Medication Dispensary

Full Service Medication Dispensary

Refill a Prescription

Get the fastest response for refills with this online form.

Refill Prescription Form

We are a full-service medication dispensary that fills prescriptions, provides intravenous admixture service, formulates and prepares compounded medications, and advises on dosages and pharmacy calculations.

Medications may be filled for clients only for conditions currently being treated by hospital clinicians. 

Prescription refills can now be ordered online by filling out this online form

Client Tutorials

Watch videos or download informational handouts on how to handle or give medications to pets.

Medication Tutorials

Do you have unused medication?

Here are some resources on how to dispose of unused medications.

Medication Disposal

The Medication Dispensary is open Monday through Friday 8 AM to 5 PM.

For after-hours medication pick up, proceed to the Small Animal Clinic front desk. All filled medications are taken up front when the Medication Dispensary is closed, with the exception of controlled substances. Clients intending to pick up a controlled substance after hours will need to wait for an ER doctor to be available to grab the prescription from the Medication Dispensary.

Pick-Up and Mailing Info

How To Find Us

For medication pick up, follow the signs for Medication Dispensary and park in the prescription pick up parking spots during our open hours. Head West on Hazelwood Drive off Lincoln Avenue

Turn right after the parking lot for the Small Animal Clinic

Download a map of The College of Veterinary Medicine

Education, Research and Outstanding Clinical Care

Mission Statement: As a support service for the entire VTH the Medication Dispensary’s mission aligns with the College’s mission which encompasses education, research, and outstanding clinical care. The Medication Dispensary staff works to provide exceptional patient care while ensuring house officers and students receive opportunities to learn medication-related skills essential to practicing high quality care in a setting without a pharmacist and pharmacy technician presence.

Medication Dispensary Short and Long Term Goals 

  • Support high quality research study design and implementation as it relates to drug therapy. 
  • Provide learning opportunities to ensure veterinary graduates and house officers are prepared to continue providing high quality medication therapy in practice settings without a pharmacist and pharmacy technician. 
  • Work collaboratively with other hospital services to enhance patient care, teaching, and research. 
  • Manage drug inventory and provide compounding capabilities to ensure consistent availability of first line therapies. 
  • Provide education and support to clients and our referring veterinarians. 

The UIUC Medication Dispensary is designed to be a full hospital support service similar to Diagnostic Imaging and Anesthesiology. As such, the Medication Dispensary provides the following services to our hospital:

Compounding (Sterile and Non-sterile)

With a large non-sterile compounding room and a USP 797/800 compliant cleanroom, we are able to provide many sterile and non-sterile medication options.  Our residency-trained pharmacists are happy to discuss any desired formulations and determine the feasibility and economic viability of preparing high quality compounds in-hospital.  We also provide injectable chemotherapy preparation in our negative pressure cleanroom in compliance with USP 800 safety guidelines. 

 

Medication Ordering, Supply, and Inventory Management

With a technician specializing in inventory management, we are able to maintain a diverse formulary at appropriate levels to ensure appropriate therapy is available for all species. As medication inventory specialists, we are able to monitor for and address potential backorder issues.  For critical medications, our veterinary-trained pharmacists work with faculty from the affected services to develop alternative treatment plans to ensure patient care isn’t compromised. 

Drug Information

Our veterinary pharmacists are happy to address questions posed by referring veterinarians, clients and faculty, staff and students at the College of Veterinary Medicine. 

Error and Adverse Event Monitoring

While error prevention is a hospital-wide concern, medications are frequently involved in errors and adverse events. Therefore, a pharmacist is actively involved in the management of the incident reporting form as well as the Quality Improvement Committee and Morbidity and Mortality Rounds.  The entire Medication Dispensary staff is committed to ensuring that each error is reported by one or more of the people involved with the case.  Only through determining what is happening and evaluating the associated system issues will we be able to prevent reoccurrence. This also serves as a platform for documenting drug interactions and adverse events for reporting to the FDA which supports patient care beyond the walls of our hospital. 

Teaching

Veterinary pharmacy concepts are essential to teach to veterinary and pharmacy students.  Therefore, the medication dispensary staff assist with this through numerous didactic, clinical, and incidental teaching opportunities to all four years of the veterinary curriculum as well as house officers and staff.  The Dispensary also serves as an APPE site for multiple pharmacy schools to provide clinical rotation experiences to pharmacy students. From the aspect of educating those outside of the teaching hospital, our pharmacists write educational columns for our referring veterinarian newsletter about current questions/issues relating to medications. We also have a collection of publicly available client handouts and informational videos to assist with medication counseling. 

Research

Research studies and grant applications can be leveled up by working with a veterinary pharmacist.  Our pharmacists assist with background research, identification of funding, input during the grant application process, study design suggestions, drug procurement and preparation and manuscript development. 

Regulatory Compliance and Advocacy

Regulatory compliance is essential and in the high-volume veterinary teaching hospital environment there is often grey area.  Our pharmacists work closely with hospital administration and University-wide and state agencies to ensure compliance.  There are also efforts to ensure our students are educated on regulatory compliance topics that will be relevant in practice. A VTH pharmacist is also actively involved with ISVMA through the Regulatory Committee which involves evaluating and providing input on potential stances for the organization to take on proposed legislation.   

Clinical Interventions

Clinical pharmacists are starting to gain traction in veterinary medicine. Our clinical staff pharmacist supports faculty and staff, house officers, and students by reviewing patient charts for appropriate medication therapy, correct doses, and dosing intervals. They are also present at internal medicine rounds in order to answer pharmacy focused questions.  

Antimicrobial Stewardship

Our medication dispensary is excited to continue developing our antimicrobial stewardship program. We currently have a “high-risk antibiotics” form that is required to be filled out prior to dispensing certain antibiotics. A VTH pharmacist currently chairs the antimicrobial stewardship committee that is working towards developing focused guidelines, creating continuing education materials, and promoting awareness of preventing antimicrobial resistance in the veterinary setting. Review or download the guidebook

Medicine Dispensary Doctors


Laurelei Fisher-Cronkhite – PharmD, DICVP

Clinical Staff Pharmacist

Alex Gochenauer – PharmD, DICVP, FSVHP, FACA

Medication Dispensary Manager

Clinical Staff Pharmacist

Leslie Horner – RPh

Clinical Veterinary Medical Dispensary Resident


Sarah Lira – PharmD

Technicians


Linda Blan – CPhT

Heather Simmons – CPhT