Glossary/Definitions

The Glossary is a living document. Please leave a comment if you'd like to see new terms or modify current definitions.

Adjustment

An Adjustment is a predefined type of stock movement that is configured with reasons for a user to select and associate with the movement. 

Approval Hierarchy

An approval hierarchy is the combination of Requisition workflow rights (initiate, create, authorize, approve) and the approval tiers in a Supervisory Node tree.

Catchment Population

The Catchment Population is the nominal population for the Geographic Zone and is used to calculate coverage rates, or compare consumption relative to population. 

Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS)

WHO definition: A well-functioning civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) system registers all births and deaths, issues birth and death certificates, and compiles and disseminates vital statistics, including cause of death information. It may also record marriages and divorces.

Despite the well-documented benefits of CRVS, many countries do not have adequate systems in place. The births of tens of millions of children are known to be unregistered every year, and it is estimated that two-thirds of deaths are never registered and are thus not counted in the vital statistics system.

Commodity Types

CommodityTypes represent classifications of commodities. These may be hierarchical or may be flat. Widely-used examples include UNSPSC and GPC. Multiple classification systems can be in use at the same time in a single OpenLMIS implementation. The ability to handle hierarchy and branching follows GS1 best practice and allows an implementation to mix and match existing classification systems in practice. For these reasons, each TradeItem may be tied to one CommodityType in each classification system (e.g., one in UNSPSC and one in GPC).

A Orderable can be constructed from one Commodity Type (or, alternatively, it could be connected to a TradeItem, as above). We refer to this as CommodityType's Orderable. With this kind of Orderable, an end-user is ordering a classification of commodities. A CommodityType's Orderable is the more typical kind used in OpenLMIS. That is typical because often an end-user does not need to order a specific manufacturer's Trade Item (Advil Extra Strength 100mg), but instead wants to order a classification (Ibuprofen 100mg). Later, when a requisition becomes an actual shipment and delivery, some tangible item—a real TradeItem like Advil Extra Strength—can fulfill that order. That is allowed as long as the TradeItem is compatible with the CommodityType (see more about Fulfillment below).

Delivery Zone

Delivery Zones are a collection or grouping of facilities that have the following three characteristics in common:

• run the same allocation-based programs or subsets of these programs

• operate individual programs on the same replenishment schedule

• rely on the same warehouse to distribute products for restocking each facility
  
  

Dispensing Unit

A dispensing unit is the basic unit that a patient receives when the clinician or pharmacist provides them a product. Product inventory and usage is generally tallied and reported in dispensing units, as part of the requisitioning process.

Display Order Categories

The Display Order Categories provide a name and display order for a given Orderable applied to a Program. This allows Orderable items to be grouped into categories within the OpenLMIS user interface, such as on a requisition order form. This grouping does not need to match any of the CommodityTypes categories or any official classifications such as UNSPSC. OrderableDisplayCategories provide complete freedom to configure whatever groupings make sense for any given Program.  In most cases though it's assumed that an implementation following a well-sourced classification system could simply use that Classification System for its OrderableDisplayCategories.

Distribution resource planning (DPS)

Wikipedia definition: Distribution resource planning (DRP) is a method used in business administration for planning orders within a supply chain. DRP enables the user to set certain inventory control parameters (like a safety stock) and calculate the time-phased inventory requirements. This process is also commonly referred to as distribution requirements planning.

DRP uses several variables:

• the required quantity of product needed at the beginning of a period

• the constrained quantity of product available at the beginning of a period

• the recommended order quantity at the beginning of a period

• the backordered demand at the end of a period

• the on-hand inventory at the end of a period

DRP needs the following information:

• the demand in a future period

• the scheduled receipts at the beginning of a period

• the on-hand inventory at the beginning of a period

• the safety stock requirement for a period

Dosage Unit

A Dosage Unit is the different units of individual doses or items that are given to a patient that can be quantified.

Emergency Requisition

An emergency requisition is a type of requisition that is not limited to one per processing period. A user can enter many emergency requisitions within a processing period.

Emergency Order Point 

The Emergency Order Point (EOP) attribute is intended to specify the emergency order point for a facility. As is the case with max month, this attribute is not used by OpenLMIS for replenishment calculations. It is included as a convenience and listed in the header of each requisition as a general guideline.

EPI

Expanded Programme on Immunization. The Expanded Programme on Immunization remains committed to its goal of universal access to all relevant vaccines for all at risk. Within each country, there is a specific EPI programme aiming to expand the targeted groups to include older children, adolescents and adults and work in synergy with other public health programmes in order to control disease and achieve better health for all populations, particularly the underserved populations. See the WHO website for additional details on the programme.

External Fulfillment

External Fulfillment is the process of exporting an order file that will be filled using an external order handling system such as an ERP. 

Facility and Facility Types

OpenLMIS supports facilities that function as Service Delivery Points, and facilities that function as warehouses or "supply depots" to replenish other facilities. A single facility can be an SDP or warehouse, or both an SDP and a warehouse. Facilities can be further classified by type (e.g., dispensary, health center, regional hospital, teaching hospital), which can be used to segment product availability, and for reporting purposes. An example where this type of product segmentation within individual programs can be useful is with experimental ARVs. These experimental medications could initially be made available only to teaching hospitals that have staff on hand that are trained to watch carefully for undocumented side effects. Conversely, fully qualified ARVs would be available at all village dispensaries because the side effects of these medications are well understood, and there is much less concern about possible risks to patients from undocumented side effects.

Facility Operator

The Facility Operator can be defined in terms of the types of organizations that are operating at facilities. The Facility Operator is used to provide reporting to the organization identified. Examples are Ministry of Health or Doctors with Borders.