After years of planning and fundraising, USC will open its first-ever community pharmacy next month in South Los Angeles.
The pharmacy, located at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue in the Hyde Park neighborhood, is next to an existing community health clinic run by T.H.E. (To Help Everyone) Health and Wellness Centers.
This combined facility will serve as a coordinated hub for care amid what has been termed the “pharmacy desert” of South Los Angeles.
Patients from the community will be able to seek care from the health clinic and pick up their medications next door at the pharmacy.
“This pharmacy represents USC’s ongoing commitment to the health and well-being of the South Los Angeles community,” new USC President Beong-Soo Kim said at a launch ceremony for the pharmacy on March 5. “No one should have to travel long distances or face barriers to access life-saving medications.”
The pharmacy will partially open next month with about three employees and is set to hit full stride this summer with about 10 employees. It will be operated by the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Real-world training
Besides being a pharmacy for South Los Angeles communities, the facility will also serve as a real-world training ground for students seeking to enter the pharmacy care industry.
According to a spokeswoman for the Mann School, the pharmacy was first planned before the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. The school also conducted a fundraising campaign for the pharmacy, though it declined to disclose how much has been raised or how much the facility cost to build.
The pharmacy will open at a time when retail pharmacy outlets are shrinking. Last summer, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid Corp., after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a second time, closed all its remaining 89 stores. At its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, Rite Aid had more than 5,000 stores. Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS Health and Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens Co. each have also closed hundreds of stores over the last decade.
