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California: An update on mandatory med-error reporting

We recently told you about California’s new requirement that pharmacies (both resident and non-resident) must report any medication errors to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). Now we have some more detail, the most important of which is that reporting will start September 1, 2025, and it won’t be retroactive to July 1.

The California Board of Pharmacy has a PDF fact sheet here, and here are some of the highlights:

  • Pharmacies must register with ISMP by July 24. (There is not currently a process for APMS as a PSO to register individual pharmacies, so you must register yourself.)
  • Reporting will start September 1. 
  • APMS will work to update their software to include all the fields that will be required by California, so the pharmacies can essentially copy their reports from APMS into ISMP.

Reminder: If you’re a PFM, you are automatically enrolled in APMS.