Hill AFB satellite pharmacy curbside services going well

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- The 75th Medical Group Satellite Pharmacy started providing curbside services March 23 in front of the Base Exchange shopping center to abide with “social distancing” recommendations and to increase efforts to mitigate further spread of the novel coronavirus.

When beneficiaries arrive at the Base Exchange parking lot, pharmacy personnel are outside to deliver ready‐to‐dispense prescriptions to patients while they wait in their cars curbside.

“Curbside operations went much better than anticipated for the first week of the new pharmacy services,” said Maj. Emily Dietrich, Pharmacy flight commander. “There were several lessons learned, and we have implemented new practices and adapted as needed.” 

Dietrich said acute medications will be processed for same day pickup with an approximate two‐hour turnaround.

Acute medications include: antibiotics, rescue inhalers, emergency medications, and/or any new medications for seizure, depression, and/or asthma. Maintenance medications will be processed for next business day pick‐up.

Prior to the COVID-19 response measures, the Hill AFB Pharmacy was one of the few DoD pharmacies to automatically process prescriptions sent from providers in the civilian network.

However, Dietrich said they are not currently able to automatically process electronic prescriptions due to sending volunteers home and in order to keep patients safe during these unprecedented times.

“We are happy in knowing that we are doing our part by sending our volunteers home and by socially distancing our patients,” said Dietrich. “Our staff have done a terrific job in adapting the new operations and have been flexible during the entire process to meet our patient’s needs.”