Summary
SNOMED International has received requests for addition of concepts in the procedure hierarchy that use the terms “provision” and “dispensing”.
Examples currently in SNOMED CT:
- 713114000 |Provision of medication list (procedure)|
- 713113006 |Provision of medication schedule (procedure)|
- 713836000 |Provision of anticipatory care medication (procedure)|
- 409021006 |Dispensing medication education (procedure)|
- 409020007 |Dispensing medication assessment (procedure)|
- 409022004 |Dispensing medication management (procedure)|
- 7128000 |Provision of spectacles (procedure)|
- 448792007 |Dispensing of spectacles (procedure)|
How do countries define these terms? Is there a subtle difference in these terms or would these be considered duplicates? We would like to determine if definitions vary across countries. There are almost 240 concepts using 360273002 |Provision - action (qualifier value)| and less than ten concepts using 440338007 |Dispensing - action (qualifier value)|. The Provision concept is a parent to the Dispensing concept. The Provision concept has an effective date of January 2002; the Dispensing concept has an effective date of January 2009. The term “supply” is sometimes used interchangeably in provision procedure concepts.
Relevant documents
Actions:
| Date | Requested action | Requester(s) | Response required by: | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 April 2020 | Please respond on provision and dispensing questions above. |
| Please post your final responses in the Country response table below. Discussion comments can be made as comments. |
Links
Country response
| Country | Date | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark | 2020-04-15 | Krista Lilly In Denmark we do not use any of these concepts. Usually, we use dispensing related to drugs only. |
| US | 2020-04-17 | The Board of Pharmacy definition for: "Dispense" means preparing and packaging a prescription drug or device in a container and labeling the container with information required by State and federal law. This seems to make provision a more generic (e.g., parent) concept compared to dispensing. Provision might apply to over-the-counter drugs for which no prescription is required. |
| New Zealand | 2020-05-05 | Dispensing is viewed as an old fashioned term and provision is our preferred term. If any distinction where to be made provision would be the parent concept and dispensing would relate to prescription only drugs. |
| Sweden | 2020-05-05 | Dispensing is reasonably clear (or so we think...), but provision we would not know how to translate (more than literally). Drug terminology is typically very precise. Could the requester provide English definitions of the health-care use of these terms? We have other infrastructure to record and communicate this information (e.g. messages for dispensing), so we would likely not need these concepts. |
| Canada | 2020-05-05 | We did not receive feedback from our community. |
| Member countries without a CMAG rep |
CMAG response
| Date | CMAG Response | Next steps |
|---|---|---|
Final outcome:
Date: