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Solution · Legal & complianceThe manufacturer names a batch. Minutes later the doctor has the list of patients who received it, instead of two days of going through files
Product batches linked to each treatment
While preparing a treatment the assistant photographs the product label with the tablet. A robot reads the product, the batch number and the expiry date, checks the date, and stores the batch with the patient’s visit and in the clinic’s batch register. When a batch notice arrives, typing the number in Teams is enough: the patient list is ready at once, and the doctor decides on the next steps.
Executive summary
Every product has a batch number and an expiry date, and the clinic should know which batch each patient received; today that knowledge is stickers in paper files and numbers retyped by hand.
A robot reads the product, batch and expiry date from a label photo, checks the date before use, stores the batch with the visit and in the register, and answers a batch query with a patient list in seconds.
A manufacturer’s notice handled in minutes instead of days, expired product stopped before the treatment, no errors from retyping long numbers; less risk for patients and the clinic.
label photos from the clinic tablet via OneDrive; delivery invoices from the wholesaler; a batch register in SharePoint or the clinic system; queries and alerts in Microsoft Teams
Business problem
The batch number is on every box. The trouble starts when you need to find it three months later
Toxins, fillers, biostimulators and threads carry a batch number and an expiry date. Manufacturers and distributors issue notices about specific batches, and the clinic then has to establish quickly which patients received them. It does not happen every week, but when it does, every hour counts.
Today the batch reaches the record in one of two ways. The sticker from the box goes into a paper file, or the assistant retypes the long number into the system at the end of the day, when she has a moment. The first is hard to search, the second prone to errors nobody notices until the number is needed.
When a notice arrives, the search begins. Two people sit down with files from recent months, hunting for stickers with the right number, while the doctor waits for the list to decide whom to contact. After two days the list is ready, but nobody is sure it is complete.
The second risk is quieter: the expiry date. A vial put aside for later, product from a delivery six months ago, a box hidden behind newer ones. If nobody checks the date while preparing the treatment, you learn about it only afterwards. A robot checks it every time.
How it works today
Below is what the work looks like before anything is automated.
- PersonThe assistant peels the batch sticker off the box
- Risk of errorThe sticker goes into a paper file, the number sometimes into the system
- WaitingRetyping the batch number waits for the end of the day
- Risk of errorNobody notices errors in long batch numbers
- WaitingA manufacturer’s notice: a search through months of files
- Risk of errorThe patient list after two days, with no certainty it is complete
Why the current process costs more than it appears
The bill that never shows up in a budget.
- How long would it take you today to establish which patients received product from a specific June batch?
- Who checks a product’s expiry date at every treatment preparation, not only at delivery?
- How many batch numbers in your records were retyped by hand, and how many of them has anyone verified?
- Do you know which batches are in your cupboard and fridge today?
Cost of inaction
The model assumes product is used at about 450 of 600 treatment visits a month and a fully loaded assistant hour of 28 €. You will know your own number by timing batch recording for a week and trying to trace one batch from last quarter.
The third line has no amount because its cost is not counted in euros. It is counted in patients’ trust and in conversations the clinic would rather not have.
A model organisation with realistic proportions – the numbers exist so you can run the same maths on your own data; they are not a client result.
An aesthetic clinic: 3 treatment rooms, 5 doctors and cosmetologists, about 600 treatment visits a month, some 450 of them with product, Microsoft 365, records in the clinic system.
Tuesday, 10:40: the assistant prepares a filler treatment and photographs the box label with the clinic tablet. The photo goes to the clinic’s intake folder.
The robot reads the product, batch number and expiry date and matches the photo to the visit by visit code, or by room and time from the schedule. The date is fine; the batch goes into the patient’s record and the batch register.
Thursday: at another treatment the robot recognises a product whose expiry date passed a week earlier and within a minute sends an alert to the room in Teams. The product is set aside before anyone uses it.
A quarter later a distributor sends a notice about one filler batch. The manager types the batch number in a Teams channel and within seconds has the list of patients with treatment dates and treating doctors. The doctors decide on contact.
Instead of two days of going through files: a few minutes. In the modelled year the clinic recovers about 7 000 € of assistant time and notice handling. These are model figures, not the clinic’s records.
Proposed solution
Recording a batch starts with a photo. While preparing a treatment the assistant photographs the box label with the clinic tablet, just as she peels off a sticker today. UiPath Document Understanding reads the product, batch number and expiry date from the label text or from the code on the box, and the robot matches the photo to the visit by visit code, or by room and time from the schedule. When something is unreadable or ambiguous, the robot asks the assistant in Teams instead of guessing.
Every reading is checked. The robot checks the expiry date and alerts the room within a minute if it has passed; it also checks whether that batch was in the clinic’s deliveries at all, where the wholesaler gives batches on the invoice or delivery note. The batch goes into the patient’s record and the batch register, which shows each batch’s path: delivery, treatments, patients.
The most important moment is rare: a batch notice arrives. Then typing the batch number in a Teams channel is enough, and the robot returns the list of patients with treatment dates and treating doctors. The robot does not contact patients or assess the notice; the doctor decides whom to inform and how, and the clinic has complete data for that decision from the first hour.
UiPath Orchestrator: a label photo queue, batch recording with the visit, expiry alerts and an audit trail; UiPath Document Understanding for labels and delivery invoices; UiPath Integration Service connectors to OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams
Reading product, batch and expiry from a label photo, a date check before use, a batch register from delivery to patient and batch search with a single query in Teams
A clinic tablet with OneDrive; the clinic system with records via export or API; wholesaler invoices from an Outlook 365 mailbox
How the automated process works
- PersonThe assistant photographs the label while preparing the treatment
- AutomationThe robot reads product, batch and expiry date
- AutomationAn expiry check; an alert to the room when the date has passed
- AutomationThe batch stored with the patient’s visit and in the batch register
- PersonA batch notice: someone types its number in Teams
- SystemThe patient list in seconds; the doctor decides on contact
Human-in-the-loop model
Automation handles
- Reading labels and linking batches to patient visits
- Expiry checks before use and alerts to the room
- The batch register from delivery to patient and answers to batch queries
People decide
- Photographing the label while preparing the treatment: the assistant
- Deciding on patient contact after a notice: the doctor alone
- Resolving unreadable labels and doubts raised by the robot: a person
Before and after
Systems and integrations
The stack is short on purpose: one engine, one execution layer, one place where a person decides.
Inputs
- product label photos from the clinic tablet
- the visit list and room schedule from the clinic system
- invoices and delivery notes from the wholesaler
- batch queries typed in Teams
Automation layer
- UiPath Orchestrator
- UiPath Robots
- UiPath Integration Service
- UiPath Action Center
Target systems
- batch and expiry date in the patient record
- a batch register from delivery to patient
- expiry alerts and patient lists for a batch in Teams
Human touchpoints: the assistant photographs the label while preparing the treatment; resolves the robot’s questions about unreadable labels; the doctor decides on action after a notice
Technologies used
the label queue, batch recording with the visit, alerts, an audit trail
Areading product, batch and expiry date from labels and delivery invoices
Athe photo folder, the batch register, queries and alerts in Teams
Aa batch register: delivery, treatment, patient, when the clinic system does not keep one
Abatches in the record via export or API; photos from the tablet via OneDrive
BIllustrative economic model
Numbers you can check against your own data.
The model assumes 450 treatments with product a month and one batch notice a year. Time saved is only part of the picture: what matters most is that the clinic answers a batch question in minutes and is certain the list is complete. Put your own figures into the calculator beside.
Run the maths on your data
An illustrative estimate based on your inputs. It models freed capacity, not promised savings.
Business benefits
- Batch and expiry date at every visit, without retyping long numbers
- Expired product stopped before the treatment, not noticed afterwards
- A manufacturer’s notice handled in minutes, with a complete patient list
- Every batch’s path from delivery to patient in one register
- The doctor decides on complete data from the first hour
The management view
- A clinic that answers a batch question in minutes deals calmly with the manufacturer, the distributor and patients
- The batch register becomes the foundation for product stock and treatment cost accounting
- Orderly traceability is an argument premium patients are starting to notice
Board-level KPIs
visits with the batch recorded from a label photo · time from notice to patient list · expiry alerts before use · labels needing a human decision · batches in the register with a full path from delivery
Security and governance
The automation has exactly the permissions it needs. Not one more.
- The batch register holds only what is needed: product, batch, date, visit; no health details
- Only people named by the clinic see the patient list for a batch; every query leaves a trail
- The robot does not contact patients after a notice; the decision belongs to the doctor
- Unreadable labels go to a person; the robot guesses nothing
- Data stays in your Microsoft 365 tenant; the robots run in the EU region of UiPath Automation Cloud
Why now
A batch notice cannot be scheduled; the register has to exist before the first one arrives.
Every month of stickers in paper files adds hundreds of entries that cannot be searched.
A quick-win deployment takes weeks and works from the first label photographed after go-live.
Relevant executive roles
Certainty that the clinic answers a batch question in minutes and that expired product never reaches a treatment
The complete patient list for a batch at once, and time for a considered decision
A label photo instead of retyping numbers at the end of the day
Common questions and objections
The robot does not guess. If the reading is uncertain, it asks the assistant in Teams and shows the photo, and she confirms or corrects the number in one move. Every such decision is recorded.
You do not have to. If the clinic wants to keep the stickers as an extra record, nothing stands in the way. After a few months it usually turns out nobody looks at them any more.
No. The robot prepares the list of patients with treatment dates and treating doctors. The doctor decides whom to inform, how and about what; the robot can then help send content the clinic has prepared.
When this is not the right solution
- A clinic without product-based treatments: the solution has nothing to watch
- No tablet or camera in the treatment room: the label photo is the starting point
- Expecting the robot to assess a notice medically: that is the doctor’s decision
A question for the next management meeting
If a notice about a June filler batch arrived tomorrow, how many hours would it take you to establish the complete patient list?
Implementation approach
Scope without ambiguity, before anything is signed.
We deliver
- Reading product, batch and expiry date from label photos
- An expiry check before use with an alert to the room in Teams
- A batch register from delivery to patient in SharePoint or the clinic system
- Batch search with a single query in Teams, returning the patient list
- A handbook for assistants and management and two weeks of assistance after go-live
We need from you
- A clinic tablet in the treatment rooms and the team’s agreement to photograph the label at every treatment
- Access to the visit list and records in the clinic system
- The names of people who may run batch queries and see patient lists
Stages
Discovery
Products, labels, today’s batch recording and deliveries; half a day at the clinic
Patterns
Training the reading on your products’ labels, alert and access rules
Build
Reading, date check, batch register, queries in Teams
Parallel run
Two weeks alongside the stickers; we compare every reading
Go-live
All rooms; a test batch query after a month
A quick win. The most work goes into training the reading on the labels of the products you use; a new product is added in minutes.
The manufacturer names a batch. Minutes later the doctor has the complete patient list. Nobody spends two days going through files.
Try to establish which patients received product from one batch from last quarter, and time it. Send us the result with the list of products you use; we will send back a batch register design for your clinic.
Test how fast you find a batchThe neighbouring process usually has the same problem
An expired vial comes to light during a treatment, and the fridge warmed up over the weekend without a witness.
See the solution Legal & complianceBefore-and-after photos in the record, not on a phonePatient photos sit in a phone gallery next to holidays and shopping. Whose phone is a separate question.
See the solution Finance & accountingDoctor payouts per treatment, without the spreadsheetA percentage per treatment minus the product, different rates for every doctor. Every month the same spreadsheet and the same discussion.
See the solutionIndustries where we deploy this most oftenAesthetic medicineSmall business & services