PC Community Care Pharmacy
Technology in pharmacy has helped PPCSP to evolve to meet the needs of many types of communities. Shown here (from l to r) Desiree Walker and Andrea Judy.
Serving the Community with Pride
The PC Community Care Pharmacy of Clinton, South Carolina, is located on the first floor of the Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy, which enrolled its first class in 2010. More than a location for School of Pharmacy student learning experiences, it serves as one of the primary affiliates in an emerging medical health alliance involving South Carolina Free Medical Clinics and Regional Hospitals. This alliance is committed to advancing establishment of a medical home model of healthcare delivery to an estimated 15,000 uninsured patients in South Carolina. PC Community Care Pharmacy uses area volunteer pharmacists (6) in addition to its Pharmacist-in-Charge and Certified Pharmacy technicians to deliver its specialized approach to pharmacy services.
Advanced Pharmacy Systems and PC Community Care Pharmacy
Pictured here in the automated pharmacy at Presbyterian College are (from l to r) Frank Owusu, Andrea Judy and Charles Shively.
Utilizing the most advanced automated pharmacy systems, the pharmacy uses robotics integrated with accessible electronic medical health record reviews prior to patient prescription filling and medication delivery.
The primary pharmacy software utilized is the QS1 NRX system integrated with an ADS RxMedic automated dispensing system that not only selects, counts and fills tablets or capsules into prescription vials, but caps and appropriately labels the specific patient vials. For those familiar with the traditional prescription human effort-intensive filling steps of select, count, cap and label, the NRX/RxMedic automated system clearly represents “leading edge” technology. Our system also can process allowable refill prescription requests 24 hours a day via the IVR to QS1 to RxMedic gateway…without human involvement.
Creating the I’m Helping Myself ® Approach to Healthcare
Uninsured Free Clinic patients, who receive their medications at the PC Community Care Pharmacy site, experience an 8 step counseling education approach that assists the patient in more fully understanding their specific medical condition (most have 4-6 chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.) and the establishment of an I’m Helping Myself ® approach to their healthcare. Once patients accept responsibility for their healthcare, most of the typical medical recurrence challenges are avoided. We know we have reduced in our area of service the number of repeat emergency room visits for the same patient medical challenge.
Preparing New Professionals for Interprofessional Healthcare Team Leadership
Students at the School of Pharmacy can experience, through Community Care Pharmacy experiential rotations, opportunities for developing techniques that will allow themselves to be seen as healthcare delivery leaders rather than supporters. The bonding that can occur between patients and pharmacists, allowed by available additional time offered through pharmacy automation, creates a “Think of Us as Family” ® relationship. The Community Care Pharmacy and School of Pharmacy have recently joined with the Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence to advance a national initiative, the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaboration. This Collaboration is a government sponsored Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services effort to establish interprofessional healthcare teams which track therapy improvements in multiple chronic Medicare and dual eligible patients. School of Pharmacy students have the opportunity to be project leaders and data collecting individuals for this effort which works primarily with nursing homes, long term care facilities and assisted living communities.
(from l to r) Heather Cook and Frank Owusu use the RxMedic Pharmacy Robot.
Advancing Healthcare in the Upstate
The Community Care Pharmacy greatly values its opportunity to serve the uninsured patients from area Free Clinics. School of Pharmacy advanced students serve, under the supervision of a state registered pharmacist, as medication and therapy educators to these uninsured patients. Elements of this individualized healthcare education approach prior to medication dispensing and counseling involves patient medication reconciliation, a review of most recent lab values, assessment of overall therapy progress and development of a personalized action plan aimed at ensuring the prevention of adverse drug events or potential adverse drug events. The actual dispensing and face-to-face counseling with this information is a major contributor to the patient’s I’m Helping Myself ® approach to healthcare.
In the near future, these face-to-face discussions with the Free Clinic patients will be completed at the different Free Clinic locations utilizing live two-way audio/video which will allow the patient, the advanced student educator, the supervising pharmacist and School of Pharmacy faculty therapy specialists to be jointly involved in the dispensing activity. This use of technology will advance the Community Care Pharmacy’s outreach significantly.
Shown here, Kimberly Simmons explains some side effects to a member of the community.
Come and Visit with Us
Plan to visit our pharmacy on your next visit to Clinton and the Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy. We are located inside the School of Pharmacy at 307 North Broad Street adjacent to our college Medical Health Center and the adjoining Wellness Center. Telephone: 864.938.3933.
Hope to see you soon!
