The new Pharmacy Care Clinic will open February 13, and will be integrated into the University’s Student Health and Wellness Centre at the Minto Sports Complex (810 King Edward Avenue) thanks to a multi-year partnership with Shoppers Drug Mart.
How does the Pharmacy Care Clinic differ from what we’re used to seeing when we go to a Shopper’s Drug Mart pharmacy?
This new pharmacy concept aims to provide health care on the premises, in addition to dispensing medication and offering some retail space. It’s kind of a new gateway to the health-care system. It offers opportunities for patients to come talk to the pharmacist and staff. The students will be guided by a staff member who will act as a care concierge.
One of the goals is to steer away from the traditional model — the “drop-off, pick-up service counter” — and focus more on providing access to a pharmacist as a health-care professional who can help you deal with health concerns.
This concept goes well with the Centre’s culture of hospitality and the One Door project, a service model that will direct students to the right place when they first contact our services.
How will the model work to potentially improve access to wellness services for students?
Demand for health-care services from our community of 48,000 students has been increasing since we first launched the Student Health and Wellness Centre in 2022. Students have told us it can be difficult to get an appointment. Our capacity to address the needs of all students remains a challenge and we need to innovate.
The integration of a pharmacy will improve student access to health-care services — plus it’s more convenient for students. We looked at the different reasons students visit the Centre and noticed that some issues could be addressed by a pharmacist or in collaboration with a pharmacist.
The pharmacist will be able to answer students’ questions about medication, help them manage some chronic diseases, administer vaccinations, renew routine medications, provide over-the-counter treatment advice, and provide consultations and pharmacological treatments for minor ailments, given that since January 2023, minor ailments are now part of the pharmacist’s scope of practice in Ontario.”
“The integration of a pharmacy will improve student access to health-care services, plus it’s more convenient for students.”
Dr. Patrick Leclair
— Medical director of the Student Health and Wellness Centre and a family physician.
Could you perhaps give an example of how the Pharmacy Care Clinic and the Student Health and Wellness Centre will work together to provide a One Door service delivery model?
The One Door project is about improving access to health-care services for students. The new pharmacist, Yohana Kimoun, will be integrated into our interdisciplinary team of health-care providers.
We’ll be able to work together to deliver services in a way that optimizes our combined capacity to see students, while still respecting the scope of practice of all our health professionals. For example, if a student is experiencing symptoms of a cold sore, there are now two avenues: our team can direct them to the pharmacy, or the Centre can see them. This collaboration aims to increase the number of students we can see every day.
As a pharmacist trained in France, Yohana is excited to bring her expertise to our team. And we’re very enthusiastic about her vision and desire to contribute to improving student access to health-care services on campus.
There are also plans to offer learning opportunities to uOttawa health sciences and pharmacy students. This seems like a win-win. Not only do students get better services, there’s also a chance those in health-care fields can get crucial job experience. Can you describe how this will work?
Just as the Centre receives students-in-training from certain faculties, Yohana will receive students from the Faculty of Medicine’s PharmD Program. It’s a very special learning opportunity in which students can not only learn from a professional in their field of study, but also participate in an interdisciplinary team environment, working alongside students from other programs. This will start as soon as April 2025.
Part of the more than $2.4 million contribution that supports this includes a collaborative research agreement to study how inclusion of a pharmacist within an integrated model of primary care improves health outcomes. Perhaps you can describe how this adds to current research in this area?
“The objectives of this project, which will bring together researchers from multiple faculties, have yet to be finalized, but in a nutshell, this research will evaluate how integrating a pharmacist within an on-site interdisciplinary health-care team can help deliver better, more efficient services, by means of working more collaboratively.”
