Stockroom helps your practice maintain accurate inventory tracking and management, including automatically adjusting stock levels as items are used. This article explains how depletions work.
What Are Depletions?
Depletions automatically reduce the quantity on hand (QoH) for items as they're used or dispensed in treatments, prescriptions, and other patient care services. When depletions are enabled, Instinct EMR keeps inventory counts current without requiring manual adjustments for each use.
Common Inventory Issues
Product Visible in Admin but Not in Local Stock
If a product appears in Admin but is not visible in the local stock inventory, it is likely not enrolled in the stockroom. This prevents you from managing its quantity on hand (QOH).
Incorrect Stock Quantities Entered
Mistakes in entering quantities for bundled medications can lead to inventory inaccuracies. For example, entering a quantity by mistake or needing to adjust a depletion.
Treatments Not Transferring to Stockroom
Completed treatments may not transfer or deplete in the Stockroom if the order was voided, marked as "not completed" (NC), or performed on a test account.
Corrective Actions for Stockroom Discrepancies
Enroll Products in Local Stock
To make a product visible in the local stock inventory, open the product’s menu (three dots) in Admin and select Enroll. Once enrolled, you can manage its QOH.
Adjust Incorrect Quantities
If a bundled medication’s quantity was entered incorrectly, you cannot reverse it by entering a negative quantity. Instead, re-add the appropriate quantity back into the Stockroom to correct the inventory. For workflows requiring medication dosing to be recorded in the medical record, use an EMR product bundle instead of a Stockroom bundle.
Address Non-Transferring Treatments
Verify whether the order was voided or marked NC, as these will not transfer to the Stockroom. Additionally, note that activities performed on test accounts are exempt from Stockroom tracking and reporting.
Best Practices for Inventory Management
Regularly review and update product enrollments in the Stockroom to ensure all necessary items are visible and manageable.
Use EMR product bundles for workflows that require detailed medication dosing records, avoiding Stockroom bundles for such cases.
Monitor and correct inventory discrepancies promptly to maintain accurate records and avoid disruptions in treatment workflows.
How Depletions Work
Enrollment in Stockroom
Items must first be enrolled in the Stockroom to enable depletions. Each enrolled item is linked to a billing code or product name, ensuring that usage is tracked accurately.
Triggering depletions
Depletions occur automatically in the following scenarios:
Treatments: When a treatment involving a stock item is administered and marked as completed in the Tx Sheet.
Prescriptions: When medication is prescribed and dispensed to a patient.
One-Off Usage: When an item is used outside of a scheduled treatment and logged manually using the One-Off feature.
Invoice: When an item is added directly to the invoice.
Real-time updates
As soon as an item is used, the system immediately deducts the quantity from its Quantity on Hand (QoH). This ensures that your inventory reflects real-time usage, helping prevent overstocking or shortages.
When a product's QoH reaches zero in the current lot, the remaining quantity automatically depletes from the next lot for that product. No manual action is required—the system handles this during the depletion process.