The Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP) is requesting volunteers from pharmacy teams to test the updated Medication Safety Self-Assessment (MSSA) for community pharmacy.
The MSSA program is designed to help pharmacy teams identify and address vulnerabilities that could lead to medication errors. ISMP’s goal is to provide a practical tool that can be used by any community pharmacy in Canada. This validation test will help assess usability and determine the final content for the program.
To participate, a team of three to six people (e.g., pharmacy manager, staff pharmacist, pharmacy technician, or a pharmacy assistant) would need to be formed to review the assessment document and determine the pharmacy’s current level of implementation for each item. ISMP estimates it will take approximately two hours to complete the assessment. The time to complete the assessment is of interest to ISMP.
The responses are submitted online and then immediately transferred into ISMP Canada’s secure servers. No data resides on the internet. The final step is to complete a supplementary evaluation. The assessment can be done in one or multiple meetings. The results are saved as you complete each section.
ISMP is also looking for five pharmacies to volunteer for follow-up interviews with a research team to discuss the content in more detail (two to three people will participate in individual one-hour interviews).
Not only is this a chance to help community pharmacy in Canada, but there are benefits for the participating pharmacy teams. By completing the assessment your team will
- learn about potential areas of risk in your pharmacy,
- gain ideas for improvements that will enhance safety,
- be able to compare your results to other pharmacies participating in the validation test, and
- be able to contribute to the content of the final version of the assessment.
The validation test period is from November 29, 2021, to January 7, 2022.
ACP encourages pharmacy teams to participate! If you are interested, or you would like more information, email Julie Greenall at ISMP Canada.
