Data transmission capture in support of medication preparation

Abstract

A method and software interface enables selective processing of data transmissions containing one or more medication orders intended for a pharmacy. Data transmissions are monitored and parsed for prescribed information which is utilized to populate a prescribed data structure. The data structure and parsing rules can be associated with a specific source that can be determined from the data transmission. The parsed data is tested against an order database to determine suitability for automated handling. If suitable, the medication preparation system prepares the medications identified by the data. Those portions of the data that are not suited for automated handling are released (e.g., from the parser). Further verification can be performed by determining the source of the data transmission and verifying it as a valid source. Data transmissions can be monitored over a network, within a network component, or in cooperation with another software program.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for automated transfer and processing of a medication dose order for an intravenous medication, an oral liquid medication, or a chemotherapy medication from an electronic order entry system to a medication preparation workstation in a pharmacy, comprising:
 a memory;   a listener software module loaded in the memory, wherein the listener software module is executable by a processor to configure the processor to receive data for the medication dose order for an intravenous medication, an oral liquid medication, or a chemotherapy medication from the electronic order entry system; and   a parser software module loaded in the memory and executable by a processor to configure the processor to parse the received data for the medication dose order in accordance with a set of configuration rules and test the received data for the medication dose order to determine whether the medication dose order is suitable for handling at the medication preparation workstation,   wherein a record corresponding to a medication dose order that is determined to be suitable for handling at the medication preparation workstation is saved in a database accessible from the medication preparation workstation, and metadata regarding the medication dose order is associated with the record in the database, and   wherein the medication preparation workstation visually displays only medication dose orders that are suitable for handling at the medication preparation workstation and that are to be prepared at the medication preparation workstation.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprises error condition information concerning receipt of said data. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the medication dose order is in an HL7 or an XML format. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 2 , wherein the metadata included in the log entry comprises:
 a marker to indicate whether the record requires parsing, wherein the marker indicates whether the record has been parsed or is yet to be parsed; and,   a date and time when the record was saved in the database.   
     
     
         5 . A system for automated processing of data of an order entry system comprising medication data specifying at least one dose order of medication comprising an intravenous dose order, an oral dose order, or a chemotherapy dose order, the system comprising:
 a medication preparation workstation for preparing dose orders;   a memory;   
       a listener software module loaded in the memory, wherein the listener software module is executable by a processor to configure the processor to receive said data of the order entry system comprising the medication data specifying the at least one dose order of medication, save a record corresponding to the at least one dose order of medication in a database, and associate metadata regarding the medication data corresponding to the at least one dose order with the record; and 
       a parser software module loaded in the memory and executable by a processor to configure the processor to parse and test the data to determine whether the at least one dose order is suitable for handling at the medication preparation work station. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the system is connected to the order entry system through a computer network. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , wherein the data is in an HL7 format. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the record has a unique transaction number. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the parser software module loaded is executable by the processor to configure the processor to parse the data in accordance with a set of configuration rules. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the parser software module is executable by the processor to configure the processor to test the parsed data with reference to a database to determine whether the at least one dose order is suitable for handling at the medication preparation work station, wherein the database maintains tables of data concerning drug names and drug codes associated with those names in various dosages. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the configuration rules are configurable by a user, and wherein the system further comprises:
 software that includes a configuration routine executable by a processor to permit a user to configure the configuration rules.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the configuration routine permits configuration of a set of rules for location of a start and an end of the medication data corresponding to the given dose order as well as discrete data elements within the medication data. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , wherein the configuration rules provide for parsing said data received in an XML format. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 9 , wherein the parsing module is executable by the processor to configure the processor to populate a data structure with data parsed from the data of the record in the database in accordance with the configuration rules. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , wherein the parsing module is executable to associate the data structure with the record in the database. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the listener software module is executable by the processor to configure the processor to detect both a beginning-of-string character and an end-of-string character from the data of the order entry system. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the metadata is included in a log entry for the record, and further comprising:
 a viewer that displays the log entry.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , wherein the viewer displays the log entry together with any error messages generated or associated with the record. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , wherein the metadata included in the log entry comprises:
 a marker to indicate whether the record requires parsing, wherein the marker indicates whether the record has been parsed or is yet to be parsed; and,   a date and time when the record was saved in the database.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 19 , wherein the metadata included in the log entry further comprises:
 error condition information concerning receipt of said data.