PHARMACY SERVICES DELIVER CONVENIENCE FOR PATIENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF
UF Health Shands offers an array of helpful outpatient pharmacy services
While patient care remains front and center at UF Health, maintaining a healthy, happy work environment is an equally important part of our mission. It’s thanks to our dedicated faculty and staff that delivering high-quality patient care is possible in the first place. And with UF Health Shands being a large (and growing) hospital system, we like to occasionally draw attention to certain services available to faculty and staff that may help make their lives and jobs a bit easier.
UF Health Outpatient Pharmacy Services recently enhanced its offerings in several ways that can benefit both patients and UF Health faculty and staff, including new pharmacy kiosks and expanded weekend hours.
A 24-hour pharmacy kiosk
“When I look at some of the new things we’re doing in Outpatient Pharmacy, the new pharmacy kiosks stand out,” said Suzy Wise, PharmD, MBA, CPh, director of UF Health Ambulatory Pharmacy Services. “The kiosks provide 24/7 access to prescriptions for patients being seen in the ER here and at the ERs at Kanapaha and Springhill. It is important to us that patients have access to their needed prescriptions at discharge from the ER, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Wise said the kiosks set UF Health apart as being the only 24-hour pharmacy within 80 miles of the hospital. The convenient kiosks do not contain controlled substances, but are stocked with the most commonly prescribed medications to patients upon discharge. Services like this clearly help make the experience for patients seamless as they are discharged.
Wise said the pharmacy in UF Health Shands Hospital recently expanded its weekend hours and is now open from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
“That’s a really big win as far as having access to outpatient pharmacy services on weekends,” Wise said. “It’s very important for our discharging patients who are leaving the hospital on a Saturday or Sunday.”
Another perk for UF Health faculty and staff is the pharmacy delivery program. Wise said the UF Health Pharmacy at Springhill delivers employee and family prescriptions directly to UF Health off-site locations in the Greater Gainesville area.
Deliveries occur twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and payroll deduction is available for UF Health Shands employees. Wise said employees can email PharmSpringhillDelivery@shands.ufl.edu to request prescription refills and coordinate delivery.
Wise said another notable service of interest to patients as well as faculty and staff is UF Health’s specialty pharmacy. A specialty pharmacy can often offer a level of personalized care above and beyond what can be found at retail pharmacies for patients with more complex needs.
“We are a nationally accredited specialty pharmacy, so your specialty drugs can be filled here,” Wise said. “You can have an on-site consultation with the pharmacist locally versus having to rely on phone calls to an out-of-town specialty pharmacy. We’ve been the GatorCare preferred specialty pharmacy for a few years now, and we keep expanding the number of drugs we can purchase and dispense through the specialty pharmacy.”
These are a few of the pharmacy services that UF Health faculty and staff can directly benefit from, but Wise said there are several other notable programs that employees may find valuable in helping them deliver the best possible care to patients.
The Meds to Beds program, for example, eliminates the need for patients to stop at the pharmacy after discharge by delivering their prescriptions directly to their bedside. The service also provides an opportunity to further educate patients about their medications, resulting in increased medication compliance and adherence, Wise said.
Last year, Meds to Beds delivered more than 21,000 prescriptions directly to the bedsides of UF Health patients who were being discharged.
Wise said she is excited about the progress and expansion of services UF Health offers in its Outpatient Pharmacy, and is happy the services can benefit patients as well as faculty and staff.
