DEVICE FOR DISTRIBUTING MEDICATIONS
The present invention concerns a device for distributing medication in portions where there simultaneously is kept control and survey over the consumption of the medi¬ cations.
When persons who are dependent of taking medications at regular intervals and/or at determined doses are given medicines, it may in each case be a problem that the persons, either on account of forgetfulness or because they wish to get a stronger relief of the symptoms or for other reasons, take larger or more frequent doses of the medication than what is prescribed by the doctor. It may also be a problem that such persons in addition may not take their medications and in this way "store" larger doses which subsequently are taken as one single dose. In this way e.g. prescribed cures may be destroyed or a correct medication of chronic diseases may be upset.
There are previously known devices for distributing medi¬ cations, especially in the form of tablets and pills, where there is used a dosage wheel which optionally is timed by using a clock or a timer, and where the wheel is closed inside a box or a container so that the medi¬ cations are not immediately available for the patient.
Such devices are inter alia known from US patent 3.815.- 780 and US patent 4.207.992 where a distributing wheel is connected to a timer for distributing medications in the form of pills.
The drawback with such time-controlled distributing de¬ vices is that they in time may provide access to several medications doses than what has been prescribed, since the pills in the devices, after having exited the device via the distribution wheel, are freely available to the
patient or to other persons. This has as a consequence that the medication dosages and/or the frequency of the medication may be upset, as mentioned supra.
According to the present invention this problem is solved by there to a time-controlled and preferable closed dis¬ tribution device of a conventional type, is included a lockable container and a door or a falling hatch which is time-controlled via a separate or via the same timer as the distribution wheel. The medications from the distri¬ bution wheel will thereby fall onto the falling hatch where they lie for a given period of time, whereafter the falling hatch opens and the medications fall into a dra¬ wer or a container which only is available to the home nurse, the nurse or the doctor via e.g. a conventional lock. Thereby it will be more difficult for the patient to collect unused medications, and it will also be more difficult for unauthorized persons to get access to the unused medications.
The invention will be disclosed more thoroughly infra with reference to the enclosed figures wherein there are shown embodiments of the distribution device (dispensers) with conventional parts for the distribution of the tabl- ets, and a falling hatch and a collection container for tablet which have not been used.
In fig. 1 there is shown an outline of an embodiment of a device according to the invention, and in
fig. 2 there is shown a second embodiment of a device according to the invention.
With reference to the embodiments shown in figs. 1 and 2, the device according to the invention comprises a distri¬ bution wheel 1 being partitioned into a number of cham¬ bers 2 which may contain medications (shown in the form
of pills) 3. The movement of the distribution wheel 1 is governed by a motor 4 being connected to a timer (not shown) . The timer is preferably of such a character that it may be set to connect the motor at given intervals of time. Such time intervals may be chosen by consulting a doctor so that the wheel 1 will be rotated at the times when it is prudent for the patient to take his or her medications 3. When connecting the motor 4 (via the timer) the distribution wheel 1 will rotate over a corre- sponding angle as the angle being occupied by a chamber 2.
With reference to fig. 1 the distribution wheel is made of movable partitions 5, and the rotation thereof is governed by the motor 4, as well as stationary walls where these walls open into an opening 7 on the underside of the distribution wheel 1. Under the opening 7 there is located a box, and the bottom 10 thereof may also be removed via a timed motor (shown as 4 in fig. 1 and as 9 in fig. 2) . The time interval between the medications 3 are added to the box 8 and the bottom 10 is removed so that the medications 3 no longer may be reached through the box 8, is chosen in such a way that it will be pos¬ sible to reach the medications 3 for a given time inter- val. After this time is past the bottom 10 of the box 8 is opened by using a hatch or a slide valve or a corre¬ sponding device, and the medications 3 fall further into a closed container 11 which may not be reached by anybody except the doctor or the nurse. The container 11 may be equipped with a door 12 which may be closed with a lock 13.
The device may also be equipped with registration devices such as optical instruments or impingement/weight-re- gistering instruments (not shown) connected to the bottom 10 for registering falling medications. Signals from such registering devices may start the time interval
determined by the motor 4 from the medications being available in the room 8 until the hatch 10 opens and the medications 3 fall down into the storage room 11 and are thus once more unavailable to the patient.
By equipping the device according to the invention thus, the medications 3 will only be available to the patient for a limited amount of time, and will at other times be unavailable to this person. The filling of the distri- bution device according to the invention as well as the emptying thereof may be performed by authorized persons such as a doctor or a nurse, and these persons are also the ones with a key for unlocking and locking the device.
The device is otherwise surrounded by a closed house 14 which also may be locked and unlocked e.g. by using a locking device 13 or a similar device. The only access to the medications in the device according to the in¬ vention by the patient is via an open door to the chamber 8, wherein the medications only rest for a limited period of time.
In fig. 2 there is shown an alternate device to the de¬ vice shown in fig. 1. Such a device as shown in fig. 2 may have the same function as the device shown in fig. 1, i.e. with a distribution wheel 2 being partitioned into chambers 2. The device comprises furthermore a falling hatch which makes sure that available medications (not shown) will fall down into a storage chamber 11 after the falling hatch has been opened. The falling hatch 10 is equipped with a timer 9 and a motor 4 which rotates the distributions wheel 1. The timer 9 and the motor 4 may be connected to each other in such a way that the availa¬ bility of the medications via the available chamber 2 in the distribution wheel 1 in the time interval from the medications are led to collection by the motor 4 until the falling hatch 10 opens may be set by an authorized
person (doctor, nurse) . The storage chamber 11 in the device may be reached via a door 12 with a lock 13.
The device shown in fig. 2 is also equipped with a sur- rounding house 14. Additionally the integrity of the device is ensured by a lid 15 with an open section 16 which only gives access to one chamber 2 of the dis¬ pensing wheel 1.
As an alternative to the design of the device according to the invention, shown in fig. 2, the dispensing wheel 1 may be equipped with an even number (2n) chambers 2 (in fig. 1 it is shown a dispensing wheel 1 with 8 chambers 2, i.e. a wheel wherein n=4) . In such an embodiment it is possible to omit the storage chamber 11 completely, since the storage chamber then is considered as the cham¬ ber between the lid 15 and the bottom of the room wherein the dispensing wheel 1 rotates. Furthermore, it will be possible to remove the falling hatch 10 and the cor- responding activation device/timer 9, whereas the driving motor 4 for the dispensing wheel 1 may be moved up to the chamber wherein the dispensing wheel 1 is located. The function of the device will then be that there is placed medications only in every second chamber 2. Access to the medications will then be ensured via the open section 16 in the lid 15 when the dispensing wheel 1 has been rotated to an angle where a chamber 2 including medi¬ cations is located below the open section 16. Since there are only placed medications in every second chamber 2, an empty chamber will at the next rotation of the dispensing wheel 1, lie below the open section 16, and new medications will not be available before the next rotation of the dispensing wheel 1. By equipping the motor 4 with a regulating timer (not shown) it will be possible to program the rotation of the dispensing wheel 1 in such a way that access to the medications is only possible in short and predetermined time sequences.
The lid 15 may in any embodiment be locked to the housing 14 surrounding the device. The device shown in fig. 1 is suited for longer periods of time between change/re- introduction of medications than the alternate device disclosed in connection with fig. 2. The device shown in fig. 2 is, in the depicted embodiment, suited for e.g. filling every week, since the dispensing wheel 1 here has 7 chambers 2.
In addition to registering the medications in the avail¬ able chamber 8 the registration devices 15 may activate signals such as light and/or sound signals (not shown) which tell the user of the device that medications are available.
The invention has been explained supra in connection with three embodiments, but further modifications and vari¬ ations will of course be possible based on the knowledge of the person skilled in the art.