​​

University of Chicago Medicine

Department of Pharmacy Services

Established in 1927, the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM) is a 811-bed academic medical center which is committed to the mission of providing superior healthcare in a compassionate manner while respecting patient individuality and dignity. Ranked consistently by U.S. News and World Report, University of Chicago Medicine provides innovative and cutting edge therapy to patients from all over the world.

 

The adult inpatient hospitals include the Center for Care and Discovery (CCD) and Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital. These facilities encompass all adult emergency, acute, intensive, and surgical care teams. UCM is an adult Level 1 Trauma Center. These facilities include 575 acute care beds, 96 ICU beds, 28 operating suites, 7 interventional radiology suites, and 3 cardiac catheterization labs. A new cancer center is currently under construction with a planned opening date of 2027. This facility has an anticipated annual volume of 200,000 outpatient visits and 5,000 inpatient admissions.

 

UCM Comer Children’s Hospital is the pediatric facility, which first opened in 1930. The 172-bed pediatric hospital is a major tertiary referral center which includes a Pediatric Level 1 Trauma Center, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a Pediatric Epilepsy Center, a Comprehensive Cancer Center, an accredited Cystic Fibrosis Center, and capabilities for pediatric/neonatal extracorporeal life support (ECLS).

 

The Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) is the main adult outpatient care facility at UCM. This building houses both primary and specialty care clinics, including cardiology, hepatology, endocrinology, pulmonology, oncology, ID, transplant, and infusion and radiology. The ambulatory pharmacy clinical services at DCAM include anticoagulation, hypertension management, and weight management.

 

Across all facilities in 2023, UCM had 107,700 emergency room visits (72,645 adult; 35,055 pediatric); 949,373 ambulatory appointments; 34,607 hospital admissions; 26,308 surgeries; and 2,716 births. Pharmacists and pharmacy residents provide decentralized pharmaceutical care throughout UCM every day to ensure safe, accurate, and cost-effective medication therapy.  Together these professionals provide a wide variety of clinical services in collaboration with other health care professionals for the cure, arrest, and prevention of diseases and/or symptoms of disease. 

 

Inpatient Pharmacy Service Locations

• Inpatient pharmacy operations (adult and pediatric): Pharmacy technicians and pharmacists work across the inpatient pharmacies at UCM to ensure all patients have safe, accurate, and timely access to their medications while hospitalized. These pharmacies include the CCD Adult Pharmacy and the Comer Children’s Hospital Pharmacy.

• Inpatient clinical pharmacy services (adult and pediatric): Decentralized clinical pharmacists and clinical pharmacist specialists provide direct patient care alongside the interdisciplinary medical team to admitted patients at UCM. Covered clinical services include adult and pediatric acute care services, intensive care services, emergency medicine services, surgery services, solid organ transplantation, oncology services, and infectious diseases. The clinical pharmacist on the team/service is responsible for ensuring safe and effective medication use for all patients admitted to the team/service, including active participation in work and attending rounds daily, collaboration with decentralized pharmacists to ensure timely medication availability, education of patients and their caregivers, education of physicians and nurses, and education of pharmacy trainees.

• Services are provided across the following facilities:

  • Center for Care and Discovery (CCD)

  • Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital

  • Comer Children’s Hospital

​​

Outpatient Pharmacy Service Locations

• DCAM Pharmacy: Located in the same building as our outpatient clinic, DCAM Pharmacy services clinic patients, University students, employees, and employee's immediate family members. The DCAM Pharmacy works to dispense prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs, and diabetic supplies in an attempt to improve patient health after they are discharged. The team improves patient's access to medications by processing insurance claims, and by working with providers and other interdisciplinary teams to ensure that patients receive what they need. The DCAM Pharmacy provides services such as immunizations, support for Meds-to-Beds discharges, and mail order services.

• Discharge Medication Program and Meds2Beds: Coordinates the delivery and counseling for discharge prescriptions for both adult and pediatric patients for CCD, Mitchell, Comer, and DCAM PACU. Discharge pharmacists provide comprehensive clinical review of patient’s discharge medications and provide all medication counseling to patients prior to discharge. The team increases patient adherence by assisting prescribers in identifying affordable drug alternatives, by serving as a insurance coverage consult service, and by providing 30 days of reduced cost or free medications for patients in need.

• Central Fill Mail Order Pharmacy (UCMC Pharmacy Services): The UCM Pharmacy Services Mail Order Pharmacy operates out of the central fill facility in Calumet City, IL. Pharmacists and technician operate mail order retail services with the assistance of robotic technology to fill prescriptions.

• Specialty Pharmacy: The UCM Specialty Pharmacy Services also operate mail order services out of the central fill facility in Calumet City. The specialty AMAC team ensures patients have access to their specialty prescriptions and set up delivery after performing an adherence and safety assessment. The specialty clinical pharmacist specialist team work with providers to choose and monitor appropriate specialty drug therapy for patients. Clinics covered by this team include neurology, transplant, inflammatory (gastroenterology/dermatology), infectious disease (HIV/hepatitis C), and women’s health.

• Ambulatory Pharmacy: The UCM Ambulatory Pharmacy Services team is also comprised of AMACs and clinical pharmacist specialists. AMACs ensures patients have access to their retail prescriptions and set up delivery of the central fill mail order services. The clinical pharmacist specialist are all embedded in a primary clinic and work alongside providers to provide clinical management of their patients. Several pharmacist-led clinics are also run by this team, including anticoagulation management, hypertension management, and weight loss management. Clinics covered by this team include primary care, cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, psychiatry, and pediatrics.

• Oncology/Hematology: The Clinical Oncology Specialists and Ambulatory Oncology Teams provide high quality cancer care to patients at The University of Chicago Medicine. Our team of 11 Oncology Specialists provide specialized evidence based and patient centered care for patients with a hematology or oncology diagnosis. Specialists assess the accuracy of treatment plans, adjust dosing as needed, evaluate the need for supportive care, and monitor patients for adverse drug reactions and interactions. The medications given to these patients are complex and often carry a high risk of toxicities, which is why our clinical team members all have advanced training and board certifications that prepare to best care for our oncology patients.

• Specialty Infusion: This team manages specialty infusion therapies for multiple different service lines throughout the institution including gastroenterology, rheumatology, neurology, pulmonology, and endocrinology. The Specialty Infusions Team works in conjunction with the Revenue Cycle Team and Precertification Team to ensure a streamlined approach to coordinate initiation and continuation of specialty infusion therapies. Services provided include clinical review at initiation, benefits investigation, and patient education.

​

​