As we shared in the January 21, 2025, edition of The Link, ACP has launched a new continuous quality improvement program for Alberta pharmacy teams: CQI+.
CQI+ will position regulated members to provide person-centred care to their patients in an environment that puts a greater emphasis on safety. It will help pharmacy teams proactively identify risks and enable regulated members to respond effectively to practice incidents and close calls.
Additionally, CQI+ will include anonymous, mandatory reporting of practice incidents and close calls to a database of incident reports from community pharmacies across the country, which will facilitate learning and sharing among pharmacy teams.
CQI+ consists of five key activities:
- Prevent,
- Respond,
- Analyze,
- Improve, and
- Communicate.
Critical to the success of each activity above is the presence of a strong safety culture—a genuine commitment to patient safety by the entire pharmacy team. A safety culture allows pharmacy team members to share openly about the quality of care provided to patients and seek to learn from each other. Team members view practice incidents, close calls, and other concerns about patient safety not as personal failures, but as indicators of potential system weakness that need to be addressed to improve safety.
A foundational element of a safety culture is a just culture, in which pharmacy team members are treated fairly and with respect and feel supported when something goes wrong or nearly goes wrong with patient care. Naming, blaming, and shaming are not present in a just culture.
How can you support a just culture in your pharmacy team? You can learn more about just culture from the Health Quality Council of Alberta.
Watch for more about the five key activities of CQI+ in upcoming issues of The Link.
