Deputy Registrar Suzanne Solven
Leaving College in July 2016
Suzanne Solven, Deputy Registrar, will be leaving the College effective July 5, 2016.
During her 9-year tenure, Suzanne made many significant contributions to the College. In addition to fulfilling her role as Deputy Registrar, Suzanne also led various program areas as the College evolved, including pharmacy inspections, complaints resolution, and legislation, discipline and investigations. She also acted as College Registrar prior to Bob Nakagawa joining the College in 2012.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Suzanne for many years, both at the College and at the Ministry of Health,” said Registrar Bob Nakagawa. “She has been a cornerstone at the College, and we wish her all the best.”
One of Suzanne’s first major accomplishments at the College was contributing to the transition to the Health Professions Act in 2009. She also played a key role in the government submission to expand the pharmacist’s scope of practice to include prescription adaptations. Suzanne has also been integral in the College’s work on methadone maintenance treatment. She invested her time in building stakeholder relationships with many groups, including patient advocacy groups to ensure their perspectives were incorporated into the initiative. She led the development of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Action Plan and oversaw more than 20 focused inspections and 2 pharmacy suspensions related to methadone.
Further to her work on methadone, Suzanne has been very involved in the College’s discipline cases. As the staff resource on the Inquiry and Discipline Committees, she supported the committees to take action in the interest of public safety.
Under Suzanne’s leadership, the College introduced new security requirements for community pharmacies. Suzanne was in constant contact with the College’s Robbery Prevention Working Group, as well as the Vancouver Police Department throughout the development of the requirements to ensure their success. Prior to implementing these security measures, pharmacy robberies were rampant; there were 39 in 2014 and 40 from January to September 2015. Since introducing time-delay safes in community pharmacies, the College has seen a drastic reduction – only 5 pharmacy robberies have been reported. Suzanne also took on the task of getting recent changes to the Pharmacy Operations and Drug Scheduling Act that allow the College to know the identities of current and potential pharmacy owners.
Most recently, Suzanne led the College’s preparedness on medical assistance in dying. She took a leadership role provincially along with Health Authorities, the Ministry of Health and other regulatory Colleges to ensure that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians clearly understood the College’s expectations throughout the quickly changing legal landscape.
Suzanne values mentorship, and invested her time with College staff and pharmacy students. She led by example, and approached her work with tact and grace under pressure.
Suzanne has accepted a position with Pacific Blue Cross. We thank her for her dedication to the College.