Overview

If you sell medications, supplements, lab kits, retail products, or other inventory out of the office, you can use Cerbo to:

  • Dispense inventory items in the course of adding the relevant charge(s) to the patient's chart.
  • Track stock levels and dispensing history.
  • Generate Purchase Orders to send to your vendors for reorders, and track amounts that are pending receipt from your vendors.
  • Use the Undispensed Inventory Report to track items that patients paid for, but that were not dispensed from inventory (for example, because you're ordering items for drop shipping to the patient directly, or because you were temporarily out of stock and will mail to the patient or have them pick up when you receive your next shipment).


Details

Cerbo handles inventory on a 1:1 basis, with dispensing occurring when adding the corresponding charge to the patient's chart. That is, when adding a charge that is linked to one or more items in your inventory, you can choose to dispense from one of the linked inventory items. 

  • Because you can dispense from only one inventory item when you add the applicable charge to the patient's chart, the inventory system is not suitable for tracking your stock of bulk ingredients that you combine into mixtures, like IV ingredients or component parts of custom tinctures. Nor is it suitable for tracking usage of office or clinic supplies.


Note: inventory in Cerbo does not drop below 0. If an inventory charge is added but not dispensed from inventory (because there is no inventory to dispense, for example), you can use the Undispensed Inventory Sales Report under Reporting > Financial Reports to view which transactions need to be dispensed, and dispense those from that report once stock is received and restocked.


Different types of inventory are handled slightly differently. Specifically:

  • Medication inventory is stocked/ dispensed on a per-pill basis and managed by lot number/ expiration. Medications must be prescribed to the patient before they can be dispensed from inventory.
  • Supplement inventory (and other prescribable "alternate plan" inventory) is stocked/ dispensed on a per-bottle basis. It may or may not be managed by lot number/ expiration date. Supplements and other alternate plan inventory may be prescribed, then dispensed. Or dispensed by simply adding the corresponding charge.
  • General inventory is a special category for inventory items that are linked only to a charge, not to a prescribable item. It would be used for retail products or lab kits.


We can import your inventory from a spreadsheet that you provide if:

  • There are more than about 20 items to import
  • They are in a well-formatted spreadsheet (not a scan, PDF, or spreadsheet with inconsistent columns/ formatting)
  • The inventory items are supplements, other prescribable items, lab kits, or retail products (not medications, which generally need to be entered by hand).


Use the navigation to jump to a specific inventory section:

Medication/ Rx Inventory

Click to view a short video about stocking and dispensing drugs from inventory in Cerbo.


Add Medication to Inventory

Each medication inventory item is connected to a specific medication in the prescribable medication database. And is stocked/ dispensed on a per-pill basis.

  • Lot number/ expiration tracking - each item has a lot number and expiration date. Restocking creates a new inventory line item for that specific medication/ lot/ expiration.
  • Adding medications to inventory should be done manually, rather than via spreadsheet import. This is to ensure that medications in the inventory are linked to the correct medications in the prescribable drug database. See Add a Drug to Inventory.
  • Charging for medication inventory may be done on a per-dose and/ or per-dispense basis.


To Restock a medication in your inventory, click the restock icon to the right of that medication. This will bring up the same window as adding a new medication to inventory, for you to add the new lot/ expiration, and adjust any other information as needed.



Dispense Medication from Inventory

An inventory medication must first be prescribed to the patient. See Prescribing Medications. If the prescriber is handing the pills to the patient, they can charge/ dispense in the course of prescribing. Alternately, the medication can be dispensed on checkout (or otherwise) by right-clicking on the prescription in the patient's medication list, and selecting the dispense option.


Dispensing pulls up a window to: 

(1) Pull the number of pills in the prescription from the associated inventory lot(s).

  • If there are multiple active lots in inventory, Cerbo will default to pulling from the lot with the soonest expiration date. The number dispensed from each of multiple lots can be modified in the dispensing window.

(2) Add the associated per-pill and/ or per dispense price as a single charge in the patient's chart.

  • Per-pill and per-dispense charges are defined in the inventory item itself, not in the charge list.
  •  Medication inventory can be associated with a generic, built-in Rx Dispense charge. And inventory sales would still be reportable on an item-by-item basis. But you can optionally create separate charges in your charge list when adding rx inventory items. In which case the patient statement would show the specific medication name, instead of a generic Rx Dispense charge. And other billing reports besides the Inventory Sales report would show those charges separately by inventory name, rather than as Rx Dispense.

 (3) Print the rx label.

  • The prescription label includes medication, patient, and clinic information. And can be printed on any label printer that is connected to your device.


Reprinting the Rx Label

To reprint an rx label, open the patient's expanded medication history. The dispense history appears at the bottom of that pop out window. To the right of each dispense entry, there is an option to [Print Label]. If you do not see a tab/ window with the label to print when expected, make sure that your browser is set to allow pop ups for the EHR in the URL bar or the browser's settings.


You can also reprint from the Inventory history view. Under Admin > My Inventory. Click on the log/ history icon to the right of the inventory item to show a pop-up with the dispense history for that specific medication. Find the dispense entry you want and click the [Print Label] option.



Supplements and Other Prescribable Item Inventory

You can use Cerbo inventory to track and dispense things that are prescribed/ recommended/ administered to patients as part of their treatment plan. The most common example of this type of inventory would be supplements. But it could also encompass hormone pellets or products such as a foam roller that the clinician may recommend in the treatment plan.


Supplements inventory does not have lot number and expiration dates by default. But it can be set to be tracked by lot/ expiration. Contact support@cer.bo to request supplement inventory tracking by lot number and expiration date. Other types of prescribable/ alternate plan inventory can be set to have a lot number/ expiration on an item-by-item basis. 

  • Restocking inventory that is tracked by lot/ expiration creates a new line item in inventory for that item/ lot.


Add Supplement/ Custom Prescribable Item to Inventory

To add a supplement to inventory, go to Admin > Inventory > Add New Inventory Item > Add Supplement.

  • Use the "Find Supplement" search bar on the left to search for a supplement that is already in your prescribable supplements list to add to your inventory.
  • If it is not yet in the prescribable supplements list, enter the name of the supplement in the "Enter Name of Supplement" field at the right.


Before you can add non-supplement, non-medication prescribable items to your inventory, you must first add them to your Alternate Plan Options list. Examples of non-supplement, non-medication prescribable items that might be carried in inventory include:

  • Hormone pellets that are inserted in the office
  • Pre-mixed IV bags, or pre-loaded injections
  • Therapeutic supplies that you recommend and sell in the office, such as a foam roller, shoe lift, resistance bands, etc.

Anything that doesn't need to be prescribed/ recommended as part of the treatment plan would not be added as alternate plan inventory, but as General inventory. See below for information about Lab Kits and Products that are NOT linked to any prescribable item in Cerbo.


Linking to a Charge

When adding supplements or alternate plan items to inventory, you must link the inventory item to a specific charge in your charge list. If there is not yet a corresponding charge in your charge list, you can select * NEW CHARGE TYPE at the bottom of the Select Corresponding Charge drop down to add it as a new charge to your Charge List.

  • Note that only charges marked as Is Supply/ Product = Yes in the charge list are available to link to inventory items.
  • If you do not charge for an item (e.g., the cost is built into some other service charge or given as part of a membership benefit), but still want to track it in inventory, you can define a $0 charge for the item.

* Flavors/ Variants

If you stock multiple flavors or variants of the same item (all of which have the same price), you would follow a slightly different process to add these. Specifically:

  1. Add one generic version to the Alternate Plan Options list first. So, for example, Immune Booster.
  2. Add one charge to your Charge List for that same generic item.
  3. Add each flavor separately to your Inventory, starting by selecting the generic supplement, editing the Inventory item name to include the flavor, and then linking that inventory item to the generic charge in the charge list. So you would edit the name(s) to be, for example, "Immune Booster - orange," "Immune Booster - raspberry," etc.

When added that way, adding the generic charge will give the user an option to choose which of the linked flavor/ variant inventory items to dispense.


Dispense Supplement/ Custom Prescribable Item to Inventory

Generally, prescribable inventory items would first be prescribed to the patient (most often within the Plan of an encounter note). However, they can be dispensed from inventory without first being prescribed, simply by adding the corresponding charge to the patient's chart.


To dispense something that has been prescribed in the plan, right click on it, and click Charge & Dispense.


Dispense multiple supplements at one time directly from the patient's supplements block, by checking the boxes beside the supplements, and selecting Dispense from the Manage Checked drop down menu. This can be done in the main chart view, or by expanding the medications/ supplements block at the right of an encounter note.  


Finally, you can dispense these inventory items independently of any corresponding prescription or recommendation by searching for, and adding, the corresponding charge to the patient's chart.


If there is more that one active lot of the inventory item, or multiple different flavors/ variants linked to the same charge, you will have the option to select the corresponding lot or flavor to dispense in the Add Charge window.


Adjusting Dispense Records

If there was an error when prescribing/ dispensing, you can adjust the dispense record, or delete it to return it fully to inventory. This is done by clicking on the Edit option by that dispense record in the patient's expanded medication history.


Adjust the number of items dispensed, if appropriate. Or click Delete to remove the dispense record entirely and return the dispensed medication to inventory.


Note that editing the medication dispense record does not alter the prescription (or vice versa). Once the medication is prescribed and dispensed, each of those would need to be edited independently if, for example, there was an error in the medication or amount prescribed.




Retail Products and Lab Kits


There is a "General" category in Cerbo for inventory items that are linked only to a charge, not to a prescribable item. This would be used for retail products and lab kits. 

  • A note about lab kits as General inventory: it may seem counter-intuitive to add lab kits as general inventory, given that there should be a corresponding lab order for lab kits, yet General inventory is specifically not linked to something that gets added to the Plan. It is set up this way because orders cannot be directly linked/ added to inventory. Orders can be linked to charges, however. Linking the order to a lab kit charge, and adding a General inventory item linked to the same charge, indirectly links the order to the inventory item. And allows you to easily dispense the lab kit from the order by adding the corresponding charge.


Add Retail Product or Lab Kit to General Inventory

First, you must add the corresponding charge to your charge list. See Practice Charge List - Add to or Edit Master List of Charges. Remember: the charge must be marked as "Is Supply/ Product" = Yes.


Add the retail product or lab kit to inventory under Add New Inventory Item > Add General Inventory, associating the corresponding charge.


For lab kits, select Yes for "Do you want to be prompted to add the above charge when adding and order to a patient's chart." Then search for and associate the corresponding order.


Dispense a Retail Product or Lab Kit from Inventory

To dispense an item from general inventory, add the corresponding charge. For orders/ lab kits, that can be done manually by searching for and adding the charge, or:

  1. By clicking on the $ icon beside the relevant open order.
  2. By selecting Add all Lab Charges from Plan from the Charges/ Payments menu inside an encounter note where the corresponding orders were added.

For retail products, you can use a barcode scanner to more quickly search for and add inventory charges and dispense from inventory. Any standard barcode scanner should work for this. To set up barcode scanning, you would:

  1. Add the barcode/ UPC numbers for your products in the relevant charges in your charge list. If you are having us import these from a spreadsheet initially, you can include the UPC numbers on the spreadsheet. 
  2. Upon check out, go to add a charge and click into the charge search bar. Use the barcode scanner to scan the item, which will search for and add the charge based on the UPC code. Click Add and Add Another to return to the charge search to scan the next item.


Drop Shipping, Special Orders, and Out-of-Stock Inventory


If you are charging for an inventory item, but not giving it to the patient at that time - for example, if you will mail it to them or if you are special-ordering it for them - you can toggle to Do not dispense in the applicable Add Charge window. If you add a charge for an out-of-stock inventory item, then it will automatically be tracked as "not dispensed" (as Cerbo inventory does not go below zero). 


Then you would work from the Undispensed Inventory Report under Billing > Generate Billing Reports to:

  • Order items from the supplier for drop shipping to patients, if applicable.
  • Mail items to the patient out of the office, then mark them as dispensed in that list.
  • Mark items as dispensed from that list once inventory is re-ordered and picked up by the patient or mailed to them.