Program Overview

Continuous Improvement, Reporting, Collaborating, and Learning (CIRCL)

Program Overview

CIRCL is CPBC’s comprehensive medication incident reporting program designed to enhance medication safety through structured reporting, analysis, and learning from medication incidents in pharmacies across British Columbia. The program's name represents its four foundational elements: Continuous Improvement, Reporting, Collaborating, and Learning, which together create a framework for preventing medication incidents and improving patient care. These elements work together to enhance the safety and quality of pharmacy care by enabling pharmacy teams to take proactive approaches to patient safety, facilitating broader learning and sharing when incidents or near misses occur, and strengthening the overall safety culture within pharmacy practice.

The program is based on the Model Standards of Practice for Continuous Quality Improvement and Medication Incident Reporting developed by the National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA), ensuring a consistent approach across Canada while allowing for provincial adaptations.

Medication incidents are a leading cause of injury and avoidable harm in health care systems across the world. In recent years, some of the most common complaints received by CPBC are related to medication dispensing errors by pharmacy professionals. The CIRCL program aims to improve pharmacy services by preventing injuries caused by medication incidents through proactive identification of risks, thorough analysis of incidents, and implementation of effective preventive measures.

Summary of Amendments

• PODSA Bylaws
  • Summary of Amendments
  • Tracked Changes
• HPA Bylaws
  • Summary of Amendments
  • Schedule A - Code of Ethics
  • Schedule F Part 1 - Community Pharmacy Standards of Practice
  • Schedule F Part 2 - Hospital Pharmacy Standards of Practice

Building on Existing Requirements

The CIRCL Program builds upon existing quality management requirements, creating a more structured and consistent approach to medication safety. While pharmacy managers in community and hospital settings have always been required to establish quality management programs that include processes for reporting and documenting errors, the specific requirements have historically been left to the discretion of each pharmacy manager. CIRCL standardizes these procedures by introducing minimum reporting platform criteria, mandatory reporting fields, Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and other requirements, ensuring consistent monitoring and improvement of patient safety.

How will this benefit my pharmacy?

CIRCL provides a structured approach to quality improvement that can help your pharmacy:

• Identify and address risks before incidents occur
• Learn from incidents in a systematic way
• Enhance team collaboration and engagement
• Improve patient trust and satisfaction
• Contribute to a broader understanding of medication safety
• Create a safer practice environment for both patients and staff

How does this program align with other provinces?

British Columbia joins eight other provinces that have already established mandatory medication incident reporting programs, all following the same NAPRA standards that form the foundation of the CIRCL program.

Community and Hospital Pharmacy Requirements

All CIRCL requirements apply to both community and hospital pharmacies in the same way, however, hospital pharmacy managers should note that Section 24(2) to 24(14) and 24(16) of the PODSA Bylaws will apply to hospital pharmacies and hospital pharmacy managers as if they were community pharmacies and community pharmacy managers. This means the requirements for team meetings, safety self-assessments, reporting platforms, and other CIRCL components will be implemented in hospital pharmacies with the same timelines as community pharmacies.