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Quality Assurance

Quality assurance activities ensure pharmacy professionals meet standards of practice.

Quality Assurance and the College

There are several layers of pharmacy practice that support safe, patient-centred and progressive practice.

These layers include:

  • Pharmacy practice site environments
  • Rules and standards that govern the practice of pharmacy
  • Competence of pharmacists
  • Continuous improvement to support positive health outcomes for patients

To ensure quality, the College routinely works to develop and assess each of these layers of practice to create the framework for safe, effective pharmacy practice.

The Layers of Practice

Pharmacy Site Requirements

The pharmacy practice site can greatly influence pharmacy professionals’ ability to provide quality care. Adequate space, equipment, lighting, and resources are just a few of the site requirements that enable pharmacy professionals to practice effectively and safely.

Practice Support

Legislation, standards of practice, guidelines, and joint statements of practice that the College developed in collaboration with other health professions help to guide pharmacists in providing quality pharmacy care.

Pharmacists and pharmacy managers assess pharmacy site requirements and practice support through the Pharmacy Quality Assurance Self-Assessment and regular onsite inspection process.

Competence

A female pharmacist helping an older woman.
Maintaining competence within our dynamic healthcare system requires pharmacists to upgrade their knowledge and skills through continuing professional development (CPD). Pharmacists in Manitoba rely on the College Learning Portfolio System to assist them in planning for, participating in, and reflecting on their CPD. The self-assessment component of the learning portfolio assists pharmacists in identifying their learning needs. Our regular on-site inspections provide an additional opportunity for pharmacists to identify learning needs.

Learn more on our Continuing Competency page.

Continuous Quality Improvement

Our Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) initiative involves examining pharmacy processes to identify and learn from inefficiencies and medication incidents to improve patient care and safety. Understanding patient needs and expectations is part of this examination. We cannot overstate the importance of the patient’s role in making decisions about their healthcare.

Safety IQ

Safety Improvement in Quality (Safety IQ) is a standardized continuous quality improvement (CQI) program. Its elements include reporting, analyzing, documenting, and shared learning from medication incidents and near-miss events to improve patient safety.

Learn more

Pharmacy Compounding Standards

Stay informed about the on-going updates to the standards for sterile and non-sterile compounding.

Learn more