Minnesota Community Care

Site Profile

Minnesota Community Care is the largest community clinic organization in Minnesota, with multiple locations in the metro area. We provide innovative and multicultural / multilingual health care services and education to immigrant and low-income communities.

Mission: "Strengthening the well-being of our community through health care for all".

Patients: In 2021 over 33,000 patients were served.  More than 14,000 of those were below 100% of the federal poverty level, and over 12,000 did not have health insurance. Most (90%) were from communities of color, and 58% had a primary language other than English. 

Services: Minnesota Community Care provides comprehensive health care and social services with bilingual/bicultural staff using a sliding fee scale. Besides primary and urgent care, there are specific programs for adolescent health, dental care, mental/behavioral health, women's health, children's health, sexual health and HIV care, gender care, chiropractic care, addiction medicine, and harm reduction.

Locations include; La Clinica, East Side Family Clinic, Farmington Clinic, St. Paul Wellness Center, Health Care for the Homeless, McDonough Homes, Health Start, West Side Dental Clinic and East Side Dental. More information is on our website.

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 strive to ensure that our patients’ medications are indicated, effective, safe, and convenient and that our patients’ understanding, expectations, and concerns are addressed.

Our program started with clinical services provided by Dan Rehrauer. A year later, a dispensing pharmacy opened in a 10ft x 12ft space. Both services have greatly expanded since then. We now provide MTM at the East Side, La Clinica, and Downtown locations.  We have a wide array of collaborative practice agreements and are responsible for anticoagulation monitoring, and insulin/injection titration.  Our role in HIV includes extensive adherence programs and monitoring. We also serve as a resource to our providers for pharmacotherapy questions and education.

Like our clinical services, the dispensing pharmacy has also grown. Since its first year, it has quadrupled in size and staff.  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.

Educational Experience

The Minnesota Community Care residents typically spend three days in clinic, and one day dispensing, and one day on administration tasks.  Most clinic days have slots for 8 patients at each site. The most common visits include initial MTMs, MTM follow ups, diabetes focused visits and anticoagulation focused visits. Apart from these, we are exposed to a wide range of patients and disease states through referrals from our providers.  Residents will have the opportunity to see patients one on one and present their cases to a preceptor before developing and implementing a plan. Case presentations are discussed periodically to review interesting or complex cases with other pharmacists and residents. Usually, all the pharmacists and students meet weekly for journal clubs, topic discussions or case presentations. Residents are also responsible for answering many of the daily drug information questions from providers as well as providing education at provider meetings.

As the year progresses, residents are given more responsibility with precepting students and involvement with specialty care.  There is also at least one quality improvement project, in addition to a medication use evaluation and formulary or collaborative practice agreement project.  The resident may be involved in more administration processes if desired. 

In addition to the activities at the University, the resident may elect to teach a lab also. Typically, MCC residents teach in the spring only, but that is up to the resident. 

Typical Weekly Schedule (PDF)

Deanna Gengler, PharmD, BCPS, has been working at Minnesota Community Care (MCC) for 19 years.  She was the 2^nd resident at La Clinica.  Deanna is the main preceptor at East Side Family Clinic.  In addition to her precepting duties, Deanna also provides MTM.  She has always enjoyed working for the underserved population and working with them to find creative solutions to their drug therapy problems. Deanna graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 2002

Preceptors

Caitlin Strand, PharmD, BCACP graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and completed her Pharmaceutical Care residency at Minnesota Community Care. Her role as “Clinical Pharmacist of Quality” keeps her busy with interdisciplinary projects including the Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee and antimicrobial stewardship initiatives. She feels lucky to be a part of the wonderful pharmacy team at MCC that works hard to help patients navigate chronic conditions and get the medications they need.

Txia Xiong, PharmD, BCACP graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in 2019 and completed her residency at Minnesota Community Care in 2020. She is committed to providing excellent patient care by collaborating in an interprofessional team, engaging patients in their own care, and staying updated on guidelines. She is also passionate about providing culturally competent care and helping patients and their families have a better understanding of their chronic diseases and medications.

Eli Eggen, PharmD, graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in 2017 and completed his PGY1 residency training the following year with Minnesota Community Care as his practice site.  Eli has always had a passion for serving underserved populations and finds the endeavor to eliminate health disparities incredibly rewarding.  He is proud to work for an organization that embodies ‘patient-centered care’ and is constantly inspired by patients who overcome complex barriers to achieve their health goals.  Eli enjoys working closely with all members of the healthcare team and values the opportunity to mentor and learn from pharmacy residents in this interprofessional setting.

Allison Sleem, PharmD, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. After graduating from the University of Minnesota Ambulatory Care Residency Program (Goodrich Pharmacy), she spent time in management before coming to MCC 2 years ago. Allison is the primary preceptor at La Clinica and has a passion for teaching. In addition to working with residents and students, she also enjoys being a part of a healthcare team where she can help patients reach their health goals.