PharmaNet and the College of Physicians & Surgeons

CPSBC Requires Physicians to Sign up for PharmaNet

A review of PharmaNet at the time a prescription is issued is considered a best practice for opioid therapy. PharmaNet review is mandatory in walk-in clinics and methadone clinics. With electronic prescribing and dispensing, access to the patient's current prescription profile is becoming a part of everyday practice in all clinical settings.

Physicians wanting to have access to PharmaNet must do so in a location where they ordinarily practise medicine. PharmaNet may only be accessed by a physician or by an individual authorized to have access on the physician's behalf. The access request must be directly related to the care of a specific patient by that physician, and persons authorized by a physician to access PharmaNet must do so under the direct supervision of the physician.

New Rules for Walk-in Clinics

All physiciants who work in walk-in, urgent care or multi-physician clinics or any practice seting providing transient medical care must have on-site access to PharmaNet. Physicians must note the review in the medical record. This includes review prior to prescribing opioids or other psychoactive medications to a patient who is not receiving longitudinal medical care from the prescriber. Patient consent to access PharmaNet should be included in the patient consent for medical treatment.

In June, 2015 the Executive Committee approved an amended professional standard entitled Walk-in, Urgent Care and Multi-physician Clinics. The revised document merges and modestly revises two earlier, separate standards developed in 2008, and reiterates one basic principle that every physician must abide by: that the medical care of a patient, and not the setting of a medical practice, must guide the ethical, professional and clinical decisions around the provision of appropriate medical care.

https://www.cpsbc.ca/files/pdf/PSG-Walk-In-Urgent-Care-Multi-Physician-Clinics.pdf