> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Run the pharmacy station

> Write a prescription, read the pharmacy unit's analytics, and fill a script from hospital stock with a witness where one is required.

export const AuditNote = ({action = 'This action'}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--info" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      {action} is written to your workspace's audit log with your name, the
      record touched and the time — a HIPAA requirement, and one you can review
      yourself under <strong>Audit Log</strong>. See{' '}
      <a href="/platform/security/audit-log">Audit log</a>.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['clinic']} plans="Enterprise" roles="Prescribers write; pharmacy staff dispense" note="Needs the In-house pharmacy care area" />

The **Pharmacy Station** is the dispensary's own dashboard: how the unit is performing, the stock behind it, and the form you write a new prescription on. It is the screen a pharmacy lead keeps open.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Pharmacy', 'Pharmacy Station']} />

<TaskHeader before="The In-house pharmacy care area switched on, and the medication received into inventory" time="2 minutes to write a script" after="A prescription recorded, and stock drawn against it" />

## What you're looking at

The heading reads **Pharmacy Station**. Beside it sit a date-range picker, which every figure on the page obeys, and **New Prescription**.

Three tabs:

| Tab           | What it holds                                                                      |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Analytics** | The unit's numbers for the chosen date range                                       |
| **Inventory** | The same stock screen as the [Inventory](/hospital/supply/inventory) sidebar entry |
| **Reports**   | **Pharmacy AI Reports** — written summaries you generate on demand                 |

**Analytics** opens with four tiles — **Total Medications**, **Active Prescriptions**, **Dispensed Prescriptions** and **Low Stock Alert** — each with its change on the previous week. Below them are five charts: **Prescription Trends** ("Daily prescription and dispensing patterns"), **Top Medications**, **Inventory Status**, **Staff Performance** and **Predictive Analytics** ("Forecasted medication demands").

If the figures cannot be loaded you get **Could not load pharmacy analytics** rather than a screen of zeros. That distinction is deliberate: a quiet page of zeros looks exactly like a hospital that dispensed nothing, and the two need different responses.

**Reports** carries **Refresh** and **Generate Report**, with a **Report Types** list to pick from. A brand-new unit has no reports until you generate one.

## Write a prescription

<Steps>
  <Step title="Start it">
    Select **New Prescription**. You can also reach the same form from the [prescription list](/hospital/pharmacy/prescriptions), or write the script inside the [consultation](/hospital/outpatient/consultation) — prescribing from the consultation keeps it attached to the encounter that justified it.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the patient">
    The **Select Patient** card searches with "Search by name, ID, phone, or email..." — four ways in, so you are not stuck when a patient cannot remember their hospital number.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set the date">
    **Prescription Date** defaults to today. Change it only if you are recording something written earlier.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add each medication">
    Search with "Search medications…" to add a line. Every line needs **Mode \***, **Quantity \***, **Dosage \*** (for example "500mg"), **Frequency \*** ("2x daily") and **Duration \*** ("7 days"). **Instructions (Optional)** — "Take with food" — is where you write what the patient needs to hear. Repeat for each drug.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Review the total">
    **Additional Notes** carries anything the pharmacist should know. The **Prescription Summary** panel shows an **Estimated Total** so nobody is surprised at the counter.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Save">
    You get **Prescription created successfully**, then a **Prescription Created** dialog showing a **Reference:**. Quote that number to find the script again, and print it from the dialog if the patient is taking paper away.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Fill a script from stock

Writing a script and moving stock are two steps on purpose. Until stock is drawn, nothing has left the shelf.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Fill Rx">
    Go to the station's **Inventory** tab and select **Fill Rx**. It lists prescriptions awaiting fulfilment; an empty tab reads **No pending prescriptions. Scripts awaiting fulfillment will show here.**
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the script">
    Select the row. The **Fill prescription** sheet opens — "Draw from stock against this script — FEFO, patient-linked, audited."
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the stock and location">
    Pick the **Stock item**, then the **Location** it comes from. **Quantity** shows the on-hand figure for that item beside the label, so you can see what you have while you type.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Name a witness for a controlled item">
    A controlled drug shows **Witness (controlled item)** and will not let you continue without one — "DEA requires a witness to dispense a controlled substance." Name the colleague who actually watched.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Dispense">
    Select **Dispense**. Stock is drawn earliest-expiry-first, the movement is linked to the patient, and the script moves to **Dispensed**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Warning>
  A controlled item cannot be sold at the till. The counter refuses it — "requires a witnessed dispense — use the inventory Fill Rx flow instead of POS." Take the script to **Fill Rx** rather than looking for a way past the message.
</Warning>

<AuditNote action="Viewing and dispensing a prescription" />

## Who can do this

**Role** decides whether the screen opens. The **Pharmacy** group needs the **In-house pharmacy** care area in **Settings → Facility**, and on Enterprise an owner can hide it from a role under **Settings → Role Navigation**.

**Permission** decides what you may do inside it.

| Action                              | Who by default                     | Governed by                                                         |
| ----------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Open the station and read Analytics | Anyone the role navigation lets in | Role → route                                                        |
| Write a prescription                | Prescribers and pharmacists        | Role → route                                                        |
| **Dispense** a script               | Pharmacists, owners and managers   | The signed-in user's pharmacist role                                |
| Draw stock in **Fill Rx**           | Pharmacy and stock staff           | Role → route                                                        |
| Witness a controlled dispense       | Any colleague the sheet offers     | The **Witness (controlled item)** field, which cannot be left empty |

Enforcement is **opt-in per person**: a colleague never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns **"Saving starts enforcing"**. A **denied action is recorded**; an allowed one is not. Hiding the Pharmacy group from a role tidies a sidebar — it is not a security boundary.

## Check it worked

* The **Prescription Created** dialog showed a **Reference:**, and the script is in the [prescription list](/hospital/pharmacy/prescriptions).
* After dispensing, the script has left **Fill Rx** and reads **Dispensed** in [prescription history](/hospital/pharmacy/prescription-history).
* The stock item's on-hand figure in [Inventory](/hospital/supply/inventory) has fallen by the quantity you gave out.
* A controlled dispense records both your name and the witness's.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Could not load pharmacy analytics">
    The figures failed to load — this is not a hospital with no activity. Refresh; if it persists, note the time so support can match it against your audit log.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The medication is not in the Stock item picker">
    **Fill Rx** draws from inventory, so a drug never received into stock cannot be dispensed from it. Receive it first — see [Inventory](/hospital/supply/inventory).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The quantity I need is more than is on hand">
    Dispense what you have, or transfer stock in from another location. The **Location** picker only offers what that location actually holds.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="My colleague is not in the witness list">
    The list only offers staff accounts in this workspace. Someone standing beside you without an account cannot be named — see [Invite staff](/platform/team/invite-staff).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The till refused the item">
    That is the controlled-substance rule, not a fault. Controlled items are dispensed through **Fill Rx** with a witness, never rung up at the counter.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="There is no Pharmacy group in my sidebar">
    It needs the Enterprise plan and the **In-house pharmacy** care area in **Settings → Facility**. See [Care areas](/hospital/get-started/care-areas).
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Why does the Inventory tab look like the Inventory sidebar entry?">
    Because it is the same screen. The pharmacy unit and the wards draw on one set of hospital stock, and giving the dispensary a private copy is exactly how two stock figures start disagreeing.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Does the date-range picker change the whole page?">
    It changes the Analytics figures and charts. Inventory shows current stock regardless of the range.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can I edit a prescription after saving it?">
    A pharmacist gets **Update** on a dispensed script from the prescription list. The change is recorded rather than replacing what was originally written.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="What does FEFO mean on the Fill prescription sheet?">
    First-expiry-first-out: the oldest-dated stock is drawn first, so short-dated lots leave before they expire. You do not pick a batch by hand.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Are the AI reports a clinical record?">
    No. They are written summaries of the unit's own activity, generated on request. Nothing on the Reports tab belongs in a patient's chart.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck topic="the pharmacy station" />