Looking for a pill dispenser...

[Punisher]

So, I've been trying to find a pill dispenser and haven't come up with what I'm looking for, so figured I see if anyone has come across something...

What I'm looking for is this:
1) It will automatically dispense pills at the correct time. (I can live with it not being automatic, but something where I hit the AM button for morning, Mid button for middle of the day, and PM button for evening.
2) I want it so that it has multiple "bays" that are programmable (at least 10). What these bays do is this.... You program each bay for a specific medicine and dosage... EX.

Bay 1:
Medicine 1. Take 1 pill once in morning, once at night

Bay 2:
Medicine 2. Take 2 pills in AM. 1 pill mid. 2 pills PM

etc...

What you do is dump all of medicine 1 in bay 1, all of medicine 2 in bay 2, etc.. program the bays and then the machine automatically sorts the pills and dispenses them. This would then mean you don't have to take time to sort the pills, you just keep refilling the bays as needed...

Does this exist? If so, will it break the bank? If not, maybe we should start a kickstarter!

[Purge]

http://www.epill.com/dispenser.html

Around 800 USD.

[PeteRock]

http://www.epill.com/dispenser.html

Around 800 USD.

Found this same site as well.  Some of the options are a little less expensive (saw one for $300), but there are other less expensive options such as the MedReady Automatic Pill Dispenser for about $160. 

I found these just by doing a quick Google search for "automated pill dispenser" and a number of different options popped up in a variety of price ranges.  You'll probably have to determine your price range and then weigh the options each dispenser provides before making a decision, but odds are you won't find an entry price much below $150.  Otherwise you're probably looking at something more like this. 

[Punisher]

Looking at both links, they seem to just be dispensers... meaning we still have to sort the meds into the individual trays ourselves.. We already have something for that... I'm more looking for something that I can dump a whole prescription in and it auto sorts.. Unless I missed something from those links...

[SkyLander]

My light googling didn't find what you were looking for.

If I understand right you want something that you can take a bottle of pills and dump it into 1 bay, and then another bottle into a different bay. Then you program it, in the morning 1 from bay 1 and 2 from bay 2 and so on.

[Punisher]

My light googling didn't find what you were looking for.

If I understand right you want something that you can take a bottle of pills and dump it into 1 bay, and then another bottle into a different bay. Then you program it, in the morning 1 from bay 1 and 2 from bay 2 and so on.

Yep.. thats it.. I've been using Google Fu for a while now, and usually my Google Fu is strong, but can't seem to find this except for industrial/hospital use... Maybe it doesn't exist, but it sure could be useful for people who take a lot of different meds... as long as it's not too pricey...

[PeteRock]

My light googling didn't find what you were looking for.

If I understand right you want something that you can take a bottle of pills and dump it into 1 bay, and then another bottle into a different bay. Then you program it, in the morning 1 from bay 1 and 2 from bay 2 and so on.

Yep.. thats it.. I've been using Google Fu for a while now, and usually my Google Fu is strong, but can't seem to find this except for industrial/hospital use... Maybe it doesn't exist, but it sure could be useful for people who take a lot of different meds... as long as it's not too pricey...

After volunteering in a hospital pharmacy for over 200 hours, I've never seen any such thing utilized in a hospital setting.  Med-sorting was handled by pharmacy techs, volunteers, and then ok'd by the pharmacists themselves.  We'd set up trays with print-outs of all meds required by a patient, those meds would be assembled by techs/volunteers, and then those trays would be packaged into baggies and distributed throughout the hospital.  Area nurses were then responsible for distributing the meds to their patients when needed.  Med-sorting took place twice a day, and all additional medications were filled on an as-needed basis. 

In that environment the checks-and-balances system was extremely important, so no med distribution was handled electronically or automatically. 

I'm not saying that such a device does not exist, but in a hospital or retail pharmacy setting there's too much liability to allow for an automated system to sort medications.  There may be a dependable system that exists, but I highly doubt that it will be at an affordable cost point (especially for personal use).  Odds are you'll be stuck with some level of manual sorting prior to a system timing appropriate distribution.

[wonderpug]

I imagine the tricky thing is that it would have to dispense by weight, since even medications of the same drug type can come in different shapes and sizes.

[Punisher]

My light googling didn't find what you were looking for.

If I understand right you want something that you can take a bottle of pills and dump it into 1 bay, and then another bottle into a different bay. Then you program it, in the morning 1 from bay 1 and 2 from bay 2 and so on.

Yep.. thats it.. I've been using Google Fu for a while now, and usually my Google Fu is strong, but can't seem to find this except for industrial/hospital use... Maybe it doesn't exist, but it sure could be useful for people who take a lot of different meds... as long as it's not too pricey...

After volunteering in a hospital pharmacy for over 200 hours, I've never seen any such thing utilized in a hospital setting.  Med-sorting was handled by pharmacy techs, volunteers, and then ok'd by the pharmacists themselves.  We'd set up trays with print-outs of all meds required by a patient, those meds would be assembled by techs/volunteers, and then those trays would be packaged into baggies and distributed throughout the hospital.  Area nurses were then responsible for distributing the meds to their patients when needed.  Med-sorting took place twice a day, and all additional medications were filled on an as-needed basis. 

In that environment the checks-and-balances system was extremely important, so no med distribution was handled electronically or automatically. 

I'm not saying that such a device does not exist, but in a hospital or retail pharmacy setting there's too much liability to allow for an automated system to sort medications.  There may be a dependable system that exists, but I highly doubt that it will be at an affordable cost point (especially for personal use).  Odds are you'll be stuck with some level of manual sorting prior to a system timing appropriate distribution.

These are the ones I found...
http://www.rxcount.com/how-it-works.htm
http://www.inrangesystems.com/#1
http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2010/02/674a.html

Don't know if they are widely used or not, but they don't seem to be for home use..

[PeteRock]

These are the ones I found...
http://www.rxcount.com/how-it-works.htm
http://www.inrangesystems.com/#1
http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2010/02/674a.html

Don't know if they are widely used or not, but they don't seem to be for home use..

Unfortunately a lot of them won't be, and if so they'll still likely be cost-prohibitive. 

[Hrothgar]

This seems like a reasonable product that would be killed by liability.  After all, one error could result in illness, injury or death.  Who would want to insure that?

[Roman]

When I worked for AmerisourceBergen they had an AutoMed line that would dispense the correct amount of meds from 'hoppers' etc etc. But this type of device is used primarily in larger hospital pharmacies.
There is no consumer based model that I can think of.

Here is a link to their MMS products: http://www.amerisourcebergen.ca/en/medication-management-solution

[Purge]

What about something more ....

Spoiler for manual?:

[CeeKay]

you should get a pill dispenser that looks like a PEZ dispenser.

[Calavera]

When I worked for AmerisourceBergen they had an AutoMed line that would dispense the correct amount of meds from 'hoppers' etc etc. But this type of device is used primarily in larger hospital pharmacies.
There is no consumer based model that I can think of.

Here is a link to their MMS products: http://www.amerisourcebergen.ca/en/medication-management-solution

In retail, auto-fill machines like those by Yuyama are fairly common.

[Purge]

Pssst:

she might be a head nurse.