The Ministry of Health is introducing a new approach to pharmaceutical care management with the implementation of Provincial Prescription Management (PPM). PPM is a forward-looking solution for prescription management and represents a major shift in how we think about drug therapy management today. At its core, PPM is about health information sharing and puts interdisciplinary care at the forefront.
New digital processes, including EMR integration with PharmaNet, will bring care practitioners into one system for improved clinical care in real time. PPM enables care providers to electronically create prescriptions, view and adjust all prescriptions for a patient in the community setting and reconcile PharmaNet prescriptions with their local EMR. Prescribers will have the ability to document clinical information relevant to drug therapy including adverse drug events, provision of samples and immunizations, and notes relating to prescriptions and discontinuations.
All members of a patient’s care team will have visibility into a patient’s full active medication list, including prescriptions that have been created, adapted or discontinued by other care providers. In addition, patients will have the ability to fill prescriptions at any pharmacy in the province throughout the duration of the prescription and its refills. These changes will simplify medication reconciliation, improve clinical decision-making and patient access to drug therapy. The benefits are paramount for high risk and vulnerable patient populations, including patients with many medications, patients with substance and mental health conditions and patients with many different care providers.
PPM has far reaching impacts for all stakeholders and will permit end-to-end management of prescriptions in real time. Through PPM, the Ministry of Health is delivering on its commitment to build integrated and sustainable health care. This new approach for pharmaceutical care management will better connect patients and providers in their communities as we work together to improve patient safety and outcomes.
The initial launch of PPM will include the integration of community clinical end user systems (EMRs, pharmacy systems) and in a later phase, integration with health authority clinical information systems to support transitions in care between acute and community.
Given the scope of this project, a coordinated, collaborative effort between the Ministry and its stakeholders is needed for the clinical implementation and adoption of PPM. Over the past several months, the PPM technical team has been working with software vendors to ensure their products meet new Ministry of Health standards. In parallel, the project team is engaging stakeholder groups to best understand how to support end users’ transition to electronic management of prescriptions.
For more information contact:
Taryn Drlik, Clinical Lead PharmaNet
Taryn.Drlik@gov.bc.ca
Christina Kapur, Change Management Lead
Christina.Kapur@gov.bc.ca