Licensed community pharmacies in Alberta needed to have all the requirements of ACP’s continuous quality improvement program—CQI+—in place by February 1, 2026. These requirements included getting access to an online practice incident management platform, getting access to and completing online safety self-assessments, scheduling and completing quarterly continuous quality improvement (CQI) meetings, and developing site-specific policies and procedures to guide the pharmacy’s CQI program.
As part of CQI+, pharmacy teams are expected to document and anonymously submit details of practice incidents and close calls to the National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies through the pharmacy’s practice incident management platform.
But now that all these requirements are in place, what now? What are pharmacy teams expected to do to make sure that CQI+ is effective at preventing practice incidents and close calls from occurring?
A good place to start is to think of CQI+ as how we should practise, not what steps we complete. It’s not a “check the boxes” mentality. The concepts in CQI+ should be used in day-to-day decision making so that quality and safety are always top of mind.
To help guide pharmacy teams and contribute to success with CQI+, ACP developed several resources, including the CQI+ handout. The handout captures four themes to help pharmacy teams enrich their safety culture through CQI+:
- Person-centred – pharmacy teams should continue to involve patients in the management and analysis of practice incidents and close calls. It means that patients will be given the information they need when an incident occurs and included as meaningful partners in the pharmacy team’s response to the incident.
- Modern – using a practice incident management platform can help your team better analyze practice incidents and close calls and keep track of trends. Use your continuous quality improvement tools on the platform and review Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) Canada Safety Bulletins and other related communications to learn from incidents and close calls analysis from across the country.
- Learning-focused – while submitting reports and completing follow up are both important aspects of quality practice, pharmacy teams should also focus on learning from the data shared through the national database. Focusing on what we can learn from incidents and close calls – rather than who is to blame – not only protects patients, but also creates a just culture that ensures the psychological safety of pharmacy team members.
- Proactive – use the tools like the safety self-assessments to identify gaps in your practice and generate action plans to mitigate those risks.
Remember, continuous quality improvement enhances patient safety. After all, safety is not just what we do, it’s who we are.
This is the first article in our new CQI+ series. Watch for more articles in upcoming editions of The Link!
