The licensee plays an essential leadership role in every pharmacy, personally managing, controlling, and supervising the operation of and practices at a pharmacy. They are responsible for structuring the operations of the pharmacy to benefit patients’ health and to ensure pharmacy teams practise within the legislative framework.
The new Standards for the Operation of Licensed Pharmacies (SOLP) clearly define the roles and responsibilities of the pharmacy’s licensee. A couple of changes that impact the licensee include supervising other regulated health professionals who practise in the pharmacy and incorporating an operations supervisor as part of the pharmacy team.
Other regulated health professionals as part of the pharmacy team
On occasion, it may benefit patients to have other health professionals such as a nurse, dietician, or audiologist as part of the pharmacy team. Section 2.11 of the new SOLP establishes the licensee’s responsibility to protect patients by overseeing the practice of other regulated health professionals who practise in the pharmacy. The licensee must ensure that the regulated health professionals who engage in or supervise a restricted activity are authorized to engage in that restricted activity.
The licensee must also ensure that the nature and limitations of the other regulated health professionals’ roles are documented in the pharmacy’s policies and procedures. The licensee doesn’t supervise the other health professional, but they do need to ensure these individuals work and practise in accordance with the pharmacy’s policies and procedures. These other regulated health professionals must work under the oversight of the licensee and document the care they provide in the pharmacy’s patient care records in a way that the entire pharmacy team can access. The licensee is the custodian of these patient care records, which are maintained and managed in the pharmacy.
Shared premises
In contrast, the SOLP does not permit any regulated health professionals, other than pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, to practise independently from the pharmacy team in or from a licensed pharmacy premises.
Standard 3.4 outlines requirements for shared premises. In a shared premises arrangement, another regulated health professional (e.g., a physician) can have their own separate practice and office adjacent to a pharmacy. In these instances, the pharmacy and the other regulated health professional are not permitted to share resources (e.g., they must have separate phone numbers). The licensee must also ensure that the pharmacy is secure when it is not open, and the prescription department is differentiated from the practice area of the other regulated health professional.
Operations supervisor
The licensee’s role in the pharmacy is demanding. The new SOLP introduces a new way to empower effective leadership with the concept of an operations supervisor (Standard 2.12).
The role of an operations supervisor was added to enable licensees to delegate administrative, managerial, and operational duties to a pharmacy technician or pharmacist. Delegating leadership roles to qualified regulated members will support effective operations and, in turn, will promote quality patient care.
An operations supervisor may, under the direction of the licensee, oversee the operational management of a licensed pharmacy including compliance with the policies and procedures, human resource duties such as hiring and scheduling of pharmacy staff, and training and orientation of pharmacy staff.
While the licensee is still ultimately responsible for meeting the requirements of the standards and the legislative framework, the operations supervisor role will provide support by managing day-to-day operations of the pharmacy.
Effective leadership in the pharmacy
Leadership is one of the tenets of professionalism for all pharmacy technicians, pharmacists, and licensees. The licensee plays a critical leadership role, but all regulated members should strive to be leaders in their workplaces, professions, and communities.
Defining clear parameters for working with other regulated health professionals as members of the pharmacy team, outlining requirements for shared premises, and introducing the role of the operations supervisor are a few changes in the new SOLP that support pharmacy teams’ ability to offer quality patient care.
