Uptake of Quality-Related Event Standards of Practice by Community Pharmacies

Abstract

Quality-related events (QREs), including medication errors and near misses, are an inevitable part of community pharmacy practice. As QREs have significant implications for patient safety, pharmacy regulatory authorities across North America are increasing their expectations regarding QRE reporting and learning. Such expectations, commonly encapsulated as standards of practice (SoP), vary greatly between pharmacy jurisdictions and may range from the simple requirement to document QREs occurring within the pharmacy, all the way to requiring that quality improvement plans have been put in place. This research explores the uptake of QRE reporting and learning SoP and how this uptake varies based on pharmacy characteristics including location, prescription volume, and pharmacy type. Secondary data analysis of 91 community pharmacy assessments in Nova Scotia, Canada, was used to explore uptake of QRE standards. Overall, pharmacies are performing relatively well on reporting QREs. However, despite initial success with basic QRE reporting, community pharmacy uptake of QRE learning activities is lagging.

Keywords: community pharmacy; medication errors; medication safety; patient safety; pharmacists.