Form Factor: Supplies

Although supplies are usually not classified as a controlled substance, there are still many cases when you want to track and audit a supply. A supply (sply) can be any medical device or item that is used in a hospital. Hospitals have a variety of reasons for wanting to track these supplies like keys; most notably, they tend to get lost or never returned and that poses a significant risk to your hospital. The keys are often universal keys and could even be sold on eBay by someone with access and mal-intent. This is why auditing these supplies and making sure they are carefully handled and tracked is so vital.

Workflow Example

Scenario: A hospital uses controlled medications in the labor and delivery unit to give an epidural to a woman in labor, such as a fentaNYL epidural. RNs will first need to check out a key from the Automatic Dispensing Cabinet (ADC) in order to give the epidural. 

Workflow: The RN dispenses or removes the key from the ADC. Then they dispense the fentaNYL epidural and go to the patient's room to use the key to unlock an infusion pump. The pump is what infuses the fentaNYL into the mother's spine as she is in labor. Because fentaNYL is a controlled and highly dangerous substance, any interaction with it is kept under a literal lock and key. 

The RN who checked out the pump key is expected to return that key back to the ADC. These events are tracked in a hospital's ADC system and the information is fed into ControlCheck so the data is there to be audited. 

Map a Supply Med

To map a supply med and make it available for auditing and tracking, complete the following workflows:

• If a supply med is ignored, follow the instructions to un-ignore a medication. 
• If a supply med is unmapped, follow the instructions to map a medication.

How the Supply Form Factor Impacts IRIS

This form factor is not included in IRIS at this time. 

Supply Form FAQ-tors

Q1: Does my adapter need to be updated to correctly ingest this form factor?

A1: Generally, no. As long as the supply meds are documented under existing event types in your hospital's data that are already parsed by the system, updates to the adapter are not likely to be needed. For example, if the supply events have a dispense action of Remove or Standard Issue and return actions of Return to stock or Return to bin as other events do, then it should work as-is.

Q2: What should the preferred Unit of Measurement (UoM) be for this form factor?

A2: Unit. Supplies should be mapped in measurements of units. Currently, different unit types such as key, pad, item, etc. are not supported. 

Q3: Are there any admin or waste events for this form factor?

A3: No. Currently, we only expect to see removal (dispense) and returns for this form factor.