Overview

The Prescription Review Program

The Prescription Review Program (PRP) is an educationally-based program administered by the CPSS on behalf of the Ministry of Health. The Program monitors a provincially designated panel of prescription medications with known misuse, abuse and diversion potential for possible inappropriate prescribing by physicians, and possible inappropriate use by patients. The list of medications monitored by the PRP is available in the CPSS Regulatory Bylaw 18.1.

The Prescription Review Program does not monitor the prescribing of medical cannabis.  For patient information from the CPSS on medical cannabis, click here.

Prescription Monitoring

The PRP Pharmacists make inquiries (e.g. diagnosis, medical rationale for prescribing, etc.) of physicians regarding PRP medication prescribing, most commonly by letter, to assess for optimal prescribing practices. The pharmacists provide supportive and educational information, as well as individualized recommendations based on Canadian standards/guidelines and current evidence-based best practice for management consideration. The pharmacists may also provide suggestions to physicians on ways to reduce misuse of medication. Regardless of the educational advice provided by the PRP,   It remains the physician’s decision to continue to prescribe, or alter the prescribing using appropriate clinical judgement.