The goals and objectives of the Pharmaceutical Information Program were developed in consultation with medical practioners and pharmacists.
The Pharmaceutical Information Program strives:
To provide the best patient care by:
- Reducing drug/drug and drug/allergy interactions
- Reducing duplicate therapy
- Reducing transcription errors
- Increasing accuracy of patient drug profile facilitating the discontinuation of drugs not required
- Supporting clinical decision making in selection of drug therapy; and
- Providing information needed to minimize drug abuse, diversion and misuse.
To improve continuity of care by:
- Facilitating the sharing of patient information across the continuum of care
- Improving the accuracy and timeliness of drug dispensing history information across all points of care; and
- Facilitating new models for delivering care such as primary health care and chronic disease management, etc.
To maintain patient confidentiality by:
- Ensuring appropriate electronic security is used;
- Adhering to privacy laws and guidelines;
- Providing patients with their drug profiles on demand; and
- Supporting patient-requested masking of prescription information.
To support appropriate drug therapy while minimizing costs by:
- Providing information on drugs covered by the drug plan;
- Providing prescribing clinicians with current information on best choice alternatives;
- Providing access to current drug information;
- Supporting compliance monitoring by providing real-time prescribing history; and
- Reducing physician visits and hospitalization due to adverse drug reactions.
To improve the operations and professional capabilities of health providers by:
- Providing real time access to patient-specific alerts and comprehensive drug information at the time of prescribing and dispensing;
- Enhancing the ability of providers to counsel patients about taking medications as prescribed and/or following treatment plans; and
- Improved management of drug therapy for patients under the care of multiple providers.
