Healthcare / Medical Supply Distribution
Patient Supply Ordering Portal for Medical Distribution
An ordering portal for a medical supply distributor, built around patients rather than SKUs, with clinical validation on nutrition orders, facility templates, and inventory rules applied before submission.
- Role
- Architecture, Brightree API integration, platform development, clinical rules engine, portal redesign, QA, and ongoing delivery
- .NET
- C#
- SignalR real-time updates
- Brightree API
- Niko Health
- Clinical validation rules
- Document generation
- Inventory and case-quantity logic
The challenge
What the business was running into
- Brightree held the order data but its workflow took many steps for simple tasks, and it left no room for the business-specific process the distributor actually ran on
- Every order needed intake, insurance, and billing to act on it in sequence, and coordinating that between teams by hand is where orders stalled
- Medical supply ordering is patient-level, not catalogue-level, so an order has to be assembled per resident rather than picked from a product list
- Nutrition orders carry clinical parameters, including formula, flow rate, calories, and pump compatibility, and an order that contradicts them is a patient safety problem rather than a data error
- Supply restrictions, do-not-supply flags, and case quantities all constrain what can actually ship, and applying them after submission means orders bounce back
- Facilities move patients between them, and an ordering history that cannot follow the patient produces gaps in both care and billing
The approach
Ordering medical supplies for a care facility is not shopping. The order is assembled patient by patient, each line is constrained by that patient's clinical requirements, and some of those requirements are the kind where a mistake matters. Nutrition supply is the clearest case: a formula has a flow rate, a calorie target, and a pump it is compatible with, and an order that contradicts any of them is not a data-quality issue.
The distributor already ran Brightree as its platform of record, and that was not the problem to solve. Brightree held the data. What it could not do was carry the distributor's own process, which took many steps for simple tasks and had no room for the checks and handoffs the business actually depended on. So the portal we built sits over Brightree rather than beside it, pulling facilities, patients, orders, and products through the Brightree API and adding the workflow on top. There is one source of truth, and nothing to reconcile afterwards. The distributor is now moving that platform of record from Brightree to Niko Health, and the portal's job does not change with it. The data stays in the system of record. The workflow, the validation, and the documents stay in the portal.
On that foundation the work divides in two. The first half is the order itself. Orders are built around patients, with each resident's history, documentation, and current supply in view while the order takes shape. Nutrition orders are validated as they are entered, so a contradiction between formula, flow rate, calories, and pump surfaces while the person entering it is still on the page. Diagnosis codes, insurance details, and quantities are checked the same way, which moves a rejected claim from something you discover weeks later to something you fix in the moment. Recurring supply patterns are saved as templates, turning each ordering cycle into a review of what changed rather than a rebuild from an empty basket.
The second half is everything that decides whether an order can actually ship. Items restricted for a patient and do-not-supply flags are enforced during entry. Quantities round to shippable cases, and cutback rules handle items already sent separately. Progress notes and standard written orders are generated from the order rather than retyped, and missing documentation is tracked as a list. Pumps and poles issued to a patient are tracked with the supply, with alerts when a unit is due for maintenance. Each of these is cheap to apply while the order is being built and expensive to discover at the warehouse, which is the whole argument for putting the rules in the portal.
The last part is the process rather than the product. Intake, insurance, and billing each work the same order, and each sees only the actions that belong to their step, so the order moves through the teams in sequence instead of being chased between them. Two smaller details show what long-term ownership looks like. Patients transfer between facilities, and their supply history and documents transfer with them, because an ordering record that cannot follow the patient creates gaps in both care and billing. And the order pages update in real time, so two people working the same order see the same state. Neither is a headline feature. Both are the sort of thing that only gets built when the same team is still on the platform 144 sprints in.
Key capabilities
What the system does
Built over the platform of record
Facilities, patients, orders, and products come from the distributor's platform of record, Brightree today through its API and Niko Health as the business moves to it, so the portal adds workflow and validation on top rather than becoming a second source of truth to reconcile.
A workflow per role
Intake, insurance, and billing each see only the actions belonging to their step, so an order moves through the teams in sequence rather than being coordinated by email and spreadsheet.
Ordering built around the patient
Orders are assembled per patient across a facility's residents, with each patient's history, documents, and current supply visible while the order is being built rather than looked up afterwards.
Clinical validation on nutrition orders
Enteral and parenteral nutrition orders are checked against formula, flow rate, calorie targets, and pump compatibility as they are entered. The system raises the contradiction while somebody is still there to resolve it.
Insurance and diagnosis checks
Diagnosis codes, insurance details, and quantities are validated against the order as it is built, so a mismatch surfaces before submission rather than as a rejected claim weeks later.
Order templates per facility
Recurring supply patterns are saved as templates a facility can adjust rather than rebuild every cycle, which is what turns a monthly ordering exercise into a review.
Rules for what can actually ship
Items restricted for a patient and do-not-supply flags are enforced during entry, quantities round to the nearest shippable case, and cutback rules apply to items already sent separately. Applied at entry these cost nothing. Discovered at the warehouse they cost a delivery cycle.
Documents generated, gaps tracked
Progress notes and standard written orders are generated from the order rather than typed, and the patient documentation gaps that authorize supply are surfaced as a working list rather than found in a compliance review.
Equipment tracked with the supply
Pumps and poles issued to a patient are tracked alongside the supply order, with alerts raised when a unit is due for maintenance or replacement.
Patients that move between facilities
A patient transferring between care facilities keeps their supply history and documentation, so ordering continues from where it left off instead of starting again.
Live order status
Real-time updates on the order and processing pages, so two people working the same order see the same state instead of overwriting each other.
Outcome
Facilities order at patient level with clinical checks applied as the order is built, and the distributor receives orders that are already valid, already rounded to case quantities, and already checked against supply restrictions.
Results
What changed for the business
Orders arrive valid
Clinical, insurance, and supply validation before submission means the distributor receives orders that can be filled, rather than a queue of exceptions to send back.
Ordering became a review, not a rebuild
Templates and patient history turned each cycle into an adjustment of what already exists, which is where the hours went previously.
One workflow instead of three teams coordinating
Intake, insurance, and billing work the same order through defined steps, which removed the handoffs that used to stall orders between departments.
Fewer delivery cycles lost
Restrictions, do-not-supply flags, and case rounding applied at entry stop the corrections that used to surface only after picking.
Continuity when patients move
Supply history and documentation follow the patient between facilities, closing a gap that previously showed up in both care and billing.
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