Real-time inventory re-supply system

摘要

A system and method for managing the contents of a medical storage container that has a required inventory of medical articles. A Faraday cage enclosure is used to isolate, scan, and inventory a tray or other container of medical articles each of which has an RFID tag. The enclosure having a size smaller than the size needed for a resonant frequency at the RFID frequency of operation. A robust electromagnetic field is nevertheless developed in the enclosure and a program compares the scanned present inventory of the tray to the required inventory database and indicates any differences. Expired and recalled articles are identified.

主权项

1. A medical storage container re-supply system for reading a data carrier that is attached to a medical storage container and a data carrier attached to a medical article located in the storage container to manage the inventory of the storage container, the data carriers being responsive to electromagnetic energy (EM) of a frequency f1 in response to which the data carriers provide identification data, the system comprising:
a metallic enclosure having an internal storage area, the metallic enclosure further having electrically conductive walls that completely surround the internal storage area and any medical article with associated data carrier placed therein to establish a Faraday cage, the enclosure having a natural frequency of resonance f2 which is different from a frequency f1 and to which a data carrier that is responsive to frequency f1 is not operationally responsive; a probe disposed at a metallic wall of the metallic enclosure within the metallic enclosure, the probe configured to inject electromagnetic energy of a frequency f1 into the metallic enclosure, wherein the position of the probe in relation to the metallic walls of the metallic enclosure is selected so that reflected EM of frequency f1 within the metallic enclosure is in phase at the probe position to thereby optimize power transfer at frequency f1 into the enclosure; an active impedance matching circuit coupled to the probe and configured to actively more closely match impedance of the probe to impedance of the metallic enclosure at frequency f1; a medical storage container having a data carrier identifying the container, the container being located within the internal storage area of the metallic enclosure and containing a medical article with an associated data carrier identifying that medical article, both data carriers being responsive to EM at frequency f1 but not operationally responsive to frequency f2; a receiving antenna disposed within the metallic enclosure and configured to receive the identification data provided by the data carriers; a predetermined required inventory list of medical articles for the storage container; a non-volatile memory on which is stored the predetermined required inventory list of the and details of the medical article; a processor programmed to receive the identification data of the storage container and the identification data of the article in the storage container, locate the predetermined required storage container inventory list in the memory through the identification of the storage container, locate the details of the medical article identified in the storage container in the memory through the identification data of the medical article, and compare the details of the medical article against the required inventory list of the storage container to manage the inventory of the container.