Establishing a pharmacy clinic in a city-county health department

During a one-year rotation at an urban-county health department, a pharmacy resident implemented a pharmacy clinic to serve three major purposes: (1) to provide health care to patients with selected chronic illnesses, (2) to expand the revenue base of the health department pharmacy, and (3) to make possible the clinical instruction of Doctor of Pharmacy students and pharmacy residents. The resident's activities in the clinic included conducting interviews, performing physical examinations, initiating and adjusting therapy, and counseling patients. During the first four months of operation, 36 patients were seen in the clinic a total of 98 times. Seven chronic illnesses, along with a number of minor acute disorders, were evaluated and treated by the pharmacist. The pharmacist billed $1740.00 for patient care activities. The success of this initial program indicates that similar pharmacy clinics would be of benefit to other colleges of pharmacy as well as other institutional ambulatory health care providers.