Create an Item Record in the Item Catalog Version

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Overview

Materials supply in a medical center can be organized in multiple ways, depending on whether the hospital maintains item inventories, operates as a "stockless" environment, or combines both methods.

Some hospitals handle their departments' supply needs by maintaining inventories of items. In such hospitals, items may be kept in a physical location that accepts departments' requests for items, and then issues the requested items from stock. As items are distributed, the inventory is replenished to meet future requests.

Other medical centers may use a "stockless" supply process. These hospitals do not keep items in inventory, although they may have an area that handles receiving and distribution. Items are ordered directly from vendors and delivered directly to departments.

Regardless of the supply structure, a medical center needs a master catalog of items that it purchases. The Supply Chain item catalog contains a record of each item that a hospital generally purchases and uses in its normal functioning. Items recorded in the item catalog are called file items. A cataloged item can be designated as stock (kept on hand) or non-stock (not kept on hand, but ordered as needed).

Note: Hospital departments may occasionally need non-file items — items that are not listed in the item catalog. Supply Chain handles the request, purchase, receipt, invoice, and payment processes for non-file items as well as file items.

If you create item records manually, use Consolidated Item Add. With Consolidated Item Add, you can create item catalog and item inventory records in one step. All of the crucial item information areas are included.

Powerpoint Walk-Through

Click here for a short PowerPoint introduction to item record creation.

Security

If you create new item records, the appropriate authority must be set in your Supply Chain user profile.

The role object "Item Add" allows you to add items to the item catalog. The role object "Catalog" controls authority over item catalog maintenance. The "CatalogAssign" role object governs permission to assign items to an asset location. To access organization, department, or asset location data, the organization, department, or asset location must be included in your data profile.

See Set Up and Maintain Users, and consult with your system administrator.

Assignment of Item Records to Asset Locations

An asset location is a collection of many items' records including item vendor records, manufacturer information, contracts that govern each item, prices, statistics, and more. A hospital might set up one asset location for the operating room suite; for example, and another for nursing stations, if the hospital prefers to handle supplies according to the surgical and patient care functions.

When you create an item, you can assign it to asset locations as part of the creation process.

Departments' requests for items (which may generate purchase orders) and the filling of requests take place through asset locations.

When you use Consolidated Item Add, Supply Chain automatically assigns the newly-created item to the Organization, Supplying Organization, and Asset Location displayed in your Current Settings. The asset location record for the item is called the item inventory record.

After you save the vendor information, the Assign Catalog Item to Asset Locations panel appears. On this panel you can choose one or more asset locations from the list and assign them the catalog item that you are creating. The list is based on how your hospital system is structured. For example, it could include asset locations within the same organization and also within different organizations. Each asset location line includes Item Type, Multi-Source, Item Status, Organization, Description, Asset Location, and Description. See the section Assignment of a Single Catalog Item to Multiple Asset Locations.

Also, you can assign existing items to one or more additional asset locations.

If you added item Notes after you created the item catalog record, you can copy the notes to the item inventory record when you assign the item to an asset location. See Adding Notes to an Item.

The taxable flag setting defined for an organization is now picked up for new items (created by Consolidated Item Add) for asset locations that the items are assigned to.

When new items are created using Consolidated Item Add and assigned to asset locations, ERP uses the Calculate Tax for Materials Transactions flag (Figure 1), for the organization to identify taxable items.  
When the organization’s Calculate Tax for Materials Transactions is selected (Figure 1), item inventory records for asset locations in the organization must also indicate that the item is taxable (Figure 2).

Figure 1 - Calculate Tax for Materials Transactions Field on the Organization

If an organization requires tax, that information is propagated to the Item Inventory record when an item is created using Consolidated Item Add and assigned to asset locations associated with the organization.  

Figure 2 displays the Taxable field set for the item inventory record.

Figure 2 - Item Inventory Record in a Taxable Organization’s Asset Location

(Of course, when the organization’s Calculate Tax for Materials Transactions is unselected, then the item inventory records for asset locations in the organization have the Taxable field unchecked, and the items are not taxable.)

Note: Accounts for tax expenses on the Organization record also need to be specified when the organization’s items are taxable.

*PUBLIC Item Vendor Records
When you use Consolidated Item Add to create a new item, Supply Chain designates the item vendor records " *PUBLIC." Supply Chain then makes the *PUBLIC item vendor records automatically available to the default supplying asset location for the organization. When you assign the item to other asset locations, Supply Chain shares the *PUBLIC item vendor records with those asset locations as well.

Your site may also use multi-sourced items. These items have unique sourcing information — different from the *PUBLIC item vendor record — for one or more asset locations.

If you also are responsible for creating new purchase orders, you can add an item to the item catalog from the Purchase Order Non-File Item Entry panel. For details, see Create a PO Manually - Using the Enter Non-File Items Panel.

To create a new item:

  1. From the Materials Management main Contents, select Inventory > Consolidated Item Add. The Consolidated Item Add panel appears (See Figure 3 and the other figures below.)
    The cursor in the panel is positioned in the Description field.

  2. Complete the required fields on the Consolidated Item Add panel header and tabs.
    A detailed discussion of the fields, by tab, is below.

  3. Click Save to periodically save information as you are working.

  4. When you are finished entering information, click Submit.
    If there are no errors, you receive a message that your item has been added to the item catalog.

Important: You can add an item to the catalog by entering information in the required fields only. However, unless you enter vendor information for the item, the item will not be complete. You will need to come back to the item, and enter missing information.

Completing the Tabbed Panels for Consolidated Item Add

The sections below provide a detailed discussion of the fields on the Consolidated Item Add panel, and how the fields are related to each other.

Note: If you are using Sourcing and Contract Management, the Contract Information tab (Figure 3) does not appear on the Consolidated Item Add panel. In Sourcing & Contract Management, information about contract items is imported, so contract data does not need to be entered manually.

Users at Product Index Layer (PIL) Sites

When adding an item to the Supply Chain item catalog, you can now use the Product Index Layer (PIL) to find and select the item. The Manufacturer Item No (MIN) field on the Consolidated Item Add panel's Vendor Information tab lets you select an item from the PIL. When you select the manufacturer item, the system populates several fields on other panels with PIL data for the item.
Also, if you wish, you can override the MIN by keying in a different value in the Manufacturer Item No field.

This feature is only available for sites that have Supply Chain. See Using the Product Index Layer When Adding an Item to the Item Catalog.

Notes:

The Item Header and General Panels

The Consolidated Item Add header panel (Figure 3) contains the item number. The General tabbed panel contains basic information about the item.

Figure 3 - The Consolidated Item Add Header and General Panel

Notes on Inactive Items

An item can be made "inactive" if the on-hand quantity is zero or greater than zero. Existing backorders will be retained and can be relieved through receipts.

The response formula will ignore all "inactive" items. The system will not accept purchase orders that contain "inactive" items.

You can list an "inactive" item on an Order Guide or Par Cart requisition, or place the item on an Order Guide, provided that the item has on-hand quantity. If there is no on-hand quantity, the system sends an error message.

The General panel (Figure 3) contains additional basic details.

Figure 4 - List of Selectable Expense Codes for Patient Charging

The Vendor Information Panel

The Vendor Information panel (Figure 5) contains fields that are crucial to the item record. Without this information, the item record is Incomplete.

Figure 5 - Consolidated Item Vendor Information Panel

On the center of the Vendor Information panel, enter the item vendor, manufacturer, and the codes for the item.

On the lower part of the Vendor Information panel, specify the units of measure in which the item can be issued and ordered, the cost of each unit of measure, and the conversion factor for each. A discussion of the fields is below.

Important: Each item must have a unit of measure designated as the lowest, the default issue UOM, and the default purchase UOM. These can be the same, or different UOMs. In other words, the lowest UOM could also be the default issue UOM and the default purchase UOM.

Assignment of a Single Catalog Item to Multiple Asset Locations

After you enter and save the vendor information, the Assign Catalog Item to Asset Locations panel appears.

On this panel you can choose one or more asset locations from the list and assign them to a single catalog item. (Figure 6)

Figure 6 - The Assign Catalog Item to Asset Locations Panel

How to assign more than one asset locations to a single catalog item:
  1. In Asset Locations Selections, select a checkbox for each Asset Location that you wish to assign.
    Note: If you decide not to assign more than one asset location to a single catalog item, do not select any of the checkboxes on this panel. Instead, click only Submit, and do not complete steps 2 and 3. The system displays a warning that you have not selected any additional asset locations.
    - Click OK to dismiss the warning.
    - Then click Submit.
  1. If you wish, you can make changes to the values in the Item Type, Multi-Sourcing, and Item Status columns, even though there is an assigned default value.
  2. After you are finished making selections, click Save, and then Submit.
    - The Assign this Item dialog box displays.

  3. Click Submit to complete this action, or Cancel to stop this process.

  4. Go to Item Inventory, and find the item you just created.
    - For each line item, the same Item Number displays, with a different Asset Location.

Fields on these panels:

Setting Defaults per Asset Location

For single-sourced items, you can specify different default issue and default purchasing UOM settings, by asset location, for an item's primary supplier.

If multiple purchasing or issuing units of measure are available, you can set one of the UOMs as a new default for particular asset locations. See Assigning Default UOMs by Asset Location for Single Sourced Items.

The Contract Information Panel: for sites without Sourcing and Contract Management

Fields on the Contract Information tab (Figure 7) contain information about any contract that the item is part of.

Otherwise, if you do not have Sourcing and Contract Management, when you create item records for new items, the Contract Information panel appears. Fields on this panel are listed below.

Figure 7 - The Contract Information Panel

The Defaults Panel

The Defaults panel (Figure 8) lets you set several characteristics and default values for the item.

Figure 8 - Consolidated Item Add Defaults Panel

Automatic Default Values

When an organization creates a new item, the defaults specified (Figure 8) are written to the inventory record. If an organization sets the Assign Patient Charge Number (CDM) from Catalog and Assign Expense Codes from Catalog fields on its Organization record (Figure 9), the default values for CDM, Pass-Through Code, and Billable/Non-Billable Expense Code are retained on the item catalog record, and used to automatically populate any additional inventory assignments in the organization.

Figure 9 - The MM Information Panel for an Organization

Notes on Reusable Items

The Optional Panel

The fields on the Optional panel allow you to enter more categories and descriptors for the item that may be useful. Figure 10 shows the Optional panel.

Figure 10 - Consolidated Item Add Optional Panel

To enter a new Item Alias or new Search words:

On the item catalog record, enter the item alias or search words in an empty Item Alias field or a Search words field. The system then uses the item catalog values to populate any inventory records that are missing the item alias or search words.

To change an Item Alias or Search words:

The Lot Tracking Panel

The settings for fields on this panel instruct Supply Chain to track the lot number, serial number, and/or expiration date from the time the item is entered into inventory until the item is issued.

When you select the lot tracking field, then you specify the kind of tracking you wish (lot number, serial number, expiration date, combinations, or all three). You can associate patient, physician, and case data with an item's lot number and serial number.

Lot tracking must be enabled for an asset location in order to be enabled for any items in the asset location.

Definitions

You may wish to review a few definitions as used in  ERP Materials Management: