Pharmacy Batch Management and Expiry Tracking

Pharmacy Batch Management, Expiry Tracking, and Wastage

Introduction

HMIS tracks every pharmacy stock unit at the batch level from the moment of goods receipt through to dispensing, transfer, adjustment, or disposal. Each batch carries a batch number, manufacture date, expiry date, and purchase cost. The system enforces FIFO/FEFO (First In First Out / First Expired First Out) at the point of dispensing — the oldest or soonest-expiring batch is automatically selected — minimising expired stock write-offs. Wastage (discards, expired disposals) is recorded with category and reason, maintaining a complete chain of custody for every unit received.

Navigation

Function	Menu Path
GRN (batch entry)	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Procurement → GRN
Bin Card (batch-wise)	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Reports → Bin Card (Batch)
Stock by Batch	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Reports → Department Stock by Batch
Expiry Report	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Reports → Expiry Tracking
Adjustment (expiry correction)	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Stock → Adjustment
Wastage / Disposal	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Stock → Disposal
Physical Stock Take	Main Menu → Pharmacy → Stock → Stock Take

Batch Record

When a GRN is entered, each drug line creates or updates an ItemBatch record:

Field	Description
Batch Number	Supplier/manufacturer batch/lot number
Date of Manufacture (DOF)	Manufacturing date — used for FIFO ordering
Date of Expiry (DOE)	Expiry date — used for FEFO ordering and expiry alerts
Purchase Cost	Unit cost at time of receipt
Quantity Received	Units received in this batch
Supplier / GRN Reference	Links batch to the purchase document
Store	Pharmacy store where batch was received

Multiple batches of the same drug can coexist in the same store. The Stock entity holds the current quantity per item per batch per store.

FIFO / FEFO Dispensing

HMIS applies FEFO (First Expired First Out) as the primary selection rule at the point of dispensing:

1. When a pharmacist adds a drug to a sale or issue, the system queries all available batches of that item in the dispensing store.
2. Batches are ordered by expiry date ascending (soonest to expire first).
3. The soonest-expiring batch with available stock is automatically selected.
4. If that batch has insufficient quantity, the next batch fills the remainder.
5. The pharmacist can see the batch details and can override the selection if clinically required (with the override recorded for audit).

This automatic selection eliminates manual batch picking errors and reduces expired stock write-offs.

Expiry Alerts

The system generates expiry alerts for batches approaching their expiry date:

• Pre-expiry warning: configurable number of days before expiry (e.g., 90 days, 30 days).
• Alerts appear on the pharmacy dashboard and in the expiry report.
• Pharmacy staff can take action: return to supplier, transfer to a higher-consumption store, or plan for timely use before expiry.

Bin Card (Batch-Level Movement History)

The Bin Card report shows the complete movement history for a specific item and batch:

• Opening balance
• Each GRN, issue, transfer, return, and adjustment with date and quantity
• Closing balance
• Purchase cost per movement

Available at:

• Item level: all batches combined (bin_card.xhtml)
• Batch level: single batch movements (bin_card_batch.xhtml)
• DTO-optimised: fast query version (bin_card_dto.xhtml)

Wastage and Disposal Recording

When stock must be discarded (expired, damaged, contaminated):

1. Navigate to Disposal under Stock Management.
2. Select the item and batch to discard.
3. Enter the quantity to discard.
4. Select a Discard Category from the configured list (e.g., Expired, Damaged, Quality Rejection).
5. Enter a reason / authoriser reference.
6. Submit for approval.
7. On approval, stock is decremented and a disposal record is created in the stock history.

DiscardCategory is configurable by the pharmacy administrator.

Stock Adjustment for Batch Corrections

If a batch record contains an error (wrong expiry date, wrong cost, wrong quantity from GRN), a Stock Adjustment is used:

Adjustment Type	Purpose
Expiry Date Correction	Correct DOE recorded at GRN
Rate Adjustment (Retail)	Correct retail price on existing stock
Rate Adjustment (Wholesale)	Correct wholesale price
Quantity Adjustment	Correct physical quantity discrepancy

All adjustments require supervisor approval before taking effect. The AdjustmentBillItem entity records the before/after values for full audit trail.

Physical Stock Take and Reconciliation

1. Generate stock count sheet: system prints expected quantities per batch per item.
2. Physical count: staff count physical units on shelves.
3. Enter actual counts: quantities entered against each batch.
4. Variance report: system shows differences (surplus / shortage) per batch.
5. Adjustment bill generated: variances become an adjustment transaction.
6. Approval: supervisor approves; stock is reconciled to physical count.

Before and after stock take reports (pharmacy_report_before_stock_taking.xhtml, pharmacy_report_after_stock_taking.xhtml) allow comparison for the same snapshot date.

Stock History

StockHistory records a snapshot of stock levels at configurable intervals:

• Supports multilevel reporting: per department, per institution, total.
• Used for period-end stock valuation reports.
• StockHistoryArchive stores older snapshots to keep the active history table performant.

Technical Reference

Item	Detail
Batch entity	com.divudi.core.entity.pharmacy.ItemBatch
Stock entity	com.divudi.core.entity.pharmacy.Stock
Stock history	StockHistory, StockHistoryArchive
Adjustment entity	AdjustmentBillItem
Discard category	DiscardCategory
FEFO query	Batch ordered by DOE ascending in dispense queries
Bin card pages	bin_card.xhtml, bin_card_batch.xhtml, bin_card_dto.xhtml
Stock take services	StockTakeApprovalService, StockTakePersistService, StockCountGenerationService
Related	Pharmacy Pack Transactions and Ward Stock, Pharmacy Dispensing Workflows