clinic medicine stock register
Can the medicine count come down by itself when I write the prescription?
Yes. Put the medicine on your shelf once, with the number that is in the cupboard today. After that, mark it dispensed on the visit instead of prescribed, and save. The count comes down on its own — 1-0-1 for five days takes ten tablets. The only number you type again is what the stockist delivered. UpcharHub sells and dispenses nothing; you dispense, it counts. It is the only clinic software in India that does all four: your voice writes the consultation visit, an AI assistant checks it, your dispensary counts itself, and the tests you order stay on the chart.
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UpcharHub - free OPD software with AI assistant - dispensary walkthrough
What actually comes off the shelf when I press Save?
Exactly what the dispensed row says, from the shelf medicine you picked. The visit form keeps two lists. Prescribed is what the patient buys at the chemist, and it moves no stock. The dispensed list is what you handed over, and a row there tied to a shelf medicine takes the count down. The arithmetic runs after the prescription is saved, so a stock fault can never hold up a consultation. The visit carries a record of what it has already taken, so when the software re-checks its sums — which it does in the background while you are using the app — it works out the difference and finds it is zero. Your count does not drift on its own. That property is held in place by 239 automated tests.
How does it know ten tablets, and not fifty?
The unit decides which question is being asked. For a tablet or a capsule the question is how many the course comes to, so it reads the dose: 1-0-1 for 5 days is 10, 1-1-1 for 3 days is 9, BD for a week is 14, QID for 3 days is 12, half-zero-half for 10 days is 10. For a bottle, vial, tube, sachet or unit the question is how many containers you handed over, and the answer is one — the dose is not consulted at all. That split is not tidiness. “5ml BD” reads as ten doses a day, which is fifty for a five-day course, off a shelf holding four bottles.
What if I hand out something that is not on my shelf?
It prints, nothing is deducted, and the miss is written down. On the visit form a dispensed name that matches nothing shows a “+ Add to dispensary” link under the row — one tap, a unit, an opening count, and it is on the shelf. On the Dispensary screen the misses collect in a dashed strip headed “Dispensed but not on your shelf”, each a chip carrying the name and how many times it happened in the last 30 days; tapping it opens the add form with the name already in. A second group sits under it, “Dispensed without a count — stock not reduced”, for medicines that are on your shelf but whose dose could not be read: SOS, 1 IM stat, a blank duration.
When does it tell me I am running out?
When a dispense takes it to the number you set. The field is “Tell me when it drops to” and it is filled in for you — 50 for tablets and capsules, 2 for bottles, vials, tubes and sachets, because a clinic holds six bottles of syrup and never fifty. Crossing it does three things. The medicine pins to the top of the Dispensary screen under “Running low”. The Dispensary link on your home screen grows a red “3 low” marker that nothing dismisses until you restock. And one email goes to your account address naming every medicine that crossed on that save — three in one visit is one email, not three. It carries a rate from your own movements, “about 12 a week · roughly 4 days left”, and stays quiet about rate when the history cannot support one.
The stockist delivered — do I tap Restock or Recount?
Restock adds, Recount sets. A hundred tablets arriving on a shelf of thirty is Restock 100, which gives 130 and clears the warning. Recount is for after you have counted the cupboard by hand; it writes a correction rather than overwriting the count silently. Neither reads an empty box as zero — clearing the Recount field and saving would have set your stock to nought, so it refuses and says so. Half a tablet is refused too. And if a Restock leaves your phone and no answer comes back, it does not say try again: it tells you to check the count before restocking again, because restocking twice would double it.
Am I allowed to keep medicines and hand them out at my own clinic?
Two separate permissions, and both say yes. On the drug law: rule 123 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 says the drugs specified in Schedule K shall be exempted from the provisions of Chapter IV of the Act and the rules made thereunder, to the extent and subject to the conditions specified in that Schedule. Chapter IV is Manufacture, Sale and Distribution; section 18(c) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 is the clause inside it that forbids stocking or selling a drug except under a licence. Entry 5 of Schedule K covers “Drugs supplied by a registered medical practitioner to his own patient”, provided he is not (a) keeping an open shop or (b) selling across the counter or (c) engaged in the importation, manufacture, distribution or sale of drugs in India to a degree which render him liable to Chapter IV. On the ethics side, Regulation 6.3 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 is headed “Running an open shop” and says it is not unethical for a physician to prescribe or supply drugs, remedies or appliances as long as there is no exploitation of the patient. Read both in the originals, on cdsco.gov.in and nmc.org.in.
Does this replace my drug stock register?
No, and it would be worth money to us to say it did. Schedule K hangs conditions on that exemption and they are record-keeping. Drugs shall be purchased only from a licensed dealer or manufacturer, and records of those purchases showing names and quantities, together with their batch numbers and the names and addresses of the manufacturers, shall be maintained and open to an Inspector. For a medicine containing a substance in Schedule G, H or X, the name of the medicine and the quantity, the dose, the patient’s name, the date of supply and who prescribed it go into a register at the time of supply, each entry numbered, that number written on the container label, and the register preserved for not less than two years. UpcharHub’s shelf holds a name, a unit, a count and every movement behind it — no batch number, no manufacturer, no expiry date, no purchase bill. It is a count, not that register.
Can my compounder keep the stock up to date?
No, and that is the sharpest edge of this feature. Every dispensary route is doctor-only. A front-desk account you add is refused on all of them: it cannot open the shelf, add a medicine, restock, recount, or see how much of anything you hold. The stock sits under your registration and the low-stock email is yours. The cost is real — in most clinics counting the cupboard is exactly what the compounder does, and today that work cannot be handed over.
What does this not do?
Seven things, said plainly, because you would find them out anyway. There is no batch number and no expiry date on a shelf medicine, so nothing warns you a strip is about to go out of date. There is no price, no margin and no bill — it counts what you hold, it does not sell it. There is no purchase or supplier record. Every movement is stored, but no screen shows it yet, so you cannot read back how a number got where it is. A medicine, once added, cannot be removed from the shelf inside the app. A saved visit cannot be edited, so a mistake on a prescription you have already saved is fixed on the shelf with Recount. The tear-off slip prints the medicine, dose and days but not the quantity you handed over. And the limit no software removes: a medicine you hand over and never write on the visit is invisible to all of this.
Questions
Answered plainly.
Can a doctor in India dispense medicines at their own clinic without a chemist’s licence?
Entry 5 of Schedule K to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 exempts “Drugs supplied by a registered medical practitioner to his own patient” from all the provisions of Chapter IV of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and the rules made thereunder; rule 123 is what gives Schedule K effect. It is conditional — no open shop, no selling across the counter, no dealing in drugs to a degree that makes him liable to Chapter IV — and conditions on purchase records, a supply register for Schedule G, H and X medicines, storage and expiry ride with it. Regulation 6.3 of the 2002 Ethics Regulations says the same thing from the ethics side: not unethical to supply drugs, as long as there is no exploitation of the patient. Read both originals and take your own advice; this page is not advice.
Does UpcharHub sell or dispense medicines?
No. UpcharHub is practice-management software for registered doctors. It does not sell, stock or dispense any medicine, and patients cannot obtain medicines or prescriptions through it. The doctor dispenses from their own cupboard under their own registration; the software records what was handed over and keeps the count.
Do I still have to keep a stock register?
Yes. What UpcharHub keeps is a running count per medicine with every movement behind it. Schedule K’s conditions also want purchase records carrying batch numbers and manufacturer addresses, and a numbered supply register for Schedule G, H or X medicines preserved for not less than two years. None of those fields exists in the product. Treat the shelf as the count you stop maintaining by hand, not as the register you stop keeping.
How does it work out how many tablets to take off the shelf?
From the dose and the days, and only for tablets and capsules: 1-0-1 for 5 days is 10, BD for a week is 14, QID for 3 days is 12. Bottles, vials, tubes and sachets count as one container handed over and the dose is ignored, because treating “5ml BD” like a tablet would take fifty off a shelf holding four bottles. When the dose cannot be read the row asks “How many?” instead of guessing, and the number stays tappable if you handed over a part course.
What happens if I type a medicine that is not on my shelf?
The visit saves and the prescription prints as normal. No stock moves, and the miss is recorded rather than dropped. The row offers “+ Add to dispensary” while you are still looking at it, and the Dispensary screen gathers every miss from the last 30 days into a strip showing the medicine and how many times it happened — each one a tap from being on the shelf.
Can my receptionist or compounder update the stock?
No. The dispensary is doctor-only — a front-desk account is refused on every dispensary route and cannot see or change your counts. That is a real limitation if the compounder is the person who counts your cupboard.
What does it cost to run a dispensary count in UpcharHub?
Nothing to start. UpcharHub is truly free to start, ₹99/month later, with nothing to install — sign in with Google, add what you hand out at the clinic with the count that is in the cupboard today, and the number looks after itself from the next prescription.
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