How do I report? « Canadian Medication Incident Reporting and Prevention System (CMIRPS) / Système canadien de déclaration et de prévention des incidents médicamenteux (SCDPIM)

How do I report?

A medication incident is any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of a healthcare professional or consumer. Reporting and sharing this information will help to reduce the occurrence of harmful medication incidents and create a safer healthcare system. Reporting is everyone’s responsibility.

Anyone can report medication incidents to help improve the safety of medication use in Canada. Confidential and secure reporting channels are available for:

1. Consumers & Patients:

SafeMedicationUse.ca:
- ISMP Canada’s consumer program, SafeMedicationUse.ca, collects medication error reports from Canadians and produces resources designed to help consumers prevent medication incidents.

2. Healthcare Facilities:

National System for Incident Reporting (NSIR):
- Captures medication incident data from Canadian healthcare facilities and supports sharing of best practice and learning activities at both the local and system levels.

3. Individual Practitioners:

Individual Practitioner Reporting System:
- Collects and analyzes medication incidents reported by individual practitioners in a confidential channel that can serve as an early warning system. Reports are accepted online or by telephone.

4. Community Pharmacies:

National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies:
- Captures and analyzes medication incidents submitted by community pharmacies to create a cohesive information-sharing system for better understanding of medication incidents and development of more robust strategies to prevent harm.

For new health product safety information and to submit an adverse reaction report, visit MedEffect Canada™, an initiative of Health Canada

PLEASE NOTE: CMIRPS does NOT collect or analyze reports of adverse drug reactions (also known as “side effects”).

Adverse drug reactions should be reported to Health Canada’s Canada Vigilance Program.

What is an adverse drug reaction/ side effect?

Despite prior testing, health products – including prescription and non-prescription drugs, natural health products, biologics (including fractionated blood products, as well as therapeutic and diagnostic vaccines) and radiopharmaceuticals – can sometimes have side effects when used alone or in combination. These side effects are also known as adverse reactions. Side effects can range from minor irritations – such as a rash – to life-threatening reactions like heart attack, kidney failure or liver damage.

Some side effects may not become evident until the general population uses a new health product under “real life” circumstances. They might occur within minutes after using a health product or take years to develop.