Direct Issue Return to Pharmacy

Overview

When medicines issued directly to an inpatient (BHT) — via Direct Issue to BHTs or Issue Discharge Medicines — are not used, they can be returned to the pharmacy directly against the original bill. This is a different flow from returning medicines that arrived via a pharmacy request: a direct-issue return settles immediately — stock is credited straight back to the issuing department the moment the return is confirmed, with no separate pharmacy acceptance step.

If the medicines were requested from pharmacy (not directly issued) and received onto the ward, use Inward Ward Return to Pharmacy instead — that flow is porter-mediated and requires the pharmacy to accept the return separately.

When to Use

Use this feature when:

• A patient did not use some or all of the medicines directly issued to their BHT
• A direct-issue bill (or a discharge-medicine issue bill) was billed with the wrong quantity and needs correcting
• You need to reduce the quantity charged on a direct issue bill before the patient's stay is finalized

How to Use

Step 1 — Find the Bill

There are several equivalent starting points — use whichever is closest to where you're already working:

• From the patient's Admission Profile (Inpatient Dashboard): under Reports & History, click Direct Issues. This lists every direct-issue and direct-issue-return bill for this admission — bill no, type (Issue/Return), billed-at date, billed-by user, total/margin/discount/net value, and status (cancelled/refunded)
• From the Nursing Workbench: select the patient, then in the Pharmaceuticals & Consumables panel click Search IP Direct Issues by Bill (or by Item) and search — these open the same search pages described in Search Inpatient Direct Issue By Bill
• From the main menu: Inward > Pharmacy > Search Inpatient Direct Issues by Bill (or by Item)

Step 2 — Open the Bill to Manage

1. Find the issue bill you want to return items from
2. Click Manage Bill (from the Direct Issues list) or the Bill No / View Bill link (from a search results page)
3. This opens the Manage Direct Issue to BHT page for that bill, where you can also View Bill, Mark As Checked / Mark As Un Check, or (with the right privilege) To Cancel the whole bill

Step 3 — Start the Return

1. On the Manage Direct Issue to BHT page, click To Return Item
   • This button is disabled if the bill is already cancelled, or the patient's admission has been discharged
2. You are taken to the BHT Issue Return page, pre-loaded with every line from the original bill that still has a returnable balance (Balance Qty in Unit = originally issued quantity minus quantity already returned on that line)

Step 4 — Enter Quantities and Confirm

1. Select a Reason for Return from the dropdown, or type your own — this is mandatory
2. For each item you are returning, enter the Returning Qty in Unit. Leave items you are not returning at 0
   • The "Recievable" gross/margin/discount/net totals at the top update as you edit quantities
   • The item grid's Margin Rate column, and the "Recievable Margin Amount" total, correctly reflect the item's full original service charge even when the item was also sold at a discount — a full return always recovers exactly the same Gross/Margin/Discount/Net as the original sale
3. Click Return
4. Confirm the "Are you sure you want to return this items ?" prompt

The system creates a return bill linked to the original issue, reduces what was charged to the patient, and immediately adds the returned quantity back into the issuing department's stock. No pharmacy acceptance step is involved — the return is complete as soon as it is confirmed.

A full return of a discounted item now shows the same Gross/Service Charge/Discount/Net on both the original Sale Bill and the new Return Bill preview:

Step 5 — Bill Preview

After confirming, the Bill Preview screen appears. Its header carries the navigation you are most likely to want next: Inpatient Dashboard (returns to this patient's admission profile) and Pharmacy Sale Search (start on another bill). The cog button beside the title opens the print-format settings for this bill.

The preview itself is split across three tabs.

Reprint Bill

The original Sale Bill and the new Return Bill side by side, each printable independently. The Return Bill — the one you just created, and the one you most likely need to hand over or file — is outlined and tinted so it is not mistaken for the sale bill beside it. The highlight is on screen only; printed receipts are unchanged.

Reprint Bill tab — the Return Bill Preview is highlighted; both bills print independently.

Running Update Status

A per-item reconciliation for this issue bill, so you can confirm the return landed as intended without going back through the bill history:

Column	Meaning
Sale Qty	Quantity originally issued on this bill
Previously Returned Qty	Quantity returned on earlier returns against this bill
This-Time Returning Qty	Quantity returned by the return you just confirmed
Total Returned Qty	Previously Returned + This-Time Returning
Balance Qty	Sale Qty − Total Returned Qty — what is still returnable

Every line of the original bill is listed, including lines that are now fully returned (Balance 0) and lines you did not return this time. This is deliberate: the entry screen in Step 4 only lists lines that still have a returnable balance, so a fully-returned item disappears from there — but it still appears here, which is what lets you confirm the full picture for the bill.

Running Update Status — the reconciliation covers this issue bill only, not the patient's whole admission.

Original Bill

A full-width copy of the original issue bill, with its own Print Original Bill button — useful when you need a clean reprint of what was issued, separate from the return.

Original Bill tab — the same sale bill print format, full width, with its own print button.

Gross, Service Charge, Discount, and Net visibility on both previews: these figures are gated by two separate privileges, consistently across every paper format (A4, 5x5, POS, and the compact receipt format):

• Rate / Gross / Net — require the Nursing IP Billing View Rates privilege (plus the Nursing IP Billing - Show Rate and Value setting being enabled).
• Service Charge / Discount — additionally require the IP Billing View Discount privilege. Without it, Rate/Gross/Net still print, but Service Charge and Discount are hidden rather than shown as zero.

With both privileges granted, every paper format shows the same correct figures on both the original bill and the return bill:

Direct Issue vs Discharge Medicine Returns

Returning items from a Direct Issue to BHTs bill and from an Issue Discharge Medicines bill both use this same "To Return Item" flow and screens. Internally the system records the return under a different bill type depending on which kind of bill it started from, but the steps are identical either way.

Understanding Messages

Error Messages

• "No Bill Selected" / "No Bill Found": Reached this page without a bill in context — start again from Manage Bill on the Direct Issues list.
• "You can't return another department's Issue.please log to specific department": You are logged into a different department than the one that issued the bill. Log into the issuing department before returning (unless your institution has enabled a specific configuration allowing the receiving department to return as well).
• "You cant return over than ballanced Qty": You entered more than the item's returnable balance; the entered quantity is rejected.
• "Return comment is Mandatory..": Select or enter a Reason for Return before clicking Return.
• "Add Valied Return Quntity": All quantities are at 0 — enter a quantity for at least one item.
• "Cannot return medicines: nursing discharge has already been confirmed for this patient.": The patient's nursing discharge has already been confirmed; returns are no longer possible for this admission.
• "This Bill Already Discharged": The patient's stay has already been financially finalized; returns are no longer possible.
• "This return has already been settled.": A resubmission of the same return was blocked to prevent creating a duplicate return bill — the original return already went through.

Permissions

• Viewing the Direct Issues history and reaching Manage Bill requires the Pharmacy Sale privilege.
• Cancelling the original bill (the separate To Cancel action) requires the Pharmacy Sale Cancel privilege.
• Seeing Rate/Gross/Net on the print previews requires Nursing IP Billing View Rates; seeing Service Charge/Discount additionally requires IP Billing View Discount — see Print Preview above.

Contact your system administrator if you need access.

Related Features

• Direct Issue to BHTs from Pharmacy — issuing medicines directly to BHTs (the flow this return reverses)
• Search Inpatient Direct Issue Returns — search and audit direct issue return bills after they are created
• Inward Ward Return to Pharmacy — the separate, pharmacy-accepted return flow for medicines that arrived via a pharmacy request
• Ward Medicine Request, Issue, and Return Workflow

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