10.01. Dispensary mode

Dispensary mode allows you to issue medicines to individual patients. It is ideally suited for pharmacies, clinics, hospital dispensaries, and facilities where medicines are supplied to individual patients.

In dispensary mode:

• Prescription data can be entered into mSupply including:
  • Patient details
  • Prescriber details
  • Prescribed items
  • Item directions which can be quickly selected from standard abbreviations, and edited as necessary. Item directions can be printed in languages other than English.

• Labels can be printed with:
  • Item description and quantity issued
  • Patient name
  • Prescriber name
  • Directions
  • Institution name
  • More…

• Patient histories are recorded, allowing repeat prescriptions to be:
  • Duplicated
  • Repeated

• Prescription payments can be recorded

1. Choose Special > Show stores… from the menus.
2. Double-click on the store you want to set to dispensary mode.
3. Select Dispensary in the drop down list next to the store's code field.
4. Log out of the store and log in again to activate dispensary mode.

Choose File > Preferences > Dispensary mode tab from the menus to set preferences. This window is what you will see:

Here is a description of what some of the most important preferences do:

• Label printing section: Define what is printed on dispensary labels (requires a label printer, see the 10.08. Label printing preferences page for details).
• Show direction entry in dispensary checkbox: if this is ticked, a user can enter directions for how dispensed items are to be used (e.g. “Take one twice a day with food”). These directions are included in the information printed on dispensary labels.
• Print a receipt on labels by default checkbox: if this is ticked, a receipt for the items on the prescription will also automatically be printed when dispensary labels are printed.
• Auto-generate patient code checkbox: if this is ticked then, when patients are created mSupply will automatically generate a unique code for them (the next number in a numeric sequence). If this is not ticked then the user must enter a new patient's code manually (for example when a national ID is used for the patient's code).
• Prescriber must be entered checkbox: if this is ticked users must enter a prescriber (clinician) on the prescription. If it is not ticked, it is optional.
• Dispensing directions must be entered checkbox: .
• Show 'Hold' checkbox on prescriptions checkbox: if ticked then the Hold checkbox is displayed at the bottom of a prescription screen. This enables the user to prevent the prescription from being automatically confirmed (and therefore prevent stock being automatically removed from the store) when its window is closed. See the 10.02. Prescription entry page for more details.
• Receive payments from prescriptions window checkbox: if ticked then the a patient's payment for the items on their prescription can be received on the prescription screen in mSupply.

Most of the things you can do in store mode are also available in dispensary mode. The main differences are:

• The Customer menu becomes the Patient menu; and
• The Customers tab on the navigator becomes the Patients tab, which has a slightly different selection of icons
• The windows displayed are appropriate for dispensing medicines to individual patients. For example, a patient's dispensing history is maintained and you can also record patient notes (e.g. allergies).

Note that a facility using dispensary mode can distribute stock to both patients and customers (e.g. hospital wards, outreach programs), and can still handle customer requisitions.