The expansion comes after the Walgreens Pharmacy in downtown Reno near the University of Nevada, Reno announced it would reduce hours and no longer be open 24/7.
Adam Porath, the vice president of pharmacy services with Renown Health, said the pharmacy wasn’t necessarily planning on expanding hours.
“With the closing of the last 24-hour pharmacy in town, it really left an unmet need in the community,” Porath said. “As one of the largest places in town where we have an immediate patient need where maybe there’s a late surgery happening, or patients leaving the ER, we felt it was necessary to try and bridge that gap.”
Porath said access to an overnight pharmacy is important for patients discharged from the hospital at night who need pain medicine or antibiotics.
“An example that happened recently was a patient that came in with appendicitis, had a late emergency surgery, and was ready to go home at 10 o’clock at night. They didn’t want to stay here overnight. That’s likely what we’re going to see in those after-hours scenarios,” Porath said.
Porath said the pharmacy quickly hired four pharmacists and two technicians to work swing and graveyard shifts.
Renown Pharmacy offers some over-the-counter medicine and prescriptions. It is open to the public and accepts most major insurances, Medicare and Medicaid.
