CEP 9: Pharmacy Management
Motive
CARE already includes prescription management and doctor prescription creation. This enhancement aims to extend the existing functionality to include robust pharmacy-specific features, improving medication dispensing, inventory control, and overall pharmacy operations.
Requirements
1. Store Management
- Support multiple main stores (warehouses) and multiple substores (stocking points) within a facility
- Implement hierarchical structure for stores (warehouses -> substores)
- Allow each store (main store or substore) to have a specific location associated with it
- Enable inventory tracking across all stores and substores
- Allow stock transfers between stores with logging
- Support identifiers to track where medicine is stored within a store (e.g., shelf number, bin location)
- Implement stock transfers from main store to substores based on intents/requests from substores
- Support inventory management for all hospital consumables (e.g., detergents, chairs, bins, bed sheets) in the main store
- Enable transfer of non-medical items to corresponding departments and track in their inventory
2. Inventory Management
- Track medication and other supplies inventory at the batch level
- Support multiple units of measurement for products
- Enable automatic reorder alerts based on configurable thresholds
- Provide real-time inventory visibility across all stores
- Implement minimum stock alerts for each product
- Support baseline stock maintenance levels for each store
- Track expiration dates for all products
- Generate alerts for approaching expiration dates
- Support medicine take-back procedures and tracking
- Automatically choose the first-to-expire batch for each product to dispense from (FEFO)
- Ability to view the current stock levels by product
- Implement a notification system for drugs that need refrigeration (e.g., vaccines and some IV antibiotics)
- Capture and track the quantity of each medication in corresponding units (e.g., 30ml or 100ml for syrup bottles)
- Implement data analysis for each substore and main store to suggest optimum inventory levels
- Track and analyze high-value inventory consumption rates and areas
- Support real-time consumption tracking for items not directly charged to patients (e.g., cotton)
3. Batch Management
- Assign unique identifiers to each product batch
- Track batch details: manufacturer, production date, expiration date, quantity
- Support procurement of products from suppliers, broken up by batches with their expiry dates
4. Order Management
- Create and manage purchase orders for restocking
- Track order status (placed, in transit, received, etc.)
- Support partial order receipts and backorders
- Future: Allow creation of intent for purchase orders based on usage trends and stock levels
- Implement a two-level approval system for high-value item purchases
5. Supplier Management
- Maintain a database of approved suppliers
- Suppliers are facility level
- Manage vendor/supplier information
- Implement a vendor addition process that captures product information and source of vendor introduction
6. Prescription Management
- Extend existing prescription model to include pharmacy-relevant states (e.g., Prescribed, Verified, Partially Dispensed, Fully Dispensed, Cancelled)
- Implement workflow for prescription state transitions
- Generate printable prescriptions with all necessary details
- Create secure, time-limited public links for prescription access
- Clearly mark medicines on prescriptions that are not available in-store and add note to buy from outside
- Let staff in pharmacy with specific permission to update medicine and count
- Implement allergy and drug interaction warnings
- Implement a token system for dispensing
7. Dispensing
- Record full or partial dispensing of medications
- Generate medication labels with instructions
- Update prescription states and inventory upon dispensing
- Support barcode scanning for medication identification
- Automatic reduction in stock of product batch quantities when patient pays for the invoice consisting of products (via the billing function)
- Display allergy and drug interaction warnings during the dispensing process
- Implement alerts for similar sounding/looking medicines
8. Billing and Payments
- Integrate with the planned billing system for medication charges
- Process returns and refunds, updating inventory accordingly
- Apply GST (Goods and Services Tax) to billing as required
- Implement controls to prevent unauthorized discounting of bills
- Flag unusual billing patterns or discrepancies for review
9. Reporting and Analytics
- Generate reports on: a. Sales, discounts, and credits b. Purchases c. Stock movement d. Inventory status e. Fast-moving and slow-moving medicines
- Provide financial reports including sales, claims, and profit margins
- Track and report on batch utilization and expiry
- Implement metrics on rate of usage across medicines
- Implement red flagging or alerts for abnormal consumption rates or low/high billing values
- Generate reports on real-time consumption of items not directly charged to patients
10. User Management and Security
- Extend existing user roles to include pharmacy-specific permissions
- Implement audit trails for all pharmacy-related actions
- Implement strict controls on discount application, limiting it to admin-level users
11. Environmental Controls
- Implement a system to track and manage medications requiring special storage conditions (e.g., refrigeration)
- Set up alerts and notifications for temperature-sensitive medications
Reviewed By
- Dr. Athul Joseph Manuel
- Dr. George Tukalan
- Dr. Sachin Suresh