What Ontario's AIMS Program actually requires
Every Ontario pharmacy needs an incident management platform by January 1, 2027.
AIMS medication-incident module — in development for the January 1, 2027 requirement.
NarcCount is building a full AIMS incident-management module: incident and near-miss recording, causal-factor analysis, CQI plans and quarterly meeting records, safety self-assessment tracking, and daily de-identified submission to ISMP Canada's National Incident Data Repository.
NarcCount is not yet able to submit data to the NIDR. Submission requires a Data Submission Protocol Agreement with ISMP Canada and successful API testing, neither of which is complete. Until then, NarcCount cannot be used to meet the NIDR submission requirement of OCP's AIMS Program. The Ontario College of Pharmacists does not approve or endorse incident management platforms.
Source: OCP — Timelines for changes to the AIMS Program (last updated November 3, 2025) — read 2026-09-06.
Report · Document · Analyze · Share
The Standard groups every obligation under four headings. Indented text is the College’s wording.
Report
Anonymously record medication incidents and near misses soon after they occur into a medication incident reporting platform that (a) complies with OCP's criteria for reporting platforms and (b) contributes data to ISMP's National Incident Data Repository to support shared learning and to help identify systemic issues.
In NarcCount: One screen, sixteen questions, and an anonymous submission that carries no identity at all: nothing a platform administrator could look up later.
Document
Document required and relevant details of medication incidents and near misses in a timely manner. Document CQI plans, outcomes of staff communications about medication events, and subsequent quality improvement initiatives or changes implemented.
In NarcCount: All fifteen of the College's mandatory fields are captured, and the CQI side records the plan, who owns it, when it is due and how the outcome will be measured.
Analyze
Analyze incidents and near misses for causal factors soon after they occur and implement appropriate steps to minimize the likelihood of recurrence. Analyze individual and aggregate data to inform quality improvement initiatives. Develop CQI plans and measure the outcomes of changes implemented. Complete a safety self-assessment every two years.
In NarcCount: Causal-factor analysis sits on the review screen, so the report stays anonymous while the analysis is attributed. The analysis page shows where errors happen and which factors recur, and the self-assessment record tracks the two-year cadence.
Share
Communicate relevant details of a medication incident or near miss promptly to all pharmacy staff, including causal factors and actions taken. Schedule CQI meetings with pharmacy staff at least once every quarter. Share successful interventions, changes, or best practices that have helped reduce risk.
In NarcCount: The quarterly meeting record captures attendance, decisions, and the date and method the outcomes were shared with staff.
Source: OCP — Supplemental Standard of Practice: Mandatory Standardized AIMS Program in Ontario Pharmacies (approved December 8, 2025) — read 2026-09-08.
15 details every reported incident must include
From the platform criteria document, verbatim. 14 are answered by the person reporting; the remaining one is the reviewer’s analysis.
| # | Field | Answered by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Date incident occurred | The reporter |
| 2 | Time incident occurred | The reporter |
| 3 | Patient date of birth (age range) | The reporter |
| 4 | Patient gender | The reporter |
| 5 | Type of incident (e.g., incorrect drug, incorrect patient) | The reporter |
| 6 | Incident discovered by (e.g., pharmacist, patient) | The reporter |
| 7 | Medication prescribed by (e.g., physician, pharmacist) | The reporter |
| 8 | Medication system stages involved (e.g., prescribing, order entry) | The reporter |
| 9 | Medication(s) involved | The reporter |
| 10 | Route of administration | The reporter |
| 11 | Associated factors (central fill, compliance packaging, compounded medication, injection by pharmacy professional, transition of care, or none of the above) | The reporter |
| 12 | Degree of harm to the patient | The reporter |
| 13 | Incident description (free text) | The reporter |
| 14 | Contributing factors | The reviewer |
| 15 | Actions taken at the pharmacy level in response | The reporter |
Near misses have the same requirements, except for no. 12, “degree of harm,” as the event is intercepted before it reaches the patient.
Source: OCP — AIMS Incident Management Platform Criteria for Pharmacies (August 26, 2026) — read 2026-09-08.
The criteria, line by line — with an honest answer beside each
Confirming a platform meets these is the pharmacy’s responsibility. One of the 6 rows below is a straight no for NarcCount today, and it is the row that matters most.
Documentation and analysis of all incidents and near misses.
NarcCount: Yes — the incident register, the review screen and the analysis page.
Documentation of action plans developed in response to incidents.
NarcCount: Yes — corrective and preventative actions, each with an owner, a due date and an outcome measure.
Anonymous reporting of incidents and near misses to the National Incident Data Repository for Community Pharmacies (NIDR), uploaded daily.
NarcCount: Anonymous reporting: yes, and structurally so.
The upload itself is the one thing NarcCount cannot do yet. The disclaimer on this page says so in as many words, and it will keep saying so until ISMP Canada confirms in writing that submission testing has passed.
Pharmacies must enter into a data-sharing agreement with ISMP Canada for NIDR submissions, regardless of which platform is selected.
NarcCount: This one is yours to sign, with ISMP Canada, whoever you buy from.
Registered pharmacy staff (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) must have a unique login at their primary place of practice. This requirement does not apply to relief or occasional staff.
NarcCount: Yes — unique logins, invited by email, with no per-user charge.
Pharmacies must have access to a validated safety self-assessment tool. Where the selected platform does not include one, pharmacies are required to subscribe to one.
NarcCount: NarcCount tracks it and reminds you; it does not provide one, and could not honestly claim to.
Source: OCP — AIMS Incident Management Platform Criteria for Pharmacies (August 26, 2026) — read 2026-09-08.
A hard third-party dependency, whoever you buy from
NarcCount tracks your safety self-assessment and reminds you when the next one is due. The assessment itself is completed with ISMP Canada (MSSA) or Think Research (PSSA) — NarcCount does not provide a validated self-assessment tool.
A platform may not validate its own assessment tool. The Standard asks for one every two years, and the Designated Manager may call for one sooner after a significant change in the pharmacy.
Source: OCP — AIMS Incident Management Platform Criteria for Pharmacies (August 26, 2026) — read 2026-09-08.
Who is on it, and where we stand
Pharmacies may select a medication incident reporting platform of their choice; however, they are responsible for ensuring that the selected platform meets the AIMS Incident Management Platform Criteria. Nationally available providers that currently meet these criteria include:
- CPhIR — ISMP Canada
- Pharmapod — Think Research
- TPSC Cloud — The Patient Safety Company
OCP does not approve or endorse specific platforms. The College maintains a recognized list of platforms that have successfully completed testing for data submission to the NIDR and have an executed agreement in place with ISMP Canada. Several platforms are currently undergoing testing for NIDR data submission.
NarcCount is not on that list. We have not completed ISMP Canada's submission testing, and until we have, this site will go on saying so on every page that mentions AIMS.
Source: OCP — AIMS Incident Management Platform Criteria for Pharmacies (August 26, 2026) — read 2026-09-08.
The AIMS module is free. Not free for a year — free.
What NarcCount sells is narcotic and controlled-substance reconciliation: importing your purchase, dispensing and destruction records, computing expected on-hand, and producing the count documentation an inspector asks for. It is an optional paid subscription. A pharmacy that only uses the AIMS module never pays us anything.
What is included, and why it is freeShow less
NarcCount's AIMS module is free, with no end date, no per-user fee and no card at sign-up. There is no cut-down free tier: anonymous reporting, the incident register, causal-factor analysis, CQI meetings and actions, safety self-assessment tracking and unique staff logins are all free.
We would rather be the platform your team already has an account on when you come to look at narcotic reconciliation. That is the only commercial reason.
The same login also reconciles your narcotics
Narcotic and controlled-substance reconciliation is the paid product: import your purchase, dispensing and destruction records, get variances flagged, and print the count documentation an inspector asks for. Ontario expects a reconciliation at least every six months.
Same account, team and audit trail as the AIMS module, which works the same if you never buy it.