The USC School of Pharmacy hosted 90 professionals at a two-day conference on safety-net clinics, held Feb. 12-13 in Los Angeles.

The intent of the conference was to provide pharmacy schools and clinics from around the country with real-world expertise on establishing partnerships and, for those who already have partnerships, expanding their reach and impact in their communities.

Safety-net clinics, the proposed sites for most of the partnerships, deliver health care services to low-income, homeless and other vulnerable populations.

Moderated by School of Pharmacy Dean R. Pete Vanderveen, the conference was presented in collaboration with the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Patient Safety & Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative.

Dennis Wagner, deputy director of the Center for Quality at HRSA and a speaker at the conference, noted that the conference came at the “perfect time for the work that needs to be done nationwide.” He also noted that safety-net clinics aligned to schools of pharmacy are typically the highest-performing sites.

Other HRSA staffers who spoke at the conference included Jimmy Mitchell, director of the office of pharmacy affairs; Denise Geolot, director of the Center for Qualilty; Nancy Egbert, a captain with the U.S. Public Health Service and a senior clinical adviser in the office of rural health policy; and Lisa Scholz, senior director of the HRSA pharmacy services support center at the American Pharmacists Association.

USC faculty speaking about the school’s experiences in seven local safety-net clinics included associate professor Mel Baron, who described how USC became involved in safety-net work. Kathleen Johnson, the William A. and Josephine A. Heeres Professor in Community Pharmacy, discussed the nuts and bolts that make an ongoing partnership work for the clinic, the university and the patients in the community. Associate professor Steven Chen described the clinical experience along with his partner Paul Gregerson, chief medical officer at the JWCH Medical Clinic, where USC has a partnership to provide clinical pharmacy services.

The conference not only provided information on starting and running a clinical pharmacy partnership, but also looked at the practical regulatory and funding aspects.

Sandy Chiang, a program officer at The California Endowment, provided insights on securing the first grant and sustainability. Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, discussed the issues that surface in these partnerships from the perspective of state boards of pharmacy.

Rounding out the roster of speakers was Stacy Ramirez, a USC alum who now teaches at Oregon State; Hazel Seaba from the University of Iowa; Todd Sorensen from the University of Minnesota; Sandra Leal from the El Rio Health Center in Tuscon, Ariz.; John Conry from St. John’s University; and Todd Lemke from the Paynesville Area Health Care System in Minnesota.

In addition to the School of Pharmacy, USC Civic and Community Relations, The Merck Company Foundation and the AACP Transformative Community Service Award supported the conference.