On Monday, East Tennessee State University will begin management of the newly relocated and renamed ETSU Charitable Pharmacy, formerly known as the Northeast Tennessee Dispensary of Hope.
It will be operated by ETSU through a partnership between the College of Nursing’s Johnson City Community Health Center and the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy.
ETSU has been involved with the Northeast Tennessee Dispensary of Hope since it was founded by Mountain States Health Alliance in 2009 as the local affiliate of the national Dispensary of Hope, which is based in Nashville. MSHA will hand over management of the charitable pharmacy for underserved residents to ETSU effective Aug. 4.
The pharmacy will move from its current Elm Street location to the community health center at 2151 Century Lane. The facility operation will be managed by faculty from the College of Pharmacy. MSHA will continue to offer financial support for the needs-based pharmacy for the next two years.
The ETSU Charitable Pharmacy will continue to partner with the Dispensary of Hope in Nashville, a national non-profit organization, to distribute medications at no cost to qualifying patients.
The national organization receives the medications through donations from pharmaceutical companies and doctors’ offices, then sends them out to their affiliate pharmacies and clinic sites to be dispensed.
“This service is a natural fit with the Johnson City Community Health Center and with ETSU’s Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy,” said Silas Tolan, executive director of ETSU’s community health centers. “We’re happy that we can provide these services in a location that’s very convenient for our patients.”
Current patients of the Northeast Tennessee Dispensary of Hope will be able access their prescriptions from the ETSU Charitable Pharmacy without any interruption in service. Of those, approximately 60 percent are also patients of the Community Health Center or another ETSU-affiliated community health center, according to Tolan.
All community health center patients will be able to fill their prescriptions at the location if they meet the designated qualifications.
Others who are not patients of the JCCHC will also be able to fill their prescriptions there if they meet the qualifications.
The pharmacy will not carry any controlled substances, which includes narcotic pain medications, Tolan noted.
The JCCHC, which opened its doors in 2012, was built with space allotted for a pharmacy.
“The clinic already has the space,” Tolan said. “We just haven’t been using it up until this point.”
The ETSU Charitable Pharmacy is expected to open Aug. 4. Hours of operation are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
For more information, call the JCCHC at 423-929-6916.