Concepts/Product

conceptsupplyCARE 3.0+

Care keeps two kinds of records for every item that a facility stocks or dispenses. A Product Knowledge entry is the catalog definition of a type of product, for example “Paracetamol 500mg tablet”. A Product is one facility’s stocked batch of that catalog entry, with its own lot number, expiry date, and purchase price.

📝 Note

Care does not map these two records to a single named FHIR R5 resource.

Key Attributes

Product Knowledge

Components	What it captures
Name	The name of the catalog entry. This is required.
Slug	A short unique code that identifies the catalog entry. This is required.
Product Type	The kind of product: Medication, Nutritional Product, or Consumable. This is required.
Category	The group that the catalog entry belongs to. This is required.
Code	A standard medical code for the product. This is optional.
Base Unit	The unit that measures the product, for example tablet or millilitre. This is required.
Status	The stage of the catalog entry. This is required.
Alternate Identifier	Another identifier for the product. This is optional.
Alternate names	Trade names and other aliases of the product. This is optional.
Storage guidelines	The instructions to store the product. This is optional.

Product

Components	What it captures
Status	The stage of the stocked batch. This is required.
Product Knowledge	The catalog entry that the batch belongs to. This is required. You select it when you create the product, and you cannot change it later.
Lot Number	The batch number that the supplier prints on the product. This is optional.
Expiration Date	The date that the batch expires on. This is required.
Standard Pack Size	The number of base units in one pack. This is optional.
Purchase Price	The price that the facility paid for the product. This is optional.
Charge Item Definition	The price that Care uses to bill this product to a patient. This is optional.

Status

Product Knowledge and Product use different status values.

Product Knowledge status

Status	Description
Draft	The catalog entry is not ready for use.
Active	Staff can use the catalog entry.
Retired	The catalog entry is no longer in use.

Product status

Status	Description
Active	The facility stocks and dispenses this batch.
Inactive	The facility no longer uses this batch.
Entered in Error	Someone created this batch by mistake.

📝 Note

Care has no delete action for these records. Retire a catalog entry, or set a product to Inactive or Entered in Error.

Ownership and Sharing

A product always belongs to one catalog entry and one facility. A catalog entry is either global or private. A superuser manages global catalog entries, and all facilities share them. A facility admin manages the private catalog entries of that facility.

How Products Connect to Stock

An inventory item tracks how much of a product is in stock at one location. Staff most often create a new product while they receive a purchase delivery. When a delivered item is not already in stock, the person who receives the delivery creates the product record for that batch, expiry date, and price.

You can link a product to a charge item definition. Care then creates a billable charge item when staff dispense the product.

Permissions

Permissions apply within a facility.

Permission	Roles	What it allows
Can Create Product Knowledge on Facility	Facility Admin, Admin	Create and edit catalog entries.
Can Create Product on Facility	Facility Admin, Admin	Create and edit products.
Can Read Product Knowledge	Facility Admin, Administrator, Admin, Staff, Doctor, Nurse, Volunteer, Pharmacist	View catalog entries.
Can Read Product	Facility Admin, Administrator, Admin, Staff, Doctor, Nurse, Volunteer, Pharmacist	View products.

Pages that link here:

Concept: Concepts/Charge Item Definition
Reference: References/Product