From counter to clinic: pharmacist’s research points to faster care

Celeste Giovanatti, St. Joseph’s Health Care London’s (St. Joseph’s) second pharmacy resident is finding gaps and solutions that simultaneously build better patient health and reduce the strain on urgent care centres.  

Giovanatti has completed her residency at St. Joseph’s but she’s not ending her year quietly. During her residency, Giovanatti led a one-year research project titled Identifying Potential for Pharmacist Minor Ailment Prescribing in an Urgent Care Centre, looking at how pharmacists can help reduce visits to urgent care.

Her project earned third place at this year’s Southwestern Ontario Pharmacy Resident Research Project Night, that was hosted by The University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. Giovanatti’s project discussed how community pharmacists can play a larger role in easing the burden on urgent care services.

“Community-based pharmacists have a meaningful role to play in relieving ongoing Urgent Care pressures”
-Celeste Giovanatti.

The research focused on patients who visited the St. Joseph’s Hospital Urgent Care Centre in 2024 for ailments that could be managed by a pharmacist, such as urinary tract, eye infections, backaches, indigestion and more.

Giovanatti found that some of those visits could potentially have been avoided if patients had visited a community-based pharmacist instead.

“Community-based pharmacists have a meaningful role to play in relieving ongoing Urgent Care pressures”, says pharmacy resident Celeste Giovanatti.

By redirecting these patients away from Urgent Care and towards community pharmacists, wait times for everyone – including patients with urgent medical issues– could decrease, adding significant benefit for patients and health systems alike.  

“This project was particularly meaningful to me given Canada’s ongoing primary care crisis,” says Giovanatti. “Pharmacists have the training, clinical expertise and accessibility to provide effective, timely care for minor ailments, while also alleviating pressure on overcrowded hospital systems.”

Her findings also suggest a gap in public awareness and understanding. Many patients are simply unaware of the range of services pharmacists can provide. Giovanatti’s research shows that greater education about the pharmacist’s role is essential to creating a more sustainable health-care system.

“I am passionate about advocating for the role of pharmacists in patient care and supporting an expanded scope of practice that fully reflects our qualifications.”

Before joining St. Joseph’s, Giovanatti completed her undergraduate degree at Western University and earned her pharmacy degree from the University of British Columbia.  Giovanatti was drawn to St. Joseph’s because of its strong focus on ambulatory care.  

As of Sept. 5, Giovanatti will have officially completed her residency and will start her next chapter as a pharmacist in Burlington.