Abstract: Automated pill dispensing apparatus for filing prescriptions in a retail pharmacy. The pill dispensing apparatus can automatically dispense pill form medicines from dispenser units into vials to fill customer prescription orders and place the filled vials in a smart tote assigned to that customer order. The smart totes can include a display listing the automatically filled and manually prescriptions required to complete the customer order assigned to that smart tote. A plurality of smart totes can be positioned on a conveyor arranged to transport the smart totes to one side of the pill dispensing apparatus and a return conveyor. The pill dispensing apparatus can include a controller, a plurality of storage locations for dispenser units, one or more vial feed modules, one or more labeler modules, a vial transport module and an order database.

Abstract: A pill-dispensing apparatus for automatically dispensing solid pills includes a plurality of storage units and a pill dispensing module. The storage units store pills in bulk and each include a hopper and an auger movably positioned with respect to the hopper. An inlet of the auger is positioned to receive pills from the hopper. The pill-dispensing module includes: a dock for receiving and holding a selected one of the storage units, a drive unit for rotating the auger to motivate the pills along the auger, a pill counter for counting pills dispensed from an auger outlet, and a lift for tilting the hopper to control flow and to assist in motivating pills to fall from the hopper and move along the auger.