AIMS Program
Only aggregate and de-identified data collected through the program will be reported publicly. Data reports from the years 2020 to 2024 are available.
Starting in 2027, data reported by Ontario pharmacies in their incident management platforms will be uploaded to ISMP’s National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies. This data will be used nationally to help identify widespread risks and trends and enable more effective coordinated interventions. It will also support consistency in safety practices, policy development, and shared learning across jurisdictions, ultimately improving patient safety across the country.
As of January 1, 2027, registered pharmacy staff (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) must have a unique login at their primary place of practice. Occasional staff, such as relief pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, would not be required to have individual logins. Unregulated staff, such as pharmacy assistants, are not required to have access; however, access may be granted at the discretion of the Designated Manager when appropriate.
No information that could identify a patient is submitted from a pharmacy’s incident management platform to the National Incident Data Repository (NIDR). Only the patient’s age range and gender will be shared. It is the responsibility of the pharmacy to ensure that there is no identifiable information provided in any free text fields.
As health information custodians, pharmacies are accountable for taking reasonable steps to protect personal health information and keep it secure.
No. The College only has access to aggregate data provided through the National Incident Data Repository. However, pharmacy staff may be asked to provide proof (after January 1, 2027) that they have an incident management platform in place that meets the College’s criteria and that it is being used in alignment with the AIMS Program requirements.
To fulfill the requirements of the AIMS Program, pharmacies must have access to an incident management platform that supports continuous quality improvement by January 1, 2027. It must meet the Incident Management Platform Criteria set out by the College.
If a potential error is caught outside of the established processes and procedures at the pharmacy but before the prescription reaches the patient, it should be recorded as a near miss. Established processes and procedures could include the technical and therapeutic signoffs and/or any other regular process in place to catch errors such as input or DIN errors.
Regardless of when a near miss is caught, if it is noted that similar errors are re-occurring on a frequent basis, this may indicate that the processes and procedures implemented into the workflow are not effective and should be reviewed.
The extent to which near misses are recorded will be a professional judgment decision of the Designated Manager in consideration of the nature of the near miss, its implication for patient safety, and the extent to which it is recurring.
If a medication incident occurs, it is the College’s expectation that the pharmacy staff act promptly to provide appropriate support for the patient. They must record the incident and activate the quality improvement process. This includes documenting what happened, analyzing the incident to determine contributing factors, working to identify how it can be prevented from recurring, and taking the necessary steps to accomplish that goal by applying and sharing quality improvement strategies with their teams.
The same process must also be followed for near misses, which provide valuable insight into areas of risk, and may indicate where systems can be improved to prevent harm.
All registered pharmacy professionals must meet the requirements of the supplemental Standard of Practice.
All community pharmacies are required to meet the requirements of the AIMS Program.
In accordance with the Standards of Operation, hospitals must support pharmacy professionals in meeting the requirements of the supplemental Standard of Practice by reporting incidents involving medications to the incident management system.
The goal of the Assurance and Improvement in Medication Safety (AIMS) Program is to reduce the risk of patient harm caused by medication incidents in, or involving, Ontario pharmacies.
The program sets out a mandatory standard for medication safety to enable all pharmacies to use a consistent approach to reporting, documenting, analyzing and sharing learnings related to medication incidents. It supports a safety culture that enables continuous quality improvement at an individual pharmacy level and system wide.
Starting in 2027, information collected through the incident management platform and provided to the National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies (NIDR) will also help to identify trends and develop recommendations for pharmacy professionals across the country.