Listing of Pharmacies with Sterile Compounding as a Pharmacy Care Service Component
Currently, facilities performing Pharmacy Compounding of Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Sterile Preparation are primarily occurring in hospitals and select (community) pharmacies within the Province of Manitoba. Although these services are available, there can be challenges identifying which pharmacies are engaging in this practice.
On May 7, 2021, in the interest of patient safety and access to care, College Council approved a new category in the Pharmacy Public Register to indicate those pharmacies with self-declared NAPRA compliant sterile compounding facilities. This new filter and listing will ensure that patients, pharmacists, and other healthcare practitioners have access to an up-to-date listing of pharmacies that provide sterile compounding services.
Pharmacies can now submit to the College a self-declaration of their provision of sterile compounding as a pharmacy care service. This declaration can occur at any time and will be included as part of the license application and renewal process moving forward. You can update this information on the Pharmacy Public Register with the following steps:
1) Log into your Pharmacy Portal.
2) Click Update Pharmacy Information – Add/Edit Employee Lists.
3) Read the self-declaration and click the check box to indicate both of the following:
- if you are currently providing any sterile compounding pharmacy care services at your pharmacy AND
- if you would like to have your pharmacy visible on the College website and the Public Register as one that has self-declared the provision of sterile compounding as a pharmacy care service (visible to other pharmacists and the public).
4) Click Save.
Once you have completed these steps, the Pharmacy Public Register will be updated, and the College will be notified of your self-declaration to provide sterile compounding services.
Reminder: An exemption from the NAPRA Model Standards for Pharmacy Compounding of Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Sterile Preparation for pharmacies in the province to draw-up comfort care medications for palliative care patients remains in effect until January 1, 2022.
It is important that before a pharmacist pursues the above exemption, they should make every effort to seek the services of, or refer a patient to, a pharmacy that can provide sterile compounding that meets the NAPRA Model Standards fully. This is best practice and in the best interest of the patient and their safety.
Before engaging in this service, pharmacists should review College Council’s guiding principles on the exemption located here:
https://cphm.ca/friday-five/friday-five/
Prescribing and Dispensing Practice Direction for Stakeholder Feedback
Practice Directions carry similar legal significance to regulations. Therefore, the formation of a Practice Direction must be made with due diligence, subject to analysis, review, and response. In 2014, College Council implemented a policy surrounding Practice Directions, including the requirement for assessment and regular review at a minimum of every five years.
The Standards of Practice Division of the Quality Assurance Committee is requesting your input and feedback within the review process of a Practice Direction.
Please review the draft amendments to the Prescribing and Dispensing Practice Direction and provide your feedback by email to feedback@cphm.ca with the subject line “Prescribing and Dispensing Practice Direction” by June 14, 2021.
Safety IQ Mandatory June 1, 2021
In a few short weeks, Safety IQ will become mandatory for all community pharmacies in Manitoba. Much time and effort has been focused on implementing Safety IQ from a pilot with twenty community pharmacies in 2017 to all 441 community pharmacies and counting in 2021. The College and Council would like to extend our appreciation to the many individuals who have contributed to this process:
- Melissa Sheldrick, Patient Safety Advocate for her encouragement and support of Safety IQ and the Community Pharmacy Safety Culture Toolkit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0p47ThUcoQ
- The Safety IQ pilot pharmacy managers and pharmacy staff who initially tested the concepts of Safety IQ and provided their feedback for changes to the provincial program.
- The Safety IQ Advisory Committee who worked to develop the provincial requirements for Safety IQ and incorporated these into the updated Medication Incidents and Near Miss Events Practice Direction in conjunction with the Standards of Practice Division of the Quality Assurance Committee.
- The pharmacy managers, district/regional managers and corporate pharmacies who have worked during these challenging times to integrate an online reporting platform into their pharmacies.
- The various online reporting platform organizations as well as the National Incident Data Repository for their collaboration with the College and pharmacies to work towards the national sharing of incident information and learnings to improve patient safety across the country.
The updated Medication Incident and Near Miss Events Practice Direction will become effective June 1, 2021 and we encourage all pharmacy staff to review. For additional resources and information about Safety IQ, please visit:
https://cphm.ca/practice-education/quality-assurance/safety-iq/
If you have questions regarding Safety IQ or the practice direction, please contact the College at safetyiq@cphm.ca.
University of Manitoba, College of Pharmacy Entry to Practice PharmD Program as Qualification for EPPh Designation
At the last meeting on May 7th, 2021, College Council approved the University of Manitoba, College of Pharmacy Entry to Practice PharmD program as an Extended Practice Pharmacist (EPPh) specialty qualification program under section 96(g) of the Pharmaceutical Regulation.
The EPPh applicant who has graduated from the program must have practiced for at least 1,000 hours in the chosen specialty area in a collaborative healthcare setting in the two years before applying for registration. As with all other EPPh qualification programs, these hours must have been completed after successfully completing the Entry to Practice PharmD program.
For more information on how to attain an EPPh designation, please see the College information sheet.
Consultation Notice
Manitoba Health and Seniors Care (MHSC) has advised the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba (College) that it is a priority to implement prescribing authority to pharmacists for uncomplicated cystitis and is proceeding with an amendment to pharmacy practice legislation.
The amendment would add a new subsection, 118(5), to the Pharmaceutical Regulation permitting pharmacists who have completed a training program approved by Council to prescribe a drug specified to treat uncomplicated cystitis in a product monograph authorized by Health Canada.
Please review the draft amendment and further information found on the CPhM website News Page and provide your feedback by email to feedback@cphm.ca by July 9th, 2021.
“Pause Before you Post: Social Media Awareness” Module
The College of Pharmacists of Manitoba has collaborated with seven other regulators from the Manitoba Alliance of Health Regulatory Colleges (MAHRC) to develop an educational professional development (PD) module on social media and professionalism. The module is titled “Pause Before You Post: Social Media Awareness” and is available on the registrant homepage for all pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to complete. It is the first annual PD module that pharmacists and technicians will need to complete for license renewal.
All pharmacy technicians must complete it before May 31, 2021 to be eligible for the 2022 listing renewal. All pharmacists are required to complete this module before October 31, 2021. If you completed the module last year and retained your statement of participation as proof of completion, you do not need to complete the module again.
The module has been accredited by the College for up to 1.50 CEU. To access the module, please log into your Registrant Portal from the CPhM website. If you have questions, please contact the College at info@cphm.ca.