A system for monitoring and dispensing medical items, includes a data terminal (76) which is connected through a local area network (82) to at least one remote computer (84) including a processor and the data store. The data store includes data representative of medical items which may be stored in dispensing devices (96, 100) or in storage locations external to said dispensing devices. The data store further includes data representative of information concerning patients. The data store further includes information concerning kits which kits include more than one of the available medical items. The items in each kit are used in the course of a medical procedure. A user is enabled to interface with the data terminal to select a patient and a kit for use by the patient. A user is further enabled to dispense items included in a selected kit, and data representative of the taking of the items in the kit for use by the patient is stored in correlated relation with the information concerning the patient in the data store.