Decisions of the Discipline Committee between April and June 2018. Magdy Salama (OCP #209088) Following three separate hearings, held on September 23 and 24, 2015, a Panel of the Discipline Committee made findings of professional misconduct against Mr. Magdy Salama: While engaged in the practice of pharmacy as director, shareholder, Designated Manager and/or dispensing pharmacist at Finch Medical Pharmacy in Toronto; While engaged in the practice of pharmacy as director, shareholder, Designated Manager and/or dispensing…
When the Cannabis Act comes into force in October 2018, it will for the first time in Canada make access to and use of recreational cannabis legal. Yet while the country’s pharmacy regulatory bodies have not yet received any indication that the framework for accessing cannabis for medical purposes will be re-evaluated, there remains a clear need to support pharmacy professionals who can and should play an important role in promoting quality and safe patient…
The Hamilton Health Sciences Experience by Gwen Liu, R.Ph, B.Sc.Phm, PharmD, ACPR The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) standards highlight the importance of a quality assurance program when performing sterile compounding tasks. The intent of such a program is to generate information demonstrating that the compounding pharmacy’s personnel, facilities and equipment (i.e. hoods) attain and maintain the conditions required for contamination-free compounding of sterile preparations. A key component of the quality assurance program…
By Ian Stewart R.Ph, B.Sc.Phm. Failure to accurately process information is a human factor which often results in the occurrence of medication errors. Confirmation bias is often a contributing factor. Confirmation bias is the tendency of people to look for and interpret information in a way that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses and to ignore or not look for information which is contradictory. We therefore tend to "see" what is in our memory or what…
By: Heather Kidston,B.Sc, R.Ph, FSVHP In the spring edition of Pharmacy Connection, some differences in veterinary and human marketed drugs were presented to raise awareness of the challenges they may present in a retail pharmacy setting. The purpose of this article is to present a few real-life pharmacy situations that highlight veterinary pharmacology and toxicology. Consider how the following differences would affect drug dosing: Dogs cannot acetylate. What drugs would this affect? Cats cannot glucuronidate.…
Adrian Boucher, R.Ph, B.Sc, PharmD 1,2Larry Sheng, B.Sc, PharmD Student2,3Certina Ho, R.Ph, B.Sc.Phm, MISt, M.Ed, PhD 1,2,3 1 Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto2 Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada3 School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo Given the complexity of the pharmacy workflow, medication incidents are an inevitable part of practice. In fact, it is estimated that as many as seven million medication incidents could occur in Canadian community pharmacies in a year.1…
Close-Up on Complaints explores incidents reported to the College that have occurred in the provision of patient care and which present learning opportunities. Ideally, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be able to identify areas of potential concern within their own practice, and plan and implement measures to help avoid similar incidents from occurring in the future. Summary of the Incident A patient visited his community pharmacy to pick up his prescription refills for lorazepam and…
In the Spring 2017 issue of Pharmacy Connection we shared with readers information about the role of pharmacy professionals in antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). This remains an important topic for all pharmacy professionals, in any practice environment, and is becoming increasingly so for those in community practice settings. Pharmacy Connection welcomes contributors from the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program team at the Sinai Health System and University Health Network in Toronto to share their insights and perspectives with…
In this four part series, the College will focus on the four domains of the pharmacist practice assessment, highlighting trends that we are seeing in practice. Part 1 focuses on the patient assessment domain. Patient Assessments Are Critical for Patient Health For every prescription that is dispensed, pharmacists must ask whether the prescription is therapeutically appropriate. This includes gathering relevant information through dialogue with the patient, and creating, adjusting or reviewing the patient profile. Note…
Decisions of the Discipline Committee between January and April 2018. Manish Patel (OCP #605365) After a hearing held on December 9 and 10, 2015, and January 12, 13, and 19, 2016, a Panel of the Discipline Committee made findings of professional misconduct against Mr. Patel in a decision dated December 19, 2016, with respect to the following incidents: READ MORE That he prepared false documents and/or submitted false claims to the Ontario Drug Benefit Plan…
