Theatre Pharmacy Issues - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Theatre — Pharmacy Issues for Surgery Cases

Overview

The Direct Issue of medicines and surgical consumables from pharmacy to a theatre case allows pharmacy staff to dispense items directly against a patient's surgery, without a separate prescription workflow. The issued items are billed directly to the surgery and appear on the patient's inpatient bill under pharmacy/drug charges. Stock levels are deducted at the time of issue.

When to Use

  • Dispensing surgical consumables (sutures, drapes, dressings) to an OT case
  • Issuing anaesthetic drugs or intraoperative medications for a specific surgery
  • Recording medicines used in theatre that need to be charged to the patient's BHT
  • Any direct pharmacy issue that needs to be linked to a surgery rather than a general admission

Required Privilege

TheaterIssue

Navigating to Direct Issue (Medicines)

From the Surgery Workbench:

  1. Open the Surgery Workbench for the patient
  2. Click Direct Issue Medicines
  3. The pharmacy issue page opens with the surgery pre-loaded

From the Theatre menu:

  1. Click Theatre → Pharmacy & Stores → Direct Issue
  2. Search for and select the patient's surgery using the autocomplete

Step-by-Step: Issuing Medicines to a Surgery

Step 1 — Select the Surgery (if not pre-loaded)

Type the patient's name, BHT number, or surgery name in the search field. Results show the patient name, BHT, and discharge status. Select the correct surgery.

Note: Surgeries for already-discharged patients can still be accessed — the discharge status badge is shown in the search results.

Step 2 — Add Items

  1. Click in the Medicine / Device search field
  2. Type part of the item name — the autocomplete shows:
    • Item name
    • Stock quantity available
    • Expiry date
    • Any expiry warnings (Expired / Expiring Soon tags)
  3. Select the item from the list
  4. Enter the Quantity to issue
  5. The Rate and Value are displayed (if you have the ShowDrugCharges privilege)
  6. Click Add — the item appears in the bill items table

Repeat for each item to be issued.

Warning: Do not issue items marked as Expired — these are shown with a red tag. Only issue items that are within their expiry date.

Step 3 — Review the Bill Items Table

The table shows all items added in the current session:

Column Description
Item Name Medicine or consumable name
Quantity Amount being issued
Expiry Date Batch expiry date
Status Expiry status tag if applicable
Remove Button to remove an item before settling

Quantities can be edited inline in the table before settling.

Step 4 — Settle the Bill

  1. Verify all items and quantities
  2. Click Settle (green button)
  3. Stock is deducted and the pharmacy bill is linked to the surgery
  4. A print preview of the issue bill appears — print or save as PDF as needed

Starting a New Pharmacy Bill

If additional items need to be issued after settling:

  • Click New Pharmacy Bill to start a fresh issue for the same surgery
  • Multiple pharmacy bills can be linked to one surgery

After Settling

  • The issued items appear in the Pharmacy Issues tab of the Surgery Workbench
  • The total is included in the patient's running inpatient bill
  • The pharmacy stock is reduced by the issued quantities

Understanding Messages

Success

  • The bill settles and a print preview appears

Error Messages

  • "No Stock" or "Insufficient Stock" — The item does not have enough stock available. Check with the pharmacy store manager.
  • "Please select a surgery" — A surgery must be loaded before adding items
  • "Please add at least one item" — At least one medicine must be in the table before settling
  • "Admission has been finalised" — No new pharmacy bills can be added

Best Practices

  • Check stock availability (shown in the autocomplete) before promising items to theatre staff
  • Verify expiry dates — never issue expired items
  • Issue as accurately as possible — excess items that need to be returned require a separate return process
  • If a theatre transfer (bulk stock movement to theatre) is needed rather than patient-specific issue, use Theatre Stock Transfers instead

Related Features