New and recurring items
New items are defined as having been present in the formulary for 9 or fewer months.
Recurring items have been dispensed in 8 or more of the trailing 12 months.
Both New and Recurring items are considered to have robust dispensing histories (certainly when compared to Sporadic items). Because of the rich usage history, algorithms and other substantial mathematics are deployed and married with settings for Lead Time, Order Cycle and Safety Stock (all measured in days) to calculate precise order points that track with forecasted demand for the upcoming month.
Notes:
✓ Datarithm will not place positive replenishment points on New items until 2 months of usage is
observed.
✓ When there is no usage in the 4 most recent months of dispensing, Datarithm will place Do Not
Stock order points into your Pharmacy Management System.
Sporadic items are observed to have dispensing in less than 8 of the trailing 12 months but are,
additionally, not New. The lack of robust dispensing precludes the use of algorithms etc. to calculate order points. As such, these items are handled through a simple Stock or Do Not Stock decision tree based on the relative frequency of dispensing (with requirements that some usage must be recent) and the cost of a typical dispense quantity for the item. In short, on a progressively more stringent basis, the more expensive a Sporadic item is, the greater the requirement for dispense frequency in order for Datarithm to place positive replenishment points into a Pharmacy Management System.