based on a number of prescriptions handled by each pharmacy resource per available man-hour of each pharmacy resource, wherein the available man-hour of each pharmacy resource is based on an availability of the at least one employee. 4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically routing at least the portion of the particular prescription work order from the sender electronic queue to the at least one receiver electronic queue is based on whether a prescriptions per man hour of the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource is greater than that of the designated sender pharmacy resource, the prescriptions per man hour based on the employee type of the at least one employee. 5. The method of claim 1, wherein designating the particular pharmacy resource comprises designating the particular pharmacy resource as a sender pharmacy resource when the particular pharmacy resource workload is greater than an average workload of the plurality of pharmacy resources by a threshold amount, and designating the particular pharmacy resource as a receiver pharmacy resource when the particular pharmacy resource workload is less than the average workload of the plurality of pharmacy resources by the threshold amount. 6. The method of claim 1, wherein designating the particular pharmacy resource comprises setting a participation flag in a database table at the network server. 7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the workload for each pharmacy resource comprises calculating a workload based on one or more of overhead costs of a pharmacy location, labor costs, taxes, an accuracy rating of the at least one employee, or an efficiency factor. 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising anticipating, at the network server, a change in capacity of a second particular pharmacy resource to process workload and designating, at the network server, the second particular pharmacy resource as a sender pharmacy resource when anticipating a decrease in capacity and designating, at the network server, the second particular pharmacy resource as a receiver pharmacy resource when anticipating an increase in capacity. 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescription work orders comprise a promised time and further wherein received prescription work orders are arranged in the queue based on promised time. 10. The method of claim 9, further comprising designating, at the network server, a second particular pharmacy resource a receiver pharmacy resource if the second particular pharmacy resource has queued prescription work orders with an average promised time greater than a threshold, and designating, at the network server, the second particular pharmacy receiver a sender pharmacy resource if the promised time is less than a threshold. 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting, at a second particular pharmacy resource, pharmacy staffing schedules based on at least one of the workload of the second particular pharmacy resource and the current workload distribution. 12. The method of claim 1, wherein fulfilling the at least the portion of the particular work order at the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource comprises fulfilling at least a portion of the information processing part of the particular work order at the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource. 13. The method of claim 1, wherein fulfilling the remainder portion of the particular work order at the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource comprises fulfilling at least a portion of the physical preparation part of the particular work order at the at least one designated receiver pharmacy resource. 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information processing portion of the particular prescription work order includes an authentication of one or more prescriptions associated with the particular prescription work order, a validation of third party provider information, a collection of payment information, and a referencing of drug information corresponding to the one or more prescriptions; and the physical preparation portion of the particular prescription work order includes a preparation of a package for the one or more prescriptions and generation of a label corresponding to the one or more prescriptions. 15. A system for distributing pharmacy prescription processing workload amongst a plurality of pharmacy locations, the system comprising: a network of a plurality of pharmacy locations of a corporate entity, each of the pharmacy locations in the plurality of pharmacy locations including at least one employee; a client computer located at each pharmacy location programmed to accept prescription work orders into an electronic queue, execute at least a portion of each prescription work order and calculate a workload for a corresponding pharmacy location based on an employee type of the at least one employee and a number of prescriptions handled by the corresponding pharmacy location per available man-hour, wherein: each prescription work order in the queue includes a physical preparation portion of a prescription and an information processing portion of the prescription, the employee type is selected from a group of employee types including a pharmacist, a pharmacy technician, and a clerk, and the available man-hour for the corresponding pharmacy location is based on an availability of the at least one employee; and a server computer programmed to collect workload data from the plurality of pharmacy locations, determine a target workload distribution based on a current workload distribution and to designate each client computer at each pharmacy location as one of a sender or a receiver, so that a designated sender client computer routes a first portion of a particular prescription work order in a corresponding queue of the designated sender client computer to a first designated receiver client computer and a second portion of the particular prescription work order to a second designated receiver client computer based on the target workload distribution. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the target workload distribution comprises an average threshold workload. 17. The system of claim 15, wherein the server computer is further programmed to store the designation of each client computer in a designation table and further wherein each client computer is further programmed to access the designation table to determine its designation. 18. The system of claim 16, wherein the server computer is further programmed to provide a user the ability to manually override at least one designation in the designation table. 19. The system of claim 15, wherein the target workload distribution is based on an anticipated resource capacity change. 20. The system of claim 15, wherein: a first client computer, when designated as a sender, is programmed to route work orders to a second client computer designated as a receiver by routing the work orders destined for the second client computer to the server computer; the server computer is programmed to store the work orders destined for designated receiver client computers in a central redistribution repository queue of work orders, the central redistribution repository queue of work orders configured to queue a work order received from any designated sender client computer; the second client computer is programmed to request corresponding work orders from the server computer; and the first client computer, when designated as a receiver, is programmed to request corresponding work orders from the server computer. 21. The system of claim 15, wherein a first client computer designated as a sender is programmed to route at least a portion of the information processing portion of a particular work order to a second client computer designated as a receiver, and the first client computer is further programmed to route at least a portion of the physical preparation portion of the particular work order to a third client computer designated as a receiver. 22. The system of claim 15, wherein the information processing portion of the particular prescription work order includes an authentication of one or more prescriptions associated with the particular prescription work order, a validation of third party provider information, a collection of payment information, and a referencing of drug information corresponding to the one or more prescriptions; and the physical preparation portion of the particular prescription work order includes a preparation of a package for the one or more prescriptions and generation of a label corresponding to the one or more prescriptions. 23. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for distributing pharmacy workload across a plurality of pharmacy locations of a corporate entity, the computer-executable instructions stored on a memory of a network server and comprising: a first routine receiving work orders for a first pharmacy location from the plurality of pharmacy locations into a first pharmacy location electronic queue for execution, wherein the first pharmacy location includes at least one employee and a first computer, the first computer is configured to execute at least a portion of each work order, and each work order includes a physical preparation portion of at least one prescription to be filled and an information processing portion of the at least one prescription to be filled; a second routine calculating a workload for the first pharmacy location, wherein the workload is based on an employee type of the at least one employee and the employee type selected from a group of employee types including a pharmacist, a pharmacy technician, and a clerk; a third routine determining a target workload distribution based on the workload for the first pharmacy location and a workload of other pharmacy locations from the plurality of pharmacy locations, wherein each other pharmacy location includes at least one other employee and a corresponding computer configured to execute at least a portion of each work order; and a fourth routine routing one of the physical preparation portion or the information processing portion of a particular work order from the first pharmacy location electronic queue to a second pharmacy location electronic queue based on the target workload distribution, and routing the other of the physical preparation portion or the information processing portion of the particular work order from the first pharmacy location electronic queue to a third pharmacy location electronic queue based on the target workload distribution, wherein the computers of the plurality of pharmacy locations of the corporate entity are communicatively coupled to each other and to the network server. 24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the workload for the first pharmacy location comprises a ratio of a number of prescriptions handled by the first pharmacy location per available man-hours for the first pharmacy location, wherein the available man-hours for the first pharmacy location is based on an availability of the at least one employee. 25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the target workload distribution is based on at least one of overhead costs, pharmacist salaries, taxes, an accuracy rating of the at least one employee or an efficiency of the at least one employee.
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