After a practice incident or close call is documented in the practice incident management platform, it must be transmitted anonymously to ISMP Canada’s National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies (NIDR) to contribute to broader analysis of safety trends in pharmacy care. It is mandatory that the practice incident management platform facilitate this process automatically.
The NIDR is a component of the Canadian Medication Incident Reporting and Prevention System (CMIRPS), a collaborative pan-Canadian program designed to reduce and prevent harmful medication incidents.
The NIDR creates a cohesive, information-sharing system that facilitates the understanding of medication incidents and close calls and the development of robust strategies to prevent patient harm.
Information from the NIDR, in addition to information from healthcare facility, practitioner, and consumer reporting programs of CMIRPS, is analyzed and targeted recommendations are shared with all healthcare professionals through Safety Bulletins and other quality improvement education opportunities. Safety Bulletins offer medication system improvement strategies for improving patient safety on a wide variety of practices, processes, and medications. The bulletins will also share alerts and warnings specific to the Canadian marketplace.
ISMP Canada also produces publications specific to the NIDR, including National Snapshots, provincial Safety Briefs, and Medication Safety Self-Assessment Data Spotlights.
Regardless of the practice incident management platform selected, pharmacies are required to establish a Data Sharing Agreement with ISMP Canada to facilitate submission of anonymous reports to the NIDR.
Practice incident and close call information is submitted to the NIDR directly from the practice incident management platform. The NIDR does not collect details identifying the pharmacy, any involved pharmacy team members, or any involved patients. Reports submitted to the NIDR are anonymous and held by an independent third party, ISMP Canada.
While ACP does not have access to individual practice incident and close call reports submitted to the NIDR, ACP may be provided with de-identified, anonymous, aggregate data analyses intended to identify opportunities to improve patient safety and support pharmacy team members in Alberta.