The Alberta College of Pharmacy (ACP) makes sure pharmacies in Alberta provide safe, high-quality care. ACP’s job is to protect the public by setting rules that pharmacy teams must follow.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians want to give people the care they expect, but mistakes can happen. ACP helps pharmacy staff prevent mistakes and address them when they do happen.
ACP also encourages people to talk openly about mistakes to make care safer. Pharmacy teams must learn from mistakes and work to improve the safety of their pharmacy. Patients who experience a mistake often say they are thankful when their pharmacy team is honest and explains what went wrong. They like to hear what will be done so it never happens to another patient.
When staff are more open to talk about safety concerns, it reinforces a strong safety culture. ACP’s CQI+ program helps build this kind of culture in Alberta pharmacies.
Click on each section below to learn more.
Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is a step-by-step way for pharmacy teams to check their work and improve how care is given. Pharmacy teams want their patients to feel safe and well cared for, and to make sure this happens they need to regularly review how they do things and find ways to reduce mistakes.
CQI does not just fix problems when they happen — it helps teams spot and fix issues before they might cause harm.
CQI+ is a program created by ACP that gives pharmacies a clear plan for how to include CQI in what they do every day. CQI+ is about building a safety culture that includes the values, ways of thinking, and actions that put patient and staff safety first. ACP wants everyone to feel that they can talk about concerns and learn from mistakes. A strong safety culture is at the heart of the five key activities of CQI+.
Prevent – Pharmacy teams work hard to stop mistakes before they happen.
Respond – If a mistake does happen, pharmacy teams act quickly to help their patients and report what happened.
Analyze – Pharmacy teams look closely at how and why mistakes happened.
Improve – Pharmacy teams learn from what went wrong and make changes to help keep pharmacies safer.
Communicate – Pharmacy team talks openly about safety. They work with doctors, nurses, patients, caregivers, and others so everyone can learn and help make things safer together.
The arrows in the picture above show a process that is always moving – this is the continuous part of CQI+. This program helps your pharmacy team aim to always make the pharmacy better and safer!
You can learn more about CQI+ here.
The CQI+ program was created with help from patients and caregivers who have been affected by medication mistakes. The CQI+ Patient Working Group includes three members of the public, one of whom has led the group with ACP’s Quality Improvement Project Lead.
This group has helped ACP understand how pharmacy teams can talk with their patients about safety in a clear and helpful way. The group members have shared their experiences and ideas to make sure CQI+ focuses on people and puts the safety of people first. They have also helped decide how best to share the details of CQI+ with the public, and what to expect from their pharmacy.
You can learn more about the CQI+ Patient Working Group by reading this article in ACP’s online magazine, Full Scale.
Your health and safety are the most important. If you think that you may be at risk of harm, or if you are not sure, see a doctor right away or ask your pharmacist for advice.
If you think a mistake was made by the pharmacy, you should talk with your pharmacist or pharmacy technician to let them know what happened. You may also wish to talk to the pharmacy licensee (they may be called the pharmacy manager). Every pharmacy has a licensee who is a pharmacist, and who manages everything that happens in the pharmacy. This person will address your concern and update you on any actions taken.
Your pharmacy team will also study what has happened and report it right away.
Each time a mistake is made, pharmacy teams will record what happened using a computer program and try to figure out why. Pharmacy teams use what they learn to help them make changes that can prevent the same mistake from happening again.
When pharmacies make reports, it does not mean they are unsafe. In fact, pharmacies that report errors show that they care about the safety of their patients.
Did you know that you can also report mistakes? The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada) collects reports from the public at mederror.ca.
In Alberta, pharmacies will provide a copy of their reports to ISMP Canada, who collect reports from all across the country. These reports do not contain any personal information of patients. The pharmacies involved are also not named. ISMP looks at all the reports to see how often the same issues or mistakes are reported and to figure out how to prevent them from happening again. In this way, more people can learn from what happened.
Pharmacies have to keep detailed records of mistakes for their files. ACP does not get a copy of any of these reports, and any reports which pharmacies send to ISMP Canada do not name any pharmacy or pharmacy team member. Pharmacies submit reports because they are focusing on patient safety, and ACP wants to make sure pharmacy teams feel safe to report mistakes. Together, everyone can focus on learning from mistakes to prevent future harm.
Please see ACP’s Complaints page to learn more about how to share concerns with ACP.