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: Patients: In 2020 over 31,000 patients were served.  More than 11,000 of those were below 100% of the federal poverty level, and over 12,000 did not have health insurance. Most (80%) were from communities of color, and 55% had a primary language other than English

Services: MCC provides comprehensive health care and social services with bilingual/bicultural staff using a sliding fee scale. Besides primary and urgent care, they have specific programs for adolescent health, dental care, diabetes, family planning, family support and mental health counseling, health education, HIV care, nutrition, pharmacy, prenatal care, well child care, and women’s health.

Locations include, East Side Family Clinic, Health Care for the Homeless, Health Start, Helping Hand Dental Clinic, House Calls, La Clinica, McDonough Homes, St. Paul Wellness Center, and West Side Dental Clinic. 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 x12ft space. Both services have greatly expanded since then. We now provide MTM at both the West Side and East Side locations. We have a wide array of collaborative practice agreements and are responsible for anticoagulation monitoring, and insulin/injection titration. The clinical pharmacists are also involved with the specialty clinics, including diabetes and HIV. 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 tripled 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 MCC resident typically spends four days in clinic, and one day dispensing. 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 get exposure to a wide range of patients and disease states through referrals from our providers.

The days vary greatly. 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 done 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 monthly provider meetings.

As the year progresses, residents are given more responsibility precepting students and in specialty clinics (HIV, diabetes). 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, West Side residents teach in the spring only, but that is up to the resident.

Typical Weekly Schedule (PDF)

Deanna Gengler, Pharm.D., BCPS, has been working at MCC for 20 years. She was the 2nd 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

Justin Anderson, Pharm.D., AAHIVP, has been working at MCC for 9 years and was the La Clinica resident prior to being hired. In addition to being a preceptor at La Clinica, Justin is also the HIV pharmacist on staff. Justin has always had a passion for serving Hispanic patients and feels Westside provides him the perfect opportunity to provide them with clinical pharmacy services. Justin graduated from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota in 2012.

Caitlin Strand, PharmD., graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and completed her Pharmaceutical Care residency at Minnesota Community Care. She is originally from St. Paul, Minnesota and has also lived in Chicago, Madrid, and Dublin. 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.

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 health care 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.