East Side Family Clinic - St. Paul, MN

APPE Experience Types
Ambulatory Care
Community Practice
Patient Care

Address
860 Arcade St
St. Paul, MN 55106

Phone
651.793.2250

East Side Family Clinic Pharmacy

Region
Twin Cities 

Main Contact
May Xia Lo
mlo@westsidechs.org
651.793.2250

Teaching Philosophy

Our main goal is to ensure each student learns to evaluate drug therapy based on indication, effectiveness, safety and convenience and this is best accomplished with direct patient care.  Students assess patients daily and are given immediate feedback while the patient is present.  The following day, the student does a more formal case presentation that is also a “Q&A” session on pharmacotherapy knowledge.  In addition to patient care, this rotation heavily emphasizes literature evaluation.  There is a weekly journal club and the student is expected to evaluate literature for 3 different presentations. 

Detailed Site Information

Institution
West Side Community Health Services (WSCHS) is the largest community clinic organization in Minnesota, with multiple locations in the metro area, including East Side Family Clinic.  We provide innovative and multicultural / multilingual health care services and education to immigrant and low-income communities.  In 2006 over 35,000 patients were served, half of which were Latino.  Over 80% were below 200% of the federal poverty level, and nearly half did not have health insurance.  Most (84%) were from communities of color, and 54% had a primary language other than English. 

Institutional Mission Statement and Vision
Our mission: Caring for the Health of Diverse Communities. 

Pharmacy Services
Pharmacy services began in 2001 as part of the University of Minnesota residency program.  From the beginning, our philosophy has been the pharmaceutical care described by Hepler and Strand.  We work to ensure our patients’ medications are indicated, effective, safe and convenient and that our patients’ understanding, expectations and concerns regarding their drug therapy are addressed. 

Our program started with clinical services provided by Dan Rehrauer.  A year later, a dispensing pharmacy opened in a 10x12 space.  Both services have greatly expanded since then.  We now provide MTM at both the West Side and East Side locations.  Besides MTM, other clinical responsibilities include anticoagulation monitoring, blood pressure monitoring and insulin/injection teaching.  The clinical pharmacists are also involved with the specialty clinics, including diabetes, geriatrics and HIV.  Our role in HIV includes extensive adherence programs and monitoring.  Lastly, we serve as a resource to our providers for pharmacotherapy questions and education. 

Like our clinical services, the dispensing pharmacy has also grown.  Since it’s first year, it has tripled in size and staff and expanded to 2 sites.  The dispensing is unique in that we use several programs to increase affordability.  Our superb technicians manage most of these programs so that the dispensing pharmacist is able to focus on preventing and solving drug therapy problems. 

Professionalism and Assessment
Students are given immediate feedback after each patient, case presentation and topic presentation.  Usually, an informal evaluation is done at 5 weeks in addition to the formal U of MN evaluation at 10 weeks.  The 5 week evaluation is done to make sure the student is progressing appropriately and meeting necessary goals.  May Xia Lo is the primary evaluator, although all pharmacists give feedback. 

Resources
The student has a work station including a computer and phone.  There is a lunch room in the building and restaurants within walking distance.  There is a parking lot adjacent to the clinic.

Patient Care

Primary Preceptor
May Xia Lo, PharmD

APPE Structure
Students work in the same space as the clinical pharmacists. All students assess MTM and anticoagulation patients.  Depending on interest level, students may spend time in various specialty clinics, such as asthma and diabetes.  Students participate in a weekly journal club and may participate in clinic organization meetings, such as formulary meetings or planning meetings.  There is also a weekly pharmacotherapy topic discussion on common ambulatory care disease states.  Free time is spent preparing presentations and following up on questions raised during case presentations/topic discussions.  Hours are 8:30 – 5, with an hour lunch.  However, journal club is at 8am at a local coffee shop and is either on Wednesday or Thursday.  Students may leave at 4:30 on journal club days.  Lastly, students are invited to the resident Academic Days at the U of MN, usually one Friday per month. 

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Daily responsibilities vary greatly, but the average day the student has one formal case presentation, one MTM appointment (including SOAPE documentation) and 2-3 anticoagulation visits.  In addition to this, the student is expected to answer drug therapy questions from providers and teach patients on diabetic supplies/other devices.  Students lead journal club about 3 times, provide 2 informal presentations and 1 formal presentation.  They also need to prepare for review material for topic discussions weekly.  Lastly, students do quality assurance (QA) for the dispensing pharmacy 2 days per week. 

Educational Opportunities
See above, Student Roles and Responsibilities

Ambulatory Care

Primary Preceptor
May Xia Lo, PharmD.

APPE Structure
Students work in the same space as the clinical pharmacists. All students assess MTM and anticoagulation patients.  Depending on interest level, students may spend time in various specialty clinics, such as asthma and diabetes.  Students participate in a weekly journal club and may participate in clinic organization meetings, such as formulary meetings or planning meetings.  There is also a weekly pharmacotherapy topic discussion on common ambulatory care disease states.  Free time is spent preparing presentations and following up on questions raised during case presentations/topic discussions. Hours are 8:30 – 5, with an hour lunch.  However, journal club is at 8am at a local coffee shop and is either on Wednesday or Thursday.  Students may leave at 4:30 on journal club days.  Lastly, students are invited to the resident Academic Days at the U of MN, usually one Friday per month. 

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Daily responsibilities vary greatly, but the average day the student has one formal case presentation, one MTM appointment (including SOAPE documentation) and 2-3 anticoagulation visits.  In addition to this, the student is expected to answer drug therapy questions from providers and teach patients on diabetic supplies/other devices.  Students lead journal club about 3 times, provide 2 informal presentations and 1 formal presentation.  They also need to prepare for review material for topic discussions weekly.  Lastly, students do quality assurance (QA) for the dispensing pharmacy 2 days per week. 

Community Practice

Primary Preceptor
May Xia Lo, PharmD

APPE Structure
Students work in the same space as the clinical pharmacists. All students assess MTM and anticoagulation patients.  Depending on interest level, students may spend time in various specialty clinics, such as HIV, diabetes and geriatrics.  Students participate in a weekly journal club and may participate in clinic organization meetings, such as formulary meetings or planning meetings.  There is also a weekly pharmacotherapy topic discussion on common ambulatory care disease states.  Free time is spent preparing presentations and following up on questions raised during case presentations/topic discussions.  Hours are 8:30 – 5, with an hour lunch.  However, journal club is at 8am at a local coffee shop and is either on Wednesday or Thursday.  Students may leave at 4:30 on journal club days.  Lastly, students are invited to the resident Academic Days at the U of MN, usually one Friday per month. 

Student Roles and Responsibilities
Daily responsibilities vary greatly, but the average day the student has one formal case presentation, one MTM appointment (including SOAPE documentation) and 2-3 anticoagulation visits.  In addition to this, the student is expected to answer drug therapy questions from providers and teach patients on diabetic supplies/other devices.  Students lead journal club about 3 times, provide 2 informal presentations and 1 formal presentation.  They also need to prepare for review material for topic discussions weekly.  Lastly, students do quality assurance (QA) for the dispensing pharmacy 2 days per week and counsel on new prescriptions in the dispensing pharmacy at least 8 hours per week.