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PGY1 Community Pharmacy San Diego, California

The Kaiser Permanente, San Diego PGY1 Community-Based Pharmacy Residency Program will prepare the residency graduates to develop and provide advanced patient care services, become leaders, and practice change agents in the Community-Based pharmacy setting. Following guidelines set by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, our residency program provides thorough training in a variety of specialties. It is a 12-month postgraduate curriculum that offers training in community pharmacy, drug information, practice leadership and a variety of ambulatory care services. The program is designed and implemented around the resident’s professional and personal goals. The resident is offered a variety of core, elective, and longitudinal experiences. The resident will actively participate in Community-Based outreach events, as well as a variety of precepting opportunities. We are proud to deliver an excellent, practical, and flexible educational experience relevant to today’s clinical pharmacy practice. In addition, our program aims to balance rigorous education, service, and life balance, while living in and enjoying the spectacular beaches, beautiful parks and warm climates of San Diego. Kaiser Permanente, San Diego PGY1 Community-Based Pharmacy Residency Program is accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) in conjunction with American Pharmacists Association.

Program Details

Kaiser Permanente, San Diego PGY1 Community-Based Pharmacy Residency Program is accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) in conjunction with American Pharmacists Association. ASHP Residency Program Design and Content model is used to design and deliver training.

Statement of Purpose

To build upon the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) education and outcomes to develop Community-Based pharmacist practitioners with diverse patient care, leadership, and education skills who are eligible to pursue advanced training opportunities including postgraduate year two (PGY2) residencies and professional certifications.


Pharmacy Services

As the largest service area in Kaiser Permanente Southern California Region, Kaiser Permanente San Diego serves over 630,000 members and is comprised of two medical center campuses with two inpatient pharmacies. There are 17 outpatient pharmacies, 3 outpatient infusion sterile compounding pharmacies, and many ambulatory care pharmacy services. In 2017, we opened a new 617,000 square-foot state-of-the-art hospital, San Diego Medical Center (SDMC), designed with cutting-edge medical technologies and an interactive patient care system with a video-visit platform used with 75-inch monitors in each patient room. SDMC boasts innovations in environmentally sustainable technology for cleaner, greener energy and has earned certification as a LEED Platinum health care facility.

Kaiser Permanente San Diego Pharmacy Service employs over 600 pharmacists and supportive personnel in Inpatient, Outpatient, Ambulatory Care, Home Infusion Drug Use Management, and Administration settings. Our teams are an integral part of the Kaiser Permanente care delivery system for our members. Staying at the forefront of clinical pharmacy practice, we continue to innovate and respond to the changing needs in healthcare. In addition to providing clinical and dispensing services, we also take an active role in interdisciplinary committees, including Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T), Medication Safety Committee (MSC), Medication Treatment Appropriateness Committee (MedTAC), Diversion Prevention, Clinic Administered Medications, and Quality Management. Our pharmacists work closely with physicians and nurses on these committees and in practice.


Area Information

San Diego is California’s second largest city and the United States’ eighth largest. San Diego County encompasses 18 incorporated cities and numerous neighborhoods and communities, including downtown’s historic Gaslamp Quarter, Little Italy, Hillcrest, Coronado, La Jolla, Del Mar and Carlsbad. Known for its 70 miles of pristine beaches, luxury resorts and Torrey Pines Golf Course, San Diego is also popular for the world-famous San Diego Zoo, Zoo Safari Park, SeaWorld and LEGOLAND California. For more information about the communities we serve please visit these websites:

• San Diego Tourism Authority: www.sandiego.org
• San Diego International Airport: www.san.org

San Diego At A Glance


Learning Experiences

Core Experience

  • Orientation (2 weeks)
    Orientation is a required 2 week learning experience that occurs primarily at the pharmacy administration offices and at Independence Park in Downey, in which KP SCAL Regional Pharmacy Operations resides. The Residency Pharmacy Director (RPD) will serve as the primary preceptor for this experience. However, the resident will interface with members of the KP San Diego pharmacy leadership team, KP Regional Pharmacy Management Team and trainers.
    The resident will become familiar with the expectations of the PGY1 CPRP, KPSD policies and procedures, receive training on electronic health record, information management systems, research design and get acquainted with their role in the KPSD pharmacy team. The resident will learn about ASHP’s PGY1 Residency Program Design and Conduct for CPRP and complete self-assessment to identify their strengths and weaknesses. The initial development plan will be finalized by the end of orientation and will be shared with preceptors.
  • Medication Therapy Management (MTM)*
    The MTM Program is a medication management service for Medicare Part D members that is provided by pharmacists operating under approved drug therapy management protocols.
    The pharmacy resident will be responsible for managing the medication for patients with chronic disease states, disease state education, and completing comprehensive medication reviews (CMRs) and targeted medication reviews (TMRs).
  • Transitions of Care (TOC)*
    The TOC Pharmacy Service is primarily located at the Clinical Pharmacy Service Office at San Diego Mission Road. The TOC Pharmacy Service works with a multi-disciplinary team comprised of physicians, nurses, case managers, and skilled nursing personnel to assist with coordination of hospital discharges.
    The resident will have the opportunity to perform medication reconciliation for patients admitted to the hospital as well as upon discharge, to ensure appropriate medication use. The resident will also provide counseling and education to patients who are discharged to home. Collaboration with a multi-disciplinary team through telemedicine will be an essential part of the LE.
  • Drug Utilization Management (DUM)*
    This LE is designed to provide the resident with an overview of the working knowledge of our Kaiser Permanente Formulary System and its application in an HMO setting, with emphasis on quality and affordability. The goal of this program is to reduce overall drug therapy costs while maintaining and improving our quality of care achieved through active monitoring of drug utilization, drug costs, new treatments, as well as education programs to influence physician prescribing.
    The resident will be responsible for identifying and resolving medication therapy issues. In addition, the resident will evaluate new drugs for possible addition the formulary and present these evaluations to the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee (along with PGY1 & PGY2 residents), and serve as a resource for information about drugs and drug therapy to healthcare professionals.
  • Home Infusion Pharmacy (HIP)*
    The HIP in San Diego provides outpatient infusion medications, related IV supplies, consultation and clinical monitoring services to patient in home setting, infusion center setting and skilled nursing facilities in San Diego area. HIP is licensed by California Board of Pharmacy and accredited by The Joint Commission.
    Through a multidisciplinary and integrated approach, we promote positive clinical outcomes, high quality and safety, outstanding service, and affordability.

       (5 weeks)*

Elective Experience

The resident will have the opportunity to customize their residency schedule by selecting two elective learning experiences offered through our Kaiser Permanente ambulatory clinics. Each elective lasts 5 weeks.

  • Anticoagulation/Direct Oral Anticoagulants
  • HIV/Infectious Diseases
  • Inflammatory Diseases
  • Oral Chemotherapy
  • Renal

Longitudinal Experience

  • Community-Based Pharmacy
    KPSD has 17 Outpatient Pharmacies that serve over 600,000 members and fills over 3 million prescriptions per year. This learning experience (LE) is based primarily out of the San Diego Medical Center Pharmacy (SDMC). The SDMC pharmacy is a discharge hospital pharmacy (600-700 prescriptions per day). The resident will also gain experience at the Vandever Outpatient Pharmacy which is located at a Medical Office Building. Through this LE the resident will be analyzing community pharmacy workflow from a more strategic perspective. The LE will require the resident to evaluate productivity, staffing levels, and identify opportunities for increased efficiency. The resident will need to incorporate continuous quality improvement (CQI) and use performance improvement tools (i.e., process mapping, spaghetti diagrams, etc.) to optimize safe patient care.
  • Complete Care Management (CCM)
    The CCM program is a proactive, interdisciplinary team-based model of care that touches the patient before, during, after, and between visits. The CCM team approaches every patient encounter as an opportunity to provide necessary preventative risk-related care and chronic disease state management (i.e., Diabetes, Hyperlipidemia, Hypertension). The purpose of this longitudinal experience is to provide the resident with the opportunity to use evidence-based, patient centric approach to provide care and focus on an individual’s healthcare needs. The resident will provide disease state management for their panel of patient’s chronic conditions. Areas of focus includes selecting, initiating, modifying therapy where clinically appropriate, and establishing extended patient care relationships.
  • Community Outreach
    The aim of this LE is to provide opportunity for the resident to demonstrate their commitment to improving the health and wellness of the community, as well as to strengthen clinical didactic skills needed to become an effective pharmacist. Through the participation and design of community outreach experiences in collaboration with the health care team, the resident will become proficient in delivering patient care services to a diverse range of patients.
  • Medication Safety
    The goal of the Medication Safety LE is for the resident to develop proficient skills in identifying, developing, and implementing safe medication use practices as part of our CQI efforts to minimize the risk of adverse drug events. Areas of focus for improving our medication use processes include:
  • Identifying the need and analyzing data through completion of a Medication Use Evaluations (MUE)
  • Evaluating established best practices (i.e., ISMP, FDA Med Watch, National Guidelines), and identifying, developing, and implementing safe medication use practices as part of our CQI.
  • Educating healthcare professionals and the community through presentations, patient safety fairs, and publications on relevant medication safety topics
  • Participating in the medication event review process in collaboration with the Medication Safety & Drug Furnishing Incident (DFI) committees.
  • Administration
    During this LE, the resident will get an overview of the administrative responsibilities of the pharmacy department. The resident will attend meetings with the Area Pharmacy Director and the Outpatient Pharmacy Director. Areas of focus may include creating a business plan, financial management, regulatory compliance, business practice, quality and service management, health care environment and leadership skills development.
  • Residency Research Project
    Throughout the residency year, the resident will complete one major primary research project relating to a specific aspect of pharmacy practice. The primary research project may involve the development, enhancement, or evaluation of a current practice, may be a problem- solving exercise, or may involve original research. The resident will be involved in each step of the primary research project from the point of formulating a question to be answered, creating a study design, conducting literature searches, performing a pre-study if necessary, to determine the achievability and usefulness of the actual project, conducting the actual study, and interpreting the data collected. The resident will present results of the study upon completion at the Western States Pharmacy Conference. Additionally, the resident will write a manuscript detailing the project upon its completion and create a poster suitable for presentation at a pharmacy conference.
  • Education
    The resident will strengthen their clinical didactic skills needed to become an effective pharmacist and preceptor. The resident to be involved in teaching activities that will foster the development and refinement of their communication skills, confidence, and effectiveness as a preceptor. As an active member of our Education Program Committee, the resident will:
  • Precept and serve as a role model for pharmacy students/interns
  • Participate in journal club sessions, presentations to Family Medicine Residents, UCSD Free Clinic, KPSD Intern Workshops, and presentations and in-services as required
  • Complete an ASHP teaching certificate
  • Lead and contribute to pharmacy student discussions

Requirements for Acceptance

  • Graduate of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)-accredited (or ACPE candidate status) school of pharmacy.
  • Must be licensed as an Intern Pharmacist in the state of California by the first day of residency program.
  • Residents who have not obtained a California Pharmacist license by October 1st are subject to suspension until license is obtained. To ensure that all residents complete at least two-thirds (eight months) of the program as a licensed pharmacist, the resident is required to make up any missed time and continue beyond the scheduled program end date as determined by the local Residency Steering Committee.  If license is not obtained by December 15th, employment will be subject to termination.  In instances beyond the resident’s control, termination is evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
  • State Board of Pharmacy: http://www.pharmacy.ca.gov/
  • Candidates must be registered in the National Matching Services, Inc. (NMS).
  • Candidates must participate in the ASHP Matching Program.

Application Requirements

  • Statement of Interest/Letter of Intent
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Official Pharmacy School transcripts, sent directly from the applicant’s college or school of pharmacy
  • 3 letters of references/recommendations utilizing the form in PhORCAS
  • Application Deadline: January 2, 2024

Interview Details

**This residency agrees that no person at this residency will solicit, accept, or use any ranking-related information from any residency applicant**

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Apply using the ASHP standard application process on the ASHP PhORCAS website.

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Current Pay Rate

$23.38 per hour

Contact Information

Amy Rorstad, PharmD, CPHQ, CPPS
Medication Safety Pharmacist/Project Manager II
Residency Program Director

Kaiser Permanente Pharmacy Administration
10990 San Diego Mission Rd.
San Diego, California 92108
United States
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Amy.Rorstad@kp.org
(619) 641-4370

Kiron Punwani, Pharm.D.
Outpatient Pharmacy Operations Manager
Residency Program Coordinator

San Diego Medical Center Outpatient Pharmacy
9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, California 92123
United States
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Kiron.M.Punwani@kp.org
(858) 266-2591

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