Manitoba Regulator Orders Fine and Practice Limits After Pharmacy Oversight Admissions

A College of Pharmacists of Manitoba (CPhM) discipline panel has ordered a $15,000 fine, a two-year restriction on precepting and a routine inspection of a pharmacy after its manager admitted professional misconduct involving dispensing and controlled-drug accountability. The panel’s written decision, dated August 20, 2026, concerns pharmacist and pharmacy manager Caitlin Giercke and describes failures in prescription records, inventory controls, discrepancy follow-up and required reporting.

The decision is significant not only for the penalty but for its detailed account of how a pharmacy’s controlled-substance safeguards can fail when accountability tasks are delegated without effective review. The panel found that a manager’s responsibility to ensure that systems are followed cannot be transferred simply by assigning the work to another pharmacist.

What the regulator found

Giercke entered a guilty plea to all 10 counts and admitted the facts in a statement jointly submitted by her and the College’s Complaints Committee. The panel found professional misconduct and a lack of knowledge, skill or judgment in pharmacy practice or operation. The admitted conduct included dispensing certain controlled medicines outside authorized intervals or without the required prescription, inaccurate records for compounded hydromorphone solution, failures to maintain a complete perpetual inventory, and shortcomings in the receiving, return, destruction and reporting processes for controlled substances.

The decision describes a staff pharmacist, Glen Pauch, as having made improper manual adjustments to the pharmacy’s perpetual inventory. The panel explicitly states that he acted independently and without Giercke’s knowledge or cooperation. It also says that as pharmacy manager, Giercke remained ultimately responsible for maintaining the inventory and preventing improper adjustments. The regulator’s findings against her centre on her own admitted practice and her failure to oversee the systems and tasks assigned to the other pharmacist; the decision does not find that she personally diverted the missing drugs.

Discrepancies were not consistently investigated

Between June 2020 and the end of 2021, the College identified 215 inventory discrepancies, including 143 drug shortages. The decision says only 12 discrepancies had documented investigations and that seven of those involved shortages. The decision says none of the 143 unexplained shortages were reported to Health Canada or the College; it separately notes one loss report that was made after the required 10-day window.

In 39 instances, totalling 12,300 doses, controlled drugs shipped to the pharmacy were not recorded as received or entered into its perpetual inventory. The decision says the records did not establish what happened to those drugs. It also records that three purchases totalling 22,000 mg of hydromorphone powder had not been entered in the pharmacy’s records or inventory, with 19,223 mg still unaccounted for in those records. These figures describe the regulator’s recordkeeping findings; they should not be read as a finding that Giercke personally took or diverted the substances.

The panel also addressed a February 2021 break-in. It found that the required reports of losses or thefts of controlled substances were not made to Health Canada and the College within 10 days. The written reasons discuss other control gaps involving patient-returned and expired drugs, destruction documentation, and the sharing of a pharmacist’s narcotic signature. That signature functions as an individual accountability credential for orders and receipt of narcotics, so sharing it undermines the control it is intended to provide.

Penalty and professional context

In addition to the fine, the order prohibits Giercke from acting as a preceptor for two years. The pharmacy must undergo a routine inspection within one year, with any deficiencies corrected within 30 days of notice. Giercke must also contribute $10,000 toward the College’s investigation and hearing costs. The panel noted that she had no prior discipline history, cooperated with the College and expressed remorse. It also noted that she had initiated the complaint against Pauch that led to discipline for him.

For pharmacy teams, the decision is a reminder to make controlled-drug accountability operational rather than nominal: assigned responsibilities need documented review, inventory adjustments need traceable explanations, discrepancies require timely investigation, and losses must be reported within the applicable deadlines. Managers should ensure that receiving, perpetual-inventory reconciliation, returns and destruction records are independently verifiable, and that individual credentials are not shared. These are general practice lessons from the regulator’s reasons, not a substitute for Manitoba’s rules or each pharmacy’s approved procedures.

Primary sources: CPhM’s public decision and order (PDF); CPhM disciplinary decisions register.