AU2007100934A4 - Improvements in Bar-Coded Labelling - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT Invention Title: Improvements .in .Bar-Coded .Labelling The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- (See within) I q IMPROVEMENTS IN BAR-CODED LABELLING Field of the invention THIS INVENTION relates to the printing of bar-coded label patches and is more specifically concerned with reducing the risk of errors arising as a result of having to provide bar-coded information concerning different legend to be provided on sections of a label patch.

State of the art Pharmacies often have to record items of information relating to a medication prescribed for a patient by a doctor and the identity of the patient, to appear at a number of different locations. As examples of the information which may require recordal are: the names of the drugs prescribed, the directions for their use, the identification details of the patient, and, the identity of the pharmacy providing the drug. A different location may require medication re-ordering information for use of the pharmacy. A third location may be required to store details of a drug in order to enable the pharmacist to apply for re-imbursement under the pharmaceutical benefit scheme. Various other locations may be required to store a record of the doctor's prescription, a receipt for a payment made to the pharmacist, and a duplicate receipt for other purposes. This information may be contained in a bar code which controls, via a computer, the printing of parallel strips of a blank multi-section label patch unique to the particular prescription and on the patient.

The pharmacist has the task of manually transferring the printed strips of a label patch to respectively different locations. There is always the risk of an error occurring in this task. For example, the pharmacist may be confronted with a line of printed label patches each having a different bar code and which have to be dealt with in turn and all of the strips of each label transferred to specific respective station. As so much information is contained in a bar code, it will be recognized that it is important that the same bar codes from each label appear at those stations required to store it. To reduce the risk of errors occurring it is important that the pharmacist completes the laborious task of transferring the strips of a printed label patch to the required locations before commencing on the same task for the next printed label patch. However a telephone call to the pharmacy or some other event may interrupt a part completed task. This may result in the presence of a section of a label patch still adhering to the ribbon being unnoticed whereas, if noticed, it would have indicated to the pharmacist that the previous task had not been completed. The pharmacist may then be confronted with two label strips destined for the same location and which appear to be identical but have different bar codes.

Obiect of the invention An object of this invention is to lessen the risk of an error occurring in the handling of sections of a label printed from information stored in a bar code.

The invention In accordance with the present invention there is provided a method of printing a label blank provided on a carrier ribbon, the blank having two adjacent parallel sections adhering to a carrier ribbon and each requiring the same bar code to be printed on them, the bar code being printed along a line of separation of the two sections from one another so that upper portions of the bars of the bar code appear on one section and lower portions of the bars of the same bar code appear on the second section.

Preferably the line of separation extends substantially centrally along the central portion of the bar code. Such an arrangement ensures that when the two sections bearing the bar code are separated from one another each section carries a substantially identical one half of the bar code. The bar code is thus identical in the coded information it provides on each of the two sections and it does not have to be printed twice.

The advantage of the invention is that there is a reduction in the risk of a pharmacist overlooking the presence of one of the sections of the label printed with a bar code and still adhering to the carrier ribbon because the adhering section will have the lengths of the bars of the bar code shorter than those of a bar code printed on a label which has still to have both of its sections removed from the carrier ribbon. The pharmacist can then, by matching the bar codes, determine the station at which the strip having the shorter bar codes should have been located, and can take the necessary corrective action.

Introduction to the drawings The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:- In the drawings FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a section of a carrier ribbon having adhering patches spaced along its length; and, FIGURE 2 is a plan view of a partially printed patch.

Description of preferred embodiment Figure 1 shows a waxy paper carrier ribbon I having a line of generally rectangular patches 2 spaced from one another along its length. Each of the O 4 Spatches 2 has an adhesive backing which enables it to adhere to the surface of the ribbon. The patch is provided with perpendicular slits 4 which extend through the N patches but not the carrier ribbon. These slits 4 separate the patch into sections 3 which may be easily separated manually from the ribbon and applied to respective 5 locations where information typed onto the sections is to be displayed.

O

Most of the slits 4 extend in the direction of the opposite sides of the patch and they are so positioned that the areas of the sections 3 to which printing is to be applied extend in the direction of travel of a reciprocating print head (not shown).

The print head suitably forms part of an ink jet printer capable of printing colour as well as text. However another form of non-contact printer may equally well be used.

Figure 2 shows a partially printed patch 1. Information requiring printing on the patch is contained in a binary bar code 5 which is printed to extend along one of the slits referenced 4' so that the individual parallel bars of the bar code extend perpendicularly to the slit This results in the upper halves of the bars of the bar code being carried by a part of one section 6 of the patch and the lower halves of the bars of the bar code being carried by a part of a separate section 7 of the patch.

The bar code controls the operation of the print head and contains all of the essential information required to identify the patient and the medication to be administered. The sections 6 and 7 gives details of the doctor and the date on which the details relating of the medication were prescribed, as well as repeating details of the prescribed medication.

The printer is set up to provide required information on each section 3 of the patch 2. Thus, for example, one section 3 of the patch may carry re-ordering information for one location. A second section 3 may carry information for enabling the pharmacist to be reimbursed the cost of the medication from the pharmaceutical benefit scheme. A third section 3 may provide receipt information which can be duplicated on an identical fourth section 3, and yet a further section 3 may be used to provide a record copy of the prescription.

The layout of the patch 2 is such that it provides an unusually large number of sections 3. This is of benefit to the pharmacist as it enables each section 3 to be allocated to a chosen location. Until this is done there is at least one printed section remaining on the patch 2. In this way the pharmacist is made aware that when all of the printed sections 3 have been removed from the patch, all of the locations in which a particular record is to be kept have received the information they require. The ribbon 1 can then be advanced by the pharmacist so that the next blank patch lies beneath the printing head in readiness for printing.

Claims (3)

1. 2. The method set forth in the preceding paragraph, in which respective halves of each bar of the bar code appear on respective sections of the label.
2. 3. A printed label blank adhering to a carrier ribbon and made by the method claimed in either of the above two claims.
3. 4. Apparatus controlled by a computer and for printing label blanks in accordance with either of claims 1 and 2. A method of printing a label patch adhering in a manually-removable manner to a carrier ribbon and divided up into sections by lines of separation which penetrate the patch but not the carrier ribbon, the method being substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawing. Dated this 2 5 th Day of September 2007 MANREX PTY. LTD By(Applicant's Patent Attorney). (Applicant's Patent Attorney)