title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Gerald Schwartz School of Business, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada tboyle@stfx.ca.
authors.forename: Todd A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Boyle
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrea C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Bishop
authors.affiliation: Gerald Schwartz School of Business, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Overmars
authors.affiliation: Gerald Schwartz School of Business, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Kaleigh
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: MacMaster
authors.affiliation: Gerald Schwartz School of Business, St Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mahaffey
authors.affiliation: Nova Scotia College of Pharmacists, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
authors.forename: Bev
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zwicker
authors.affiliation: James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Neil J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: MacKinnon
mesh_terms: D003157:Community Pharmacy Services / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D009674:Nova Scotia; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards*
keywords: community pharmacy; medication errors; medication safety; patient safety; pharmacists