The College’s Strategic Plan: Quality of Pharmacy Services to Optimize Patient Outcomes Vol 38 No 4 - Winter 2013 | Jan. 10, 2014 Strategic Plan

The College is very proud to introduce our new 3-year strategic plan, “Quality of Pharmacy Services to Optimize Patient Outcomes”. This document lays out the strategic direction for the College over the next three years by establishing goals and objectives that cover a wide range of areas at the College and in practice.

This plan recognizes the importance of the core legislated responsibilities of the College, the rapid pace of change in the profession in the last few years, and the opportunity to advance the profession in a way that aligns with the public interest and for safer, more effective pharmacy care.

This plan is the result of many hours of hard work by members of the College Board and staff, and also of the tremendous number of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and the public, or other stakeholders who took the time to provide their ideas and perspectives to the College. Whether it be in person at Join the Conversation events across the province or by being part of an unprecedented online engagement effort, their participation is valued and reflected in the plan.

Starting this Spring, watch for initiatives in the following areas:

Public Expectations

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be given opportunities to work together in reinforcing best practices, establishing a common understanding on the roles and values of the profession, and building better relationships with patients as a means of achieving a higher level of quality in pharmacy. A consistent understanding on these issues by the profession will lead to public expectations that are more closely aligned to the knowledge, skills, and abilities of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and their role as the medication experts on your healthcare team. An innovative public awareness and engagement campaign will roll out in year 3 to reinforce the common understand forged by the profession and public expectations that are closely aligned with that understanding.

Interdisciplinary Relationships

The relationships that exist between health professionals are the foundation on which many improved health outcome have been based. With this in mind, the College will investigate opportunities in which we can help build understanding about our profession, others, and how they all work together to form part of the larger whole. In addition to other health professions, we will look at the relationships that exist between pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and how we can improve those relationships to enhance the quality of patient care in the pharmacy itself.

Scope of Practice

The College will seek to advance the profession by supporting the integration of pharmacy technicians into community practice, introducing legislation supporting access to patient laboratory data, the Advanced Practice Pharmacist designation, and removing many of the conditions that currently apply to adaptations and to pharmacist injecting authority. Better support for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to practice to their current scope will be provided through additional educational opportunities, enhanced communications, and other strategies introduced over the next three years.

Standards

The College will review and update standards, add a new standard for pharmacy workload, while ensuring alignment with the continuing education requirement for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and new pharmacy site inspection and focused practice review system. The role of the pharmacist and the pharmacy technician as health professionals bound to a code of ethics will be strengthened by prohibitions on ethical grounds of both the sale of tobacco products in premises where a pharmacy is located, and the provision of incentives in exchange for prescription or pharmacy service purchases.

Technology

The College will continue to support the development of the next generation of PharmaNet (PNet) which provides a more comprehensive patient drug history to healthcare professionals. The College will seek to use technology to enhance patient care through the provision of current and comprehensive online drug information sources to assist practitioners in the evaluation therapeutic options.