The Pharmacy Practice Residency in primary/ambulatory care at USC has a long history of providing residents with comprehensive primary care pharmacy practice training and experience in a variety of clinical settings. Graduates of the program have pursued careers in a broad variety of organizations including health maintenance organizations, government health care systems, community hospitals, teaching medical centers, private physician practice groups, safety net care clinics, and pharmaceutical industry.

Clinical Practice

The USC-based Pharmacy Practice residency in primary/ambulatory care provides residents with longitudinal experiences in a variety of ambulatory/primary care practice settings. General adult medicine with a focus on management of chronic disease conditions is emphasized at the Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, one of the largest outpatient clinics in the Los Angeles County system that includes a multitude of medical subspecialty services. The Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center is recognized as a diabetes care center of excellence, and is a site for ASHP Foundation's Diabetes Patient Care Traineeship Program for practicing pharmacists.

Outpatient management of cardiology and anticoagulation patients is emphasized at the LAC+USC Medical Center. The LAC+USC outpatient clinic provides medication therapy management experiences for geriatric, depression, and HIV patients. Other pharmacy experiences are available as electives at the LAC+USC Medical Center, as well as several other local practice sites.

QueensCare is a network of safety net clinics providing care to uninsured and underinsured patients. Patients are referred to pharmacists at QueensCare for management of medications for a variety of illnesses, the most common being diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, asthma, and heart failure. QueensCare provides the resident with a thorough knowledge of how to deliver both disease state/medication therapy management and medication procurement/formulary management to uninsured populations, the latter including use of Patient Assistance Programs for free medications and 340B Federal purchasing programs for qualified clinics.

While residents will have the opportunity to participate in all of these practice settings, each resident will have different time allocations among the settings based on his/her interests. All clinical practice settings provide training and experience in writing SOAP notes, providing direct patient care and working directly with physicians in the management of patients. Additional activities include:

• Counseling, educating and evaluating patients
• Ordering new medication
• Adjusting medication doses
• Refilling medications
• Ordering laboratory tests
• Performing physical assessments
• Providing drug information and education to physicians
• Making home visits
• Attending geriatric teaching rounds

Pharmacy residents receive training and experience in pharmacy operations, such as performing DUEs and publishing newsletters.

Teaching

All residents in the School of Pharmacy program participate in various patient care, teaching and educational activities, including:

• Coordinating courses with faculty mentors
• Giving lectures and conducting small group discussions to first, second and third year pharmacy students
• Serving as a preceptor and role model for the students during their clinical clerkships

Research

Research classes and seminars are provided to residents. During the year, residents are required to:

• Complete a residency project
• Present the project’s findings at the Western States Conference for Pharmacy Residents, Fellows and Preceptors
• Submit a manuscript for publication prior to the end of the residency

Contact Us

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact:

Steven Chen, Pharm.D., FASCP, CDM
Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
Director, Pharmacy Practice Residency in Primary/Ambulatory Care
Telephone: (323) 442-1556
Email: chens@usc.edu

William C. Gong, Pharm.D., FASHP
Director, Residency and Fellowship Training
Telephone: (323) 442-2648
Email: wgong@usc.edu