Record medications received, stored, and dispensed for your patients while in treatment in your facility. From the Patient Inventory tab, you can add new medications to the patient inventory, log medication transactions, manage refills, and collect signatures in alignment with facility policies.
Patient Inventory Overview
The Patients Inventory page allows you to view all patients in your current census and the medications your patients currently have in inventory.
You can access the Patient inventory page from the Inventory > Patients.
Each row displays a single medication with a specific dosage type/strength and is color-coded:
- Green: The medication is active and in use.
- Red: The medication has expired.
- White: The medication is not in use or empty.
Additionally, each row has a related icon:
- In Use: the green checkmark means the medication is In Use and can be dispensed to the patients.
- Not in Use: The empty checkbox means the medication is Not In Use (empty or stored for later), and cannot be dispensed to the patients.
- Expired: An exclamation point means the medication has expired.
- Replenish: The plus icon means the replenishment level has been reached. Click on the + to add a new bottle.
- No icon indicates an inventory of 0.
You can filter the inventory by patient, medication, status, date range, strength, serial number, and/or lot number. You can also click on the column headers to sort the data or export the inventory to a CSV file.
Add a New Medication to the Patient's Inventory
There are two ways to log medications in the patient's inventory:
- Medications Brought In By Patient
- Doctor's Orders
Note: If you have different doses for the same medication, you need to log each as a separate inventory item. If you are dispensing a different amount of the same medication (from the same bottle/pack) to fulfill the different doses, adjust the Strength and Quantity in the doctor's order before adding to the patient inventory.
Medications are linked by exact name first, and then by code match next. Medications that are free-typed instead of selected from the drop-down are matched by exact name only.
Medications Brought In By Patient
Any medications that are added to the patient chart as Medications Brought In will be added to the Patient Inventory (if enabled). Click here for more information on the Meds Brought In workflow.
Based on the assigned verifications status, the medication will appear in one of three ways:
- Continue on Admission: The medication is added as In Use (green). This medication can be dispensed and recorded on the Med Log.
- Store: The medication is added as Not In Use (white). If you decide that the patient should take this medication, an Order must be created that matches the patient inventory details exactly: medication, route, dosage form, strength, and unit.
- Destroy: The medication is added with a Disposed transaction type for record-keeping purposes.
Doctor's Orders
A new medication can be added to the patient's inventory through an active medication Order.
Med Log/Doctor's Orders - No Facility Inventory
Let's review how to add a medication to the patient inventory when there is no facility inventory.
- From the Doctor's Orders or Med Log tab on the patient chart, click on the No Patient Inventory link.
- The Medication Name, Route, Strength, and Dosage Form are automatically populated from the order's details.
- You can add the following optional information:
- NDC No: Enter the medication's National Drug Code without dashes. This must be 10 or 11 digits.
- Rx No.: Add a prescription number, if available.
- Manufacturer
- Refills: Refills will automatically populate based on the order. If the order contains a refill, the system will calculate a Replenish alert quantity. If no refills are included, this field will be blank.
- Ordered by: Populates with ordering physician from doctor's order. You can change the doctor if necessary.
- Quantity: Populates the Dispense Amount from the doctor's order. You can update the number if necessary.
- Units: Populates the Units from the doctor's order.
- Enter the Received Date and Time.
- The Received By field auto-populates with your name.
- Expiration Date* Click on the Month-Year link to select a specific month and year (in that case, the last day of the month is considered the final expiration date). You can also type in a specific date.
- Witness: You can specify a witness for the transaction as required by company policy. Start typing the name of the witness, from the auto-complete list you can select any user who has access to Medication Inventory. Witnesses added will need to sign off on any transaction they are added as a witness to. Click here to learn more.
- Click Sign and Submit and add your signature to add the medication to the patient's inventory.
Med Log/Doctor's Orders - Facility Inventory
If there is facility inventory but no patient inventory, you can quickly transfer facility inventory to patient inventory if desired. Click here to learn more about transferring medication from the facility to patient inventory.
- From the Doctor's Order or Med Log tab, click No Patient Inventory.
- Most of the fields will already be completed. Enter an optional Rx No., enter the Received Date and Time, and add an optional Witness.
- If you don't want to use the facility inventory, uncheck the Transfer from Facility Pharmacy box and complete the remaining fields.
- Click Sign and Submit and add your signature to add the medication to the patient's inventory.
Patient Inventory
You can also add a new medication directly from the Patient Inventory page.
- From the Inventory > Patient page, select a patient in your current census.
- Click New.
- Select a medication from the Patient Medications drop-down. This populates with all medications ordered that don't already have patient inventory.
- Complete the fields as described above.
Transactions
Each action taken on a medication in your inventory is recorded as a transaction. This includes common transactions that occur automatically when the medication is dispensed to the patient and manually added transactions like recording a spill or returned medication.
Let's explore how to review and add transactions.
- Navigate to Inventory > Patient. Select a patient from your current census.
- Click on the Medication name to review its related transactions.
- The medication's inventory page contains the medication details, including the remaining quantity, and a table containing all the associated transactions.
- Click on a transaction title to review information about that transaction. The available information is different for each transaction type.
- From the medication's inventory page, click Add Transaction.
- From the Add Transaction window, select a Transaction Type.
- Spillage: Log a medication spill or waste. Specify the quantity of medication that was spilled. This number will subtract from the overall quantity, e.g., if there are 15 capsules and one was dropped, enter 1 and the remaining amount will be 14.
- Med Count: Verify the quantity of medication remaining in the bottle by performing a med count. This may be done by your facility on a regular basis to ensure the integrity of your inventory. After counting the medication, enter the current quantity. If the count is different from the amount the system believes should be in the bottle based on previous transactions, the transaction will highlight yellow.
- Lost: Log medication whose whereabouts are unknown. Specify the quantity you want to subtract from the quantity remaining amount.
- Returned: This transaction is designed to indicate the return of a defective bottle to the manufacturer or pharmacy (common examples include a broken seal, past expiration date, or recalled lot number). Specify the quantity you want to subtract from the remaining amount, this is typically the entire remaining amount.
- Refill: If the medication has one or more refills added to the Doctor's Order, this transaction type allows users to complete the refill.
- Disposed: Log pills you are about to destroy. Typically, this transaction will be used to remove expired or contaminated medication from your inventory. The system automatically fills in the remaining amount into the Quantity field. You can adjust this if needed.
- This transaction type requires a witness. Start typing the name of the witness, from the auto-complete list you can select any user who has access to Medication Inventory. Witnesses added will need to sign off on any transaction they are added as a witness to. Click here to learn more.
- Return to Inventory: Use this transaction to return medication to the patient inventory. Enter the quantity that is being returned. This will increase the quantity remaining.
- Transferred Out: Use this transaction to transfer the medication from the Patient Inventory to the Facility Inventory. This transaction type is only available when there is both facility and patient inventory for the medication. Enter the quantity that is being transferred out.
- Add: Use this transaction to add additional doses to the patient inventory. This helps prevent the need to create a new Doctor's Order and link that order to the same medication in the inventory. Specify the quantity you want to add to the Remaining amount. This transaction requires entering a new Expiration Date for the added medication.
- Next, enter the Quantity, Units, and the Performed Date and Time. Your name will be automatically included in Performed By field. You can also include a Witness, as needed. Note: Disposed Transactions require a witness to save.
- Click Sign and Submit and add your signature to complete the transaction.
Medication Inventory Actions
While on the medication details page, you can also perform the following actions:
Edit Received Transaction
Before any transactions have been added to the medication, you can make updates to the medication details after the new medication has been logged. Note: You cannot edit the Recieved transactions for medications added to inventory through the Meds Brought In process.
- Click on Edit icon next to the Received transaction to modify the details.
- You cannot modify the Medication Name, Route, Dose Form, or Strength. If you've made a mistake in one of those fields, please create a Disposed Transaction for the full remaining amount to close out this inventory item. Then, create a new medication with the correct information.
- You can also choose to pull this medication or unlink the medication from your facility pharmacy, as needed.
- If you made a mistake in another field, correct it and click Sign and Submit.
- The system cancels the original Received transaction and creates a new transaction with the updated details.
Cancel Transaction
You can cancel the most recent transaction type, except for the Dispensed transactions type.
- Click on the X to cancel the transaction.
- Click Sign and Submit and add your signature to complete the cancellation.
- The canceled transaction remains on the list but appears with a strike-through. The Remaining amount will be updated automatically.
Reconcile
Reconciling a medication automatically locks all transactions, preventing deletions. Before you can reconcile the transaction, all witness and reviewer signatures must be applied. You can add more (editable) transactions after you reconciled the existing transactions. Click on Reconcile button to complete the action.
Link Orders
Patient inventory is linked to doctor's orders. When you create a new order for a medication that already exists in the patient's inventory, you will need to manually link the new order to the medication in the patient inventory. Some common examples include medications that were temporarily discontinued or two separate orders for scheduled and PRN doses.
- From the Medication Inventory page, click Link Orders.
- All orders for this exact medication will display. The medications' Name, Route, Strength, and Dosage Form must match exactly to appear in this pop-up.
- Check the box for each order you want to link this patient inventory log to.
- Click Submit.
- You'll receive a confirmation message. Now, when this medication is given to the patient and recorded in the Med Log, the medication will be pulled from this inventory.
Refill Medication
If the patient has available refills, once the medication's remaining amount reaches the Replenish alert level or the medication expires, the system allows you to complete a simple refill without needing to add the medication from scratch.
- From the patient's inventory page, click on the Refill icon.
- The Refill transaction window automatically populates with the refill Quantity based on the original order. You can adjust the quantity as needed.
- Complete the Performed Date and Time and add in the new Expiration Date.
- Click Sign and Submit and add your signature to complete the refill transaction.
- This creates a new Refill transaction. The number of remaining refills will be reduced by 1.
Signatures
You can collect signatures on your inventory transactions as required by company policy. There are two types of signatures:
- Witness Signatures: You can assign Witnesses to transactions and those users will need to sign off on the transactions they witnessed from the inventory page. Click here to learn more.
- Reviewer Signatures: Users with the Review Medication Inventory feature can sign off on all all transactions in the system. Click here to learn more.
After both Witness and Reviewer sign, the transactions can be reconciled.
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