Pharmaceutical Information Program (PIP) Quality Improvement Program (QIP)
Frequently Asked Questions
General:
1. What is the Pharmaceutical Information Program (PIP) Quality Improvement Program (QIP)?
• PIP QIP was co-launched in January 2014 by the Drug Plan and Extended Benefits Branch
(DPEBB) and eHealth Saskatchewan (eHS). It is an initiative focusing on the continuous
improvement of the PIP with two focus areas – data quality and system effective use
(i.e. using the PIP effectively and efficiently).
• PIP QIP is also aligned with the Community Pharmacists Advancing Safety in
Saskatchewan (COMPASS) continuous quality assurance pilot project. The COMPASS
pilot project is a joint effort between the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP)
Canada and the Saskatchewan College of Pharmacists (SCP) and is focused on
medication safety in community pharmacies.
2. What areas for data quality improvements exist today?
• Old and duplicate prescriptions that need to be discontinued
• Prescriptions with an inappropriate status of HOLD
• Prescriptions with a status of PENDING instead of FILLED
• Failed Transactions (i.e. missing information from the PIP)
• Further details on each improvement area can be found in the PIP QIP Information
Sheet.
3. Who is the contact for more information about PIP QIP?
• Visit the PIP QIP website http://www.ehealthsask.ca/services/pip/Pages/PIPQIP.aspx or
contact the eHealth Service Desk ServiceDesk@ehealthsask.ca or phone
1-888-316-7446.
4. Who is the contact for more information about COMPASS?
• Contact the Saskatchewan College of Pharmacists info@saskpharm.ca or phone
1-306-584-2292
5. What is the PIP GUI?
• GUI stands for “Graphical User Interface” and is just another name for the PIP
application/website
6. When will all Saskatchewan (SK) pharmacies be PIP CeRx integrated?
• The Drug Plan and Extended Benefits Branch (Ministry of Health) has sent out a
communication indicating that all Saskatchewan pharmacies MUST be integrated by
March 31, 2016
7. Where can more information be found on how to use an integrated PPMS?
• Information can be found by accessing the current vendor training manual.
• Contact the pharmacy vendor to obtain the latest manual.
Prescription Transfers:
8. What is the correct process to follow when performing a prescription transfer from another
Saskatchewan pharmacy within an integrated PPMS?
• See ‘Transfer in Prescriptions Correctly’ section of the PIP QIP Information Sheet
9. What is the correct process to follow when transferring a prescription to an out-of-province or
non-integrated pharmacy?
• See ‘Transfer in Prescriptions Correctly’ section of the PIP QIP Information Sheet
Discontinuing Prescriptions
10. Why is it important to discontinue previous prescriptions when dispensing a new prescription
for the same drug and strength?
• Discontinuing previous prescriptions is crucial to keep patient profiles accurate,
complete and concise. This action will move the prescription from the “Active” profile
to “Rx History” in the PIP and return fewer alerts (i.e. drug interactions and duplicate
therapy/ingredient) that need to be managed by users. As a result of a concise profile,
healthcare practitioners can easily identify patients’ active prescriptions. In addition,
system performance is improved.
Failed Transactions:
11. What is a Failed Transaction?
• A transaction (e.g. a dispense) that is not successfully transmitted to the PIP (i.e. missing
from the PIP). All failed transactions are not viewable in the PIP and therefore not
available for clinical review by Saskatchewan healthcare practitioners. This transaction
may or may not have been submitted to the Drug Plan for adjudication or capture.
12. Why do transactions fail?
• The following transactions are expected to fail as they are not required to be recorded
in the PIP:
i. Dispenses for patients without a valid Saskatchewan Health Services Number
(HSN) (i.e. out of province)
ii. Dispenses for animals
iii. Devices
• Other transactions that are required to be recorded in the PIP fail for a number of
reasons, including:
i. System downtime/failure to retransmit
ii. Bypassing the PIP due to unresolved warning/error messages
iii. Prescriptions for patients with masked profiles
iv. Drugs not in the PIP drug database
v. Data mismatch (i.e. date of birth or gender mismatch)
vi. Set up of NPN’s on local system
13. What is a Failed Transaction Report (FTR)?
• A report generated from your Pharmacy Practice Management System, for CeRx
integrated pharmacies only, which lists all failed transactions for the reporting period
specified.
• Failed Transaction Reports are referred to as:
i. Failed Claims Report – Kroll
ii. DIS Unsent Precription Report – Telus
iii. Non-DIS Transactions – ProPharm and McKesson
14. How is the Failed Transaction Report (FTR) generated?
• Steps to generate a FTR can be found in the vendor training manual OR the PIP QIP
Failed Transaction Information Sheet.
• For any further questions, contact the pharmacy vendor.
15. Why is it important to generate the Failed Transaction Report and re-send Failed Transactions
daily?
• Patient safety is dependent on all necessary prescription information being sent to the
PIP. A patient’s prescription information may be needed at any time by other health
care practitioners in such places as Emergency Departments in hospitals. Missing
information makes it very difficult for healthcare practitioners to make clinical decisions.
• Both integrated and non-integrated pharmacies must submit ALL dispenses to the Drug
Plan for either adjudication or capture.
• As stated in The Prescription Drugs Act, “All drugs prescribed or dispensed to persons in
Saskatchewan are to be recorded in the provincial database.”
PIP Performance:
16. Why do some profiles take a long time to load?
• Profiles that have a large number of medications may take longer to load.
17. Why do some dispenses take a long time to process on the PIP?
• Profiles with a large number of medications may generate numerous drug interactions
and other alerts.
18. What can be done to improve the time it takes for a profile to load or for a dispense to process?
• By improving the quality of the information on a profile, there are fewer medications to
include when checking drug interactions and other alerts. Therefore processing time
should improve. Instructions on how to address this can be found in the PIP QIP
Information Sheet.
Error Messages:
19. What is the cause of the error "An internal application error has occurred. Please try again. If the
problem persists, please contact the eHS Service Desk" when discontinuing a prescription in the
PIP GUI (website)?
• This is a known issue and should be fixed in an upcoming release of the PIP (likely March
2016). Despite this error, the prescription will still be discontinued.