Tracking required organizational practices related to processes involving medications.

In 2008, Accreditation Canada adopted a new survey methodology, known as Qmentum, which assesses the degree to which its standards are embedded into daily practice. The Qmentum standards include Required Organizational Practices (ROPs), which are practices that must be in place to enhance patient safety and to minimize risk. Health authorities across Canada face significant challenges in assessing their degree of readiness for an Accreditation Canada survey. Conducting an environmental scan is difficult, because both practices and cultures differ across sites and across patient care units. Assessing readiness is further complicated by variability in how pharmacy managers, hospital administrators, and accreditation surveyors may interpret the standards and how “compliance” may be accomplished.