Drug Distributor Uses RFID to Vend Meds

VendingTechnology enlisted Scopra, a maker of application and network management software, to create an event-monitoring program that could link to the Sirit reader and update the refrigerator's inventory as tagged units of drugs were removed or added to inventory.

Before shipping the hemophiliac drugs to the pilot hospital, ASD workers hand-apply labels with an embedded Alien Technology EPC Class 1 UHF inlay (Alien's "M" inlay) to each product being tracked in the pilot. Each vial is shipped inside an individual cardboard package, and the label is placed onto the package. An interrogator encodes a unique ID to the tag, associated with the drug's national drug code, expiration date, lot number and manufacturer's product code. Employees then verify that the tag has been encoded before shipping it to the hospital.

When the drugs arrive at the hospital, the medical staff places the tagged vials into the Cubixx. The cabinet's reader sends each tag ID to the hospital's inventory system, and ASD gets a confirmation of receipt. Whenever a vial is taken from the Cubixx, the reader sends another message to the inventory system, removing it from inventory. Once the inventory of a specific drug falls to a predetermined level, ASD receives an automatic order for more vials. Throughout the pilot, ASD calls the hospital to confirm this order as adouble check. In the future, however, Richards hopes to eliminate this step.

If the system is widely deployed, ASD will provide the RFID-enabled Cubixx units to each participating hospital and install the system onsite. In addition to paying for drugs as they use them, the hospitals will also pay a small premium, says Richards, to help ASD cover the cost of the new system.

"The system provides value to the hospitals because it frees its working capital," Richards says. This ensures that each hospital has as much of the specialty drugs that it needs. He claims that other drug distributors also sell specialty drugs on a consignment basis, but that because they don't have RFID tags or a similar way to monitor inventory levels, representatives must travel to each hospital and make a physical check of the inventory each week. He also notes that this pilot and likely rollout are being done solely by ASD Heathcare, rather than its parent company, AmerisourceBergen. However, he says, AmerisourceBergen does have an RFID task force and is looking at how it might use the technology in its drug-distribution operations.