Consultation Notice
The issue of opioid abuse and overdose is an urgent matter that has been magnified during the COVID-19 pandemic in Manitoba. In response, the Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living has requested Council consider a Regulation amendment that will provide greater public access to naloxone products used in the treatment of opioid overdose.
The College seeks registrant consultation on the proposed amendments to the Pharmaceutical Regulation, Section 84. Please direct all comments to feedback@cphm.ca
Safety IQ Safety Cycle – Share
Safety expert James Reason argued that “the most detrimental error is failing to learn from an error.” The four elements of Safety IQ (report, analyze, share, and document) ensure that pharmacy professionals learn from medication incidents and near-miss events to prevent recurrence. When health-care professionals share what they learn from incidents within teams and across disciplines, safety improvements are passed along to all Canadians. Through Safety IQ, pharmacy teams will share valuable learnings to improve patient outcomes on team, provincial, and national levels.
Medication Incidents and Near-Miss Event Learning is Shared within the Pharmacy Team
Medication incidents and near-miss events should be shared with all pharmacy staff to ensure team members have a chance to contribute to building and maintaining improvement plans.
Informal staff huddles are an effective way to promptly communicate recent medication incidents or near-miss events and solicit ideas and develop action plans to prevent recurrence.
Pharmacies are also required to conduct at least one formal continuous quality improvement (CQI) meeting per year where most staff are present. CQI meetings give pharmacy teams the opportunity to:
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- analyze and discuss medication incidents and near-miss events and brainstorm improvement plans;
- discuss the effectiveness of practice changes that have been implemented from medication incidents and the pharmacy’s Safety Self-Assessment; and
- review data summary reports of the pharmacy’s incidents and near misses to consider trends and potential gaps and develop action plans.
Open discussion of medication incidents and near-miss events and improvement plans ensure that your team develops a strong culture focussed on patient safety.
Medication Incident and Near-Miss Event Learning is Shared Provincially and Nationally
- Manitoba community pharmacies will contribute to de-identified medication incident and near-miss event data to the National Incident Data Repository (NIDR). Medication safety experts at ISMP Canada analyze aggregate data to identify incident and near-miss event trends in community pharmacies across Canada and share evidence-based resources to help prevent medication incidents. CQI meetings are also an opportunity to share and discuss national shared learning distributed by ISMP Canada and how the pharmacy can use the information to improve safety for their patients.
ISMP Canada will also share de-identified summary reports with the College to support the development of targeted resources to support patient and medication safety in Manitoba pharmacies.
Sharing information and talking openly about medication incidents and near-miss events in your pharmacy generates solutions and demonstrates commitment to patient safety and safety culture. Consistent reporting of medication incidents and near-miss events contributes to professional transparency and improvement in pharmacies across Canada.
Staff Update
The College of Pharmacists of Manitoba welcomes Ms. Rachel Carlson, joining the staff in the role of Communication Specialist.
Rachel has an extensive background in communication strategies for not-for-profits and brings experience from a regulatory and patient safety perspective, having provided contract service to regulators and patient safety organizations in the past, including CPhM.
Recently, Rachel made significant contributions to the Safety IQ education initiative and recent website launch while working on a term contract for CPhM. She looks forward to continuing her involvement with these and other projects, publications, and events.
Changes to Record and Registry Check Submission Process
Please be advised that the administrative process for record and registry checks is being streamlined in order to align each registrant’s expiry for all three checks to one practice year.
Beginning in January 2021:
All three documents will be required at the same time:
- Criminal Record Check, including a Vulnerable Sector Search
- Adult Abuse Registry Check
- Child Abuse Registry Check
- Expiry dates will not be tracked individually, by month. Instead, all record and registry check expiry dates will be aligned to 31st July in any particular calendar year
- Pharmacists will be notified by email, in January, when required to refresh submissions of the three checks in that year
- Reminder emails will be sent monthly, until you meet your obligation to submit all three checks
- Financial penalties will no longer be levied, specific to each overdue record or registry check. However, a registrant who fails to meet their obligation to submit all three checks by the deadline will be prohibited from renewing a practice licence for the coming year until all checks are submitted. If you delay, you may incur late penalties on licence renewal.
Each pharmacist’s profile will be updated by the end of the 2020 Practice Year to reflect the new process and expiry dates. You may notice changes to your profile. Thank you for your patience and cooperation as these changes are made.
Emails will be sent in January 2021, directly to those registrants who must refresh their record and registry checks in 2021 and will set out the details as to how you fulfill your obligations to submit in a timely fashion without penalty.
Survey Studies Impacts of COVID-19 on Health Care Workers
Statistics Canada invites anyone employed in a health care setting to participate in a short questionnaire on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers, focusing on access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and infection prevention and control (IPC) measures in the workplace. The information collected will help inform the delivery of health care services and better understand what health care workers need in terms of equipment, training, and support.
This crowdsourcing initiative is a collaboration between Statistics Canada, Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Please note, this survey is conducted under the authority of the Statistics Act, which ensures that the information you provide will be kept confidential and used only for statistical and research purposes.
To participate in the survey, please select the following link: https://www.statcan.gc.ca/COVID-questionnaire-IPC.
For more information about the survey, please visit https://www.statcan.gc.ca/COVID-IPC.
REMINDER: Complete PD Log
Pharmacists are reminded of the deadline to complete your Professional Development Log: Monday, November 30, 2020.
Be sure to update the PD log in your online profile with activities completed from November 1, 2019, to October 31, 2020. Please take note of the year in which you log the activity to ensure it is correct.