Primary health-care services with a functional ambulatory care clinical pharmacy in a low-income housing project clinic.

This article describes the establishment of clinical pharmacy services at a primary health-care clinic in a low-income housing area in New Orleans. The St Thomas Health Care Services Outpatient Clinic was established in 1987 by the Catholic Sisters of Charity. The clinic provides care for 4500 ambulatory patients who otherwise have inadequate health care. Xavier University College of Pharmacy established pharmacy services in the clinic as a site for its ambulatory clerkship students. The pharmacy provides training for students on the principles and practice standards of ambulatory care pharmacy services, which include taking medication history and performing drug therapy review. A computer-generated medical record was developed to provide access to patients' demographic and drug profiles. The system was designed to help the pharmacist preceptor and students detect, resolve, and prevent drug-related problems, and to aid in learning to monitor the progression of disease(s) and whether the patient is experiencing the desired therapeutic outcome. Direct contact with patients allows the pharmacist and the students to become familiar with patient compliance problems, adverse drug reaction monitoring, patient counseling techniques, and providing patient education.