Supply of Products for Healthcare (SUPPLY)
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Supply of Products for Healthcare (SUPPLY), published by IHE Pharmacy Technical Committee. This guide is not an authorized publication; it is the continuous build for version 0.3.0 built by the FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) CI Build. This version is based on the current content of https://github.com/IHE/pharm-supply/ and changes regularly. See the Directory of published versions

Use Case 6 - Cold-stored medication, resupply and return

This use case shows that supply involves not only the information flow but also the materials flow, which can bring additional requirements, such as the transformation of items between actors – for example, a transport may result in unwanted alteration of the products, and the result is that what is shipped is not what is delivered, which affects inventory management.

Preconditions

A hospital has a stable stock of meningitis vaccines. After a surge of meningitis cases during summer, the hospital stock is almost depleted, and they decide to reorder medication (this is similar to the first use case in this document).

Resupply and Return

The pharmacist in the hospital requests the medication, which is prepared and shipped from the vendor. The shipment is accompanied by an electronic shipment notice, which informs the pharmacist about the pending delivery and quantities.

After the medication is delivered to the hospital, the pharmacist notices that some of the items appear to be damaged in transport. 8 units are in proper condition and are added to the inventory of the hospital. 2 units however are not in proper condition, and the pharmacist cannot use them.

The pharmacist decides to return the items, and during a phone call, the vendor agrees with that return. The vendor prepares an RMA (authorization to return materials).

The hospital pharmacist prepares the items for sending back to the vendor, in a process that is similar to the initial shipment: identifying which items are to be sent, preparing a shipment notice, and sending the items.

In some cases, the invoice can be paid in full and then the credit invoice is issued. In other cases, the invoice can be immediately revised… The complexity of this matter is not in the scope of this work, but the information required for billing is provided by the mechanisms discussed in this document.

Sequence Diagram

Cold-stored medication, resupply and returnMedicationVendorPharmacistPharmacy System/ ERPResupplyRecalculate stock; subtract consumptionPrepare suggested orderPropose order (10 units)Approve orderSend orderConfirm order receptionSupplier order processingCheck orderPrepare shipmentSend Shipment noticeSend MedicationReception at PharmacyNotice Damaged MedicationConfer reception of 8 itemsand 2 defective itemsAdd 8 accepted items to stockDiscuss return orrecall (via phone call)Prepare RMASend RMASend Return NoticeReturn itemsConfer reception of 2 itemsUpdate Billing info

Requirements

This use case introduces the following requirements:

Add Items to Inventory

There is a need for a mechanism to add units to inventory, i.e., register new units in the inventory. This may be an interoperability requirement for later, but for now it is considered to be a functionality that is directly in the inventory management system.

Return Authorization

There is a need to inform of the authorization to send items(which are expected to be uniquely identified). This acts in a similar way to an inventory order (with reversed roles in this case), where one of the party’s requests allows the other party to send some items. The participant parties themselves, as presented before, should be uniquely identified as well.

Return of Items

The return of items is similar to the delivery of items: One party informs the other about the sending of items. This exchange is also supported by standards for content and for item identification.