Pharmacy & Stores
Control the path from requisition to purchase to issue, with documents attached at every step and stock visible down to the ward.
In short
Hospital central store software tracks how consumables, equipment and supplies are requested, approved, bought, received and issued. DevOrbital HMS's Central Stores module follows a requisition, approval, purchase and issue workflow with invoice and requisition documents uploaded at each step, plus ward-level inventory for IPD and Emergency.
The problem
Wards ask for stock by phone or chit, so the store cannot show who asked for what, or whether anyone approved it.
Invoices, quotations and approvals are filed separately, which makes any query about a purchase a search through folders.
Once an item leaves the central store, nobody knows what is sitting in a ward cupboard, leading to over-ordering and expiry losses.
Consumables used on patients are not always charged, and what the store issued rarely reconciles with what the bill shows.
How it works
A ward or department requests items from the central store.
An authorised person approves, adjusts or rejects the request.
Items that are not in stock are purchased, with invoices uploaded.
Incoming goods are recorded against the purchase.
Stock is issued to the requesting ward or unit.
Ward-level inventory shows what is held and consumed.
What's included
Use it on its own — or connected
Central Stores can run on its own to bring order to purchase and issue. When connected with the pharmacy and IPD modules, ward stock and patient consumption sit in the same system, so what the store issues and what the patient is billed can be compared. The same data feeds finance reports.
Pairs naturally with:
Machine integration
Who it's for
Illustrative scenario · not a customer story
A ward runs low on dressing material
Store in-charge
The ward sister notices dressing material running low and raises a requisition. The store in-charge sees it and checks the central stock, which cannot cover the full quantity. He sends the request for approval, and once approved, raises a purchase for the shortfall. The supplier's invoice is uploaded when the goods arrive, and the store issues the full quantity to the ward. The ward's stock count updates, and the audit trail shows each step. (Illustrative scenario.)
A hospital's central store supplies everything that is not a dispensed medicine: surgical consumables, dressings, linen, stationery, equipment spares and more. Inventory software tracks what is bought, what is held, who received it and how it is consumed.
In DevOrbital HMS, the Central Stores module belongs to the Pharmacy and Stores group, and it works next to the pharmacy management system, which handles dispensing and billing. The central store handles the upstream flow: requisition, approval, purchase and issue. It can be adopted on its own or linked to IPD and billing for end-to-end traceability.
The workflow has four stages. A ward or department raises a requisition. An authorised person approves it. If the store lacks the stock, a purchase follows. Finally, the item is issued to the requester. Each stage leaves a record, and documents such as requisition forms and invoices are uploaded where they arise.
This sequence matters because it separates three roles that are too often combined: the person who asks, the person who authorises and the person who holds the stock. When those roles are separated and recorded, it becomes much harder for items to go missing, and much easier to explain a purchase to a reviewer.
The approval rules and roles can be configured per hospital through user and role management, so your existing authority structure maps to the software.
Many hospitals track stock until it leaves the store and then lose sight of it. Wards then hold their own informal stock, which may be too much, too little or past expiry. In Emergency and IPD, where consumables are used continuously, that blind spot is expensive.
DevOrbital supports ward-level inventory for IPD and Emergency, set up to follow each hospital's own policy. A ward can see what it holds and how much it has used, and the store can see where its issued stock went. Combined with billing, this helps hospitals check that consumables used on patients are actually charged, which is one of the common sources of billing leakage.
When someone asks why an item was bought, who approved it, or what it cost, the answer should take minutes. In a paper system it can take days. In DevOrbital, the requisition, approval, purchase and issue steps are connected, and invoices and supporting documents are uploaded at each step.
That makes purchases easy to review internally and easier to explain to external reviewers. The audit trail adds a second layer by recording who created, changed or deleted each entry. For hospitals preparing for accreditation, this structured evidence is useful, as discussed in our piece on NABH and hospital software.
FAQ
The pharmacy dispenses and bills medicines to patients, often across several pharmacy units. The central store supplies other hospital needs such as consumables, surgical supplies and general items. DevOrbital provides both and lets them connect, though each can also run on its own.
A ward raises a requisition, an authorised user approves it, the store purchases items it lacks, and then issues stock to the ward. Invoice and requisition documents are uploaded at each step, giving the hospital a document-backed record of the whole chain.
Yes. Ward-level inventory tracking is available for IPD and Emergency, and can be configured to follow your hospital's policy. Wards can see what they hold, and the store can see where issued items went. Each hospital chooses how closely it wants wards to be tracked.
Yes. Invoice and requisition documents can be uploaded at each step of the workflow, so the supporting paperwork stays with the transaction instead of in separate files. This makes any later query about a purchase quick to answer for finance and audit teams.
Yes. Every DevOrbital module can run on its own. A hospital can start with central stores to fix procurement, then add pharmacy, IPD and billing so that stock and patient consumption are linked. The two connect when you add them, with no rebuild needed.
Barcode and QR scanning devices can be integrated, with each device scoped and enabled independently during onboarding. Whether a particular scanner or labelling approach fits your store is assessed during setup. It is not required for the core workflow to run.
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