AIMS (Assurance and Improvement in Medication Safety)

The program enables practitioners to learn from medication incidents, and better understand why they happen as well as how they can be prevented. Utilizing both a preventative approach through proactive reviews of work processes to identify areas of risk, and retrospective reviews of specific medication incidents, pharmacy professionals are able to identify learnings that help prevent incidents and enhance patient safety.

AIMS Data:

The College has developed an interactive tool that allows pharmacy teams and other stakeholders to view aggregate, anonymous medication safety data available through the AIMS Program.

AIMS Safety Insights Group (SIG)

The AIMS Safety Insights Group (SIG) is responsible for providing guidance and actionable recommendations for pharmacy professionals and other stakeholders that will be shared through regular reports based on analysis of AIMS data. Further information and materials from the AIMS SIG can be found here.

AIMS Training and Resources:

• Learning Modules

Community pharmacy staff must complete the six e-learning modules which introduce the AIMS Program and provide information on how to use the AIMS Pharmapod platform as well as the expectations for pharmacy professionals. The modules take less than one hour to complete. Effective implementation of the AIMS Program into a pharmacy requires all pharmacy staff to have a full understanding of the program and how to use the tools available on the platform. After completing each module, registrants can print a certificate of completion to confirm they have reviewed the content. This certificate of completion may be kept for your own records and does not need to be submitted to the College.

• Pharmacy Safety Self-Assessment User Guide Overview and guide for completion of the Pharmacy Safety Self-Assessment (PSSA), which community pharmacies were required to complete for the first time by December 31, 2021.

The AIMS Program:

• Requires shared accountability between pharmacies and pharmacy professionals, for the systems they design, how they support staff, and how they manage medication incidents;
• Emphasizes learning and accountability, through a safety culture where individuals are comfortable bringing forward medication incidents without fear of punitive outcomes; and
• Enables sharing of lessons learned from medication incidents through reporting, which results in ongoing process improvements to minimize errors and maximize health outcomes.

Contact Information