The UC San Francisco Pharmacy at Parnassus celebrated its grand opening this past October. The pharmacy offers prescription and over-the-counter medications, as well as medication consultations and delivery.
“It took a village to open this pharmacy; we were able to do it because we have the support of many departments, including IT, Facilities, Campus Life Services (Retail), Real Estate, Signage, Communications, and support of senior leadership,” Director of Outpatient Pharmacy Services Myra Pascua said.
The newly opened pharmacy will positively impact UCSF’s ability to care for patients holistically from acute care to ambulatory to outpatient by providing clinical services, medication education, and medication access to all patients.
“This pharmacy is more than a dispensing pharmacy. We will be offering many clinical programs such as vaccinations, medication management for chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes; long-acting injectable medication administration, care for acute conditions such as COVID-19, and preventative care services including nicotine replacement therapy furnishing [prescribing] for smoking cessation and self-administered hormonal contraception furnishing [prescribing],” Pascua said.
The pharmacy is part of UCSF’s comprehensive care model, which allows patients to conveniently access healthcare and medications in one place.
“With our direct access to the UCSF Health medical record and having pharmacists integrated in the clinic and part of the care team, this allows for better care coordination. We also ensure that medications are ‘in hand’, particularly for high-risk patients through our Meds to Beds program [a program that delivers discharge prescriptions to patients before they leave the hospital],” Pascua said.
The UCSF Pharmacy at Parnassus is located in the Millberry Union Building and is open to the general public as well as UCSF patients. UCSF also has a brand-new outpatient pharmacy at Mission Bay at the Bayfront medical building.
**Photograph of ribbon cutting ceremony (left to right): Suresh Gunasekaran- President and CEO, UCSF Health, Jessica Galens- Assistant Chief Pharmacy Officer, Business Services, Myra Pascua- Director, Outpatient Pharmacy Services, Desi Kotis- Chief Pharmacy Executive, Mike Tse- Manager, Outpatient Pharmacy at Parnassus, Noelle Chapman- Chief Pharmacy Officer, Lisa Kroon- Assistant Chief Pharmacy Officer, Clinical Innovation, Education and Research, Inga Lennes- President, Faculty Practice Organization