ACP was recently contacted by the Tracked Prescription Program (TPP Alberta) regarding concerning trends in forgeries, including a recent spike in forgeries using the names of out-of-province prescribers. Additionally, TPP Alberta flagged a series of forgeries filled by one individual who was able to obtain more than 2,000 pills of two Type 2 TPP medications in a three-month span.
In the case noted above, many of the forgeries identified by TPP Alberta were not reported to ACP. Regulated members are encouraged to report all attempted or successful forgery attempts to ACP, as well as to TPP Alberta if they are for a TPP medication. The sooner you report a forgery attempt to ACP, the sooner we can alert your peers in the pharmacy community via our Forgery Alerts email. This increases the chances that the forgery is caught before the prescription is filled at another pharmacy.
Regulated members are reminded that any controlled substances dispensed for a forged prescription must be reported to Health Canada as lost or stolen drugs within 10 calendar days of discovery, and forgery attempts should also be reported to law enforcement.
Drug misuse and diversion are ongoing problems and regulated members have an obligation under Standard 8.1 of the Standards of Practice for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians (SPPPT) to ensure the authenticity, completeness, and currency of prescriptions prior to dispensing. ACP requires pharmacists to review Netcare data as part of their determination of a medication’s appropriateness. This is especially important with drugs that are subject to diversion and misuse. Quantities and timeframes that could prove dangerous to a patient or that indicate possible diversion or misuse should be identified.
In order to support pharmacy teams review forgery data more easily, the data from the Forgery Alerts emails (that was previously made available as spreadsheets) has been incorporated into a searchable online database available on the forgeries webpage.
