SupplyDelivery — Effective consumable delivery
Traces the actual delivery of a consumable, a device or a medical non-pharmacy product.
The execution counterpart of SupplyRequest.
Purpose of the resource
While MedicationDispense traces the pharmacy dispensation of a drug, and
DeviceDispense traces that of a medical device, SupplyDelivery covers the
broader set of consumable supplies: syringes, gauze, gloves, sampling kits,
non-pharmaceutical medical devices.
Typical cases: weekly delivery of material to a ward, home delivery via HHC, internal distribution inside a facility, restocking of a care cart.
Key fields
| Field | Type | Cardinality | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
identifier | Identifier[] | 0..* | External identifiers. |
basedOn | Reference(SupplyRequest)[] | 0..* | Originating request. |
partOf | Reference(SupplyDelivery | Contract)[] | 0..* | Wider context. |
status | code | 0..1 | in-progress, completed, abandoned, entered-in-error. |
patient | Reference(Patient) | 0..1 | Destination patient (if applicable). |
type | CodeableConcept | 0..1 | Type (medication, device, biologically-derived-product). |
suppliedItem | BackboneElement[] | 0..* | Delivered item(s). |
suppliedItem.quantity | Quantity | 0..1 | Quantity. |
suppliedItem.item[x] | CodeableConcept | Reference | 0..1 | Coded or referenced item. |
occurrence[x] | dateTime | Period | Timing | 0..1 | Delivery date/time. |
supplier | Reference(Practitioner | Organization) | 0..1 | Supplier. |
destination | Reference(Location) | 0..1 | Physical destination. |
receiver | Reference(Practitioner | Organization | Patient)[] | 0..* | Receiver(s) who signed. |
JSON example
Delivery of 50 syringes from the central pharmacy to ICU at 14:30, received by Nurse Anna:
{
"resourceType": "SupplyDelivery",
"id": "syringe-delivery-example",
"identifier": [{ "system": "http://hospital.example/supply", "value": "SD-2026-08754" }],
"basedOn": [{ "reference": "SupplyRequest/syringe-request-1234" }],
"status": "completed",
"patient": { "reference": "Patient/example" },
"type": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://terminology.hl7.org/CodeSystem/supply-item-type",
"code": "device",
"display": "Device"
}]
},
"suppliedItem": [{
"quantity": { "value": 50, "unit": "count" },
"itemCodeableConcept": {
"coding": [{
"system": "http://snomed.info/sct",
"code": "419772005",
"display": "Syringe with hypodermic needle"
}]
}
}],
"occurrenceDateTime": "2026-05-16T14:30:00+02:00",
"supplier": { "reference": "Organization/central-pharmacy" },
"destination": { "reference": "Location/icu-room-101" },
"receiver": [{ "reference": "Practitioner/nurse-anna" }]
}Typical use cases
- Hospital logistics: daily ward restocking.
- HHC (Hospital at Home): home material delivery.
- Pharmacovigilance: end-to-end traceability of a high-risk product.
- Cost accounting: consumption allocation by ward.
- Blood banks: delivery of red blood cell units (paired with BiologicallyDerivedProductDispense).
Common pitfalls
- Confusion with MedicationDispense: for a pharmacy-dispensed drug, use MedicationDispense. SupplyDelivery targets consumables and supplies.
- No
basedOn: a delivery not linked to a SupplyRequest is hard to justify legally. - Missing receiver: for traceability, always document who signed for reception.
- Quantity without unit:
quantity.unitmust always be populated (UCUM or text). - OccurrenceDateTime missing: without date, chronological traceability is broken.
Related resources
- SupplyRequest — original request.
- MedicationDispense — pharmacy drug dispensation.
- DeviceDispense — device dispensation.
- BiologicallyDerivedProductDispense — biologically derived product dispensation.
- Patient, Location, Organization — actors.
See also: MedicationDispense — drug dispensation and DeviceDispense — device dispensation.