Glossary

A

Average Monthly Consumption (AMC)

The average monthly consumption is a measure of the consumption of a drug or medication by patients or hospital services. Importantly, the AMC does not include the loss of drugs due to expiry, theft, or other losses. The AMC may be defined for the entire institution or by pharmacy in the institution. In French this is Consommation Mensuelle Moyenne (CMM).

D

DEPOT

A “depot” is a location where significant numbers of stock items are stored until they are needed. The size and function of a Depot can vary from a large storehouse for handling transfers of drugs to a pharmacy in a clinic for dispensing drugs to patients.

L

LOT

A “Lot” is a collection of identical stock items that are usually purchased and tracked together. For instance, a box of pills might be part of a lot of that type of medication. But “Lot” is also a more general term. For instance, a single piece of equipment may be purchased by itself but for stock tracking purposes, it would be considered to be in a lot of 1 stock item.

P

PHARMACY

A location used to store and provide medications (and other related stock items) as needed by Patients, Services, or other Pharmacies.

Stock Pharmacy A Stock Pharmacy is typically a local storage facility that receives stock from depots and supplies stock to other pharmacies. A stock pharmacy does not generally dispense medications directly to patients.
Dispensing Pharmacy A Dispensing Pharmacy (Pharmacie D’Usage in French) is a pharmacy that dispenses stock to patients, wards, and services. Normally, stock is not transferred from Dispensing Pharmacies to other Pharmacies.

I

INTEGRATION

Integration is a method of increasing or decreasing the quantity in stock of a particular stock lot. It’s used to perform adjustments to the stock in a depot/pharmacy after an inventory is performed and quantities need to be adjusted to match the real quantity in stock.

S

SERVICE

A service is a department in the hospital such as “pediatrics”, “ophthalmology”, “internal medicine”, “pharmacy”, and “administration”. Services can be assigned invoices, consume medications, contain staff, and have both profit and loss centers. They are useful for understanding where in the hospital financial activities are taking place.

STOCK

“Stock” are any items used in the operation of a hospital or clinic. Examples include drugs for treating patients, medical equipment and supplies, and administrative supplies. “Stock” items are often purchased in “Lots” which include a number of the stock items. Note that “Lot Numbers” are sometimes given by manufacturers and are not necessarily unique to BHIMA.

STOCK ADJUSTMENT

When a physical inventory of stock reveals that the actual count of stock items in a depot or pharmacy differs from the count in the BHIMA software, then an “Stock Adjustment” should be performed to update the BHIMA software.

STOCK ENTRY

“Stock entries” occur when an item of stock is added to a Depot. Types of stock entries include:

Purchase - stock items entering the Depot from a fulfilled purchase order
Donation - stock items entering the Depot from a donation
Integration - stock items entering the Depot that do not have a known origin but are necessary to be tracked in the system. This often happens during start-up - stock is found on the shelf, but it isn’t necessarily clear where it came from. It’s easiest to simply “integrate” the stock as-is, rather than try to reproduce the history exactly from previous documentation.
Transfer - stock items entering the Depot due to a transfer from some other Depot.

STOCK EXIT

“Stock exits” occur when an item is removed from a Depot. This includes exits due to:

Exit to an individual - Stock items leaving the pharmacy or depot directly to a patient. A stock exit to an individual can optionally be associated with an invoice billed to the patient.
Distribution to a service - Stock items leaving the depot for use by a hospital service (such as sutures for the operating room).