Incident reporting for Ontario pharmacies

OTTAWA – The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) and Pharmapod Canada have been chosen by the Ontario College of Pharmacists to implement a medication incident reporting platform in Ontario which will improve patient safety, reduce errors and help identify root causes of medication incidents.

The partners will work to implement a standardized, continuous quality assurance program across Ontario pharmacies, which includes the mandatory collection and analysis of medication incident data. This will have a significant benefit for patient safety and standards of practice across the province.

“CPhA has a long history of leading initiatives to improve patient safety,” said Perry Eisenschmid (pictured), CEO, CPhA. “It is central to our mission and vision to protect the safety and security of our medication system through quality improvement initiatives; provide the information, tools and resources to support safe and effective medication use; and ultimately advance the health of Canadians through excellence in pharmacist care – these are core values that underpin our partnership with Pharmapod on this initiative.”

The Pharmapod Platform is a pioneering, cloud-based solution designed to drive continuous quality improvement and standards of patient safety across the pharmacy profession worldwide.

It enables pharmacists to systematically record medication-related incidents and risks in practice and carry out effective root-cause analysis. The platform will leverage CPhA’s RxTx Web solution – used by Ontario pharmacists – to accelerate adoption and improve efficiencies, while providing immediate access to critical Canadian drug and therapeutic information.

Once fully implemented, Ontario will have standardized, accurate and complete tracking of medication incident information across the province that will help provide a complete overview of errors and how they can be prevented to better protect patients.

CPhA looks forward to working with Pharmapod Canada and the Ontario College of Pharmacists to deliver this medication incident reporting program to support pharmacists with the tools, resources and data they need to continue to improve the health and safety of Ontario patients.

About the Canadian Pharmacists Association

The Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) is the uniting national voice of pharmacy and the pharmacist profession in Canada. As pharmacists undertake an enhanced role in the delivery of health care services, CPhA ensures that the profession is recognized as a national leader in health care, influencing the policies, programs, budgets and initiatives affecting the profession and the health of Canadians. More information is available at www.pharmacists.ca.