Handheld Barcode Scanner with Automatic Activation

The concept of using a separate cell to house each individual drug to be dispensed in automatically filling a script has been around for well over a decade.  There are, however, a few new wrinkles in how these cells are employed and all pharmacies should be aware of them.
The cell concepts all start with emptying drug supply bottles into the cell so that the pills can be dispensed from the cell on demand.  The first potential problem is that the wrong drug could be loaded into a cell.  Most manufacturers use bar code technology to solve this problem by verifying that the NDC Code on the supply bottle matches the NDC Code on the cell (similar to drug verification for a script).