What’s Public (and what’s not) About Pharmacies

The College provides information about pharmacies to help patients make informed healthcare decisions. Our mandate is to protect the public, and we believe that the public should have information to help them decide who and where they want to seek pharmacy care and services from.

What type of pharmacies can I find on Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional?

Every pharmacy operating in Ontario must be licensed by the Ontario College of Pharmacists. The College posts information about all current community pharmacies, remote dispensing locations, drug preparation premises and hospital pharmacies. Each pharmacy has its own profile that stays on Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional until it closes, is sold to a new owner, or moves to a new location. We keep the profiles of pharmacies that have been closed, sold or relocated for three years.

How up-to-date is the information?

We collect information about pharmacies when they first apply to open. That information is updated regularly when a pharmacy’s owner or designated manager completes its annual accreditation renewal. Information about pharmacy assessments is updated shortly after an assessment or on completion of the Accreditation Committee’s review, if applicable.

What information is public?

Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional contains a wide variety of information about pharmacies. Here’s a summary of what you’ll find on each tab:

General

  • Name of the pharmacy
  • Address, phone and fax numbers
  • Initial opening date
  • Closing date if the pharmacy is closed, sold or relocated
  • Operating status, one of the following, Visit the Glossary of Terms for definitions of each operating status
    • Entitled to operate (no conditions)
    • Entitled to operate (with conditions)
    • Not entitled to operate — this status is accompanied by a notation of why (sold, relocated, closed)
  • OCP Accreditation number
  • Owner/Corporation that owns the pharmacy
    • A link on the corporation name (unless the pharmacy has been sold, relocated or closed) will take you to a profile for the corporation, including the names of any directors of the corporation who are registrants of the College (e.g. pharmacists or pharmacy technicians) and any other pharmacies owned by that corporation.

Pharmacy Staff

  • A list of all staff who have declared that they work at the pharmacy
  • The position that each staff holds at the pharmacy (pharmacist, pharmacy technician, student, intern, Designated Manager)
  • Concern IconIf the College has or had concerns about any of the staff working at the pharmacy, a yellow circle with an exclamation mark inside will appear beside their name

Assessment Results

  • Community pharmacies, RDLs and DPPs: Date reason and outcome of all assessments since July 1, 2013.
  • Hospital pharmacies: Date, reason and outcome of all assessments since August 1, 2016.
  • Visit the assessment process page to learn about the types and potential outcomes of assessments for each pharmacy

Concerns
Information on the concerns tab is presented in alphabetical order by type, with the latest information first. If the College has or had a concern about a pharmacy, a yellow circle with an exclamation mark inside will appear on their Concerns tab. Concern IconUse the Glossary of Terms for more details.

Possible concerns include:

  • Conditions to Operate: If there are concerns about a pharmacy or pharmacy professional, the College may impose conditions on the pharmacy’s right to operate. These will be posted on Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional. The College also posts a history of a pharmacy’s previous conditions to operate, with a status for each that notes whether it has been completed. Occasionally, a pharmacy will enter into an undertaking with the College; these are also listed under Conditions to Operate. Use the Glossary of Terms for definitions of the terms under Conditions to Operate.
  • Discipline: Allegations of proprietary misconduct are linked to both the pharmacy and the Designated Manager or director who was held responsible for the misconduct. If a pharmacy’s manager or director had interactions with the College’s Discipline Committee as a result of allegations or a finding of proprietary misconduct, that information is available on the Concerns tab. The information includes dates of the referral, hearing and decision, a link to the designated manager/director’s profile, and a summary of the hearing. This applies to Discipline matters after November 1, 2006. Use the Glossary of Terms for definitions of the terms under Discipline.
What information is not public?

While we do share a lot of information about pharmacies, not everything is available on Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional. We believe that the information we provide should be relevant, enhance public confidence, and be balanced with fairness and respect for privacy. The following information is not included on Find a Pharmacy or Pharmacy Professional.

  • Email address
  • Hours of operation
  • Names of directors of the pharmacy if they are not registrants of the College
  • Fees or business practices specific to the pharmacy
  • Whether the pharmacy dispenses methadone or does sterile compounding, provides injections or any other specialty services
  • The fact of an investigation at the pharmacy
  • Specific deficiencies identified during an assessment. Learn about pharmacy assessments and the information we post after an assessment.
  • As well, under the provisions in the Health Professions Procedural Code, the Registrar may refuse to disclose or post information if he/she has reasonable grounds to believe that:
    • Disclosing the information may jeopardize the safety of an individual
    • The information is obsolete and no longer relevant
Support

For support please email communications@ocpinfo.com