Pharmacy Prescription Pickup ID Scanning with PDF417

The Identity Data Problem for pharmacy pickup

Pharmacies record who picked up controlled prescriptions, and handwritten or typed logs are slow and inconsistent. Teams also need to keep a readable barcode separate from a verified person or authentic card; mixing the two creates compliance and product risk.

Deterministic Barcode Parsing with Human Confirmation

Scan the license or state ID at pickup, attach the parsed name and ID number to the pickup record, and keep clinical checks separate. StructOCR’s PDF417 API decodes the barcode on the back of US driver licenses and state ID cards and parses the AAMVA record without asking a generative model to reconstruct unreadable values. Both licenses and non-driver state ID cards are accepted; document_kind records which one was presented. Prescription and controlled-substance rules are enforced by the pharmacy system and pharmacist.

Workflow Applications

Server-Side PDF417 Integration

Send the complete card-back image from a protected backend. This example selects fields relevant to pharmacy pickup and treats HTTP 422 as a retake or review state.

import base64
import os
import requests

with open("card-back.jpg", "rb") as image_file:
    image = base64.b64encode(image_file.read()).decode("ascii")

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.structocr.com/v1/driver-license-pdf417",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["STRUCTOCR_API_KEY"]},
    json={"img": image},
    timeout=30,
)

if response.status_code == 422:
    body = response.json()
    print("Retake or review:", body.get("error"), body.get("capture_issue"))
else:
    response.raise_for_status()
    data = response.json()["data"]
    print("given_names:", data.get("given_names"))
    print("surname:", data.get("surname"))
    print("document_number:", data.get("document_number"))

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "type": "drivers_license",
    "document_kind": "id_card",
    "source": "pdf417",
    "country_code": "USA",
    "region": "CA",
    "document_number": "SAMPLE1234",
    "surname": "SAMPLE",
    "given_names": "ALEX MORGAN",
    "first_name": "ALEX",
    "middle_name": "MORGAN",
    "sex": "X",
    "date_of_birth": "1990-01-15",
    "date_of_issue": "2025-01-15",
    "date_of_expiry": "2030-01-15",
    "address": "100 EXAMPLE AVE",
    "city": "SAMPLE CITY",
    "postal_code": "00000",
    "vehicle_class": null,
    "restrictions": null,
    "endorsements": null,
    "document_discriminator": "SAMPLE-DISCRIMINATOR",
    "issuer_identification_number": null,
    "aamva_version": 10,
    "jurisdiction_version": 0
  }
}