Frequently Asked Questions

The College is implementing the Practice Review Program in order to enhance the quality of pharmacy practice by improving compliance through strengthened enforcement. One of the ways that the College can ensure best practices are being followed is to establish and communicate standards and guidelines to pharmacy professionals and review their individual performance in a pharmacy setting. By reviewing real practice in real time, the College is helping to maintain and elevate public confidence in the profession.

The Practice Review Program will have two components: the Pharmacy Review and the Pharmacy Professionals Review. The Pharmacy Review component will be a familiar process, as it mirrors the College’s current pharmacy inspection process. For the Pharmacy Professionals Review, a College compliance officer will observe and assess individual pharmacy professionals in four key areas of practice. Compliance officers will ensure that pharmacies meet College standards/guidelines and that pharmacy professionals are appropriately applying their knowledge, skills, and abilities to deliver consistent pharmacy care.

With the new program, pharmacy managers and pharmacy professionals will receive advance notice of a Practice Review and will know what will be reviewed. Pharmacy managers and professionals will also receive their results once the review is completed.

The College understands that at certain times of the month or year it may be inconvenient to have compliance officers in pharmacies for an extended period of time. The College will do its best to work with the pharmacy manager to determine the least disruptive times, but it is the pharmacy manager’s responsibility to ensure that most, if not all, staff are present during the Practice Review.

In the event where pharmacy professionals miss the Practice Review, a compliance officer will return to the pharmacy to perform those reviews.

Pharmacy professionals will be reviewed on focus areas that have been deemed the most relevant to professional pharmacy practice in British Columbia. The Board has identified a total of six focus areas they believe to have the greatest impact on public safety. Focus areas differ between pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Each will be reviewed on four focus areas depending on their registration type: 

The focus areas for pharmacists are: 

• Patient Identification Verification
• Profile Check
• Counseling
• Documentation

The focus areas for pharmacy technicians are:

• Patient Identification Verification 
• Product Distribution 
• Collaboration 
• Documentation 

After the review has been completed, the compliance officer will forward the Pharmacy Review results to the pharmacy manager, and individual Pharmacy Professional Review results to each pharmacy professional. These results will be available in real time, accessible online through the confidential and secure eServices portal. The compliance officer will discuss results with the pharmacy manager and individual pharmacy professional for their respective reviews.

Where a compliance officer observes a standard/guideline that is not met, they may assign action item(s). These observations and action items are standardized to ensure consistency and fairness of all practice reviews. Pharmacies and pharmacy professionals will be given deadlines (typically 30 days) to complete these items, and compliance officers will verify whether the action items have been completed by the deadline. After all action items have been completed, the compliance officer will sign-off on the review, and a notice of completion will be issued to the appropriate party.