The director of Doctors Hospital of Manteca’s pharmacy, Katy Marconi, Pham.D, has been awarded the prestigious “Pharmacist of the Year” honors by her peers in the (CSHP) California Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Central Valley.

Marconi has been the director of the hospital pharmacy since 1997. She has 10 pharmacists and technicians working under her leadership.  She has been a pharmacist for some 26 years, with 20 of those years in Manteca.

She chuckled this week when she said she was away in New Zealand when the board she headed in 2001 met to select their recipient for the award. 

In her year as president of the pharmacists’ society, she launched a program to involve University of the Pacific Pharmacy School students in the Stockton Asparagus Festival where they offered blood pressure screening and eventually glucose checks for a nominal fee.

“We wanted to make people aware of their need for their health care checks,” she recalled of her program.  “We had shifts working over the four day period with at least 100 pharmacy students involved.  All were interns and they are still doing the program now with a site over by the waterfront.”

She noted that the Asparagus Festival loved having the volunteer pharmacy students there and by working with a non-profit they could go back and get support funds for their glucose cartridges.  Marconi acknowledged that pharmacists are expected to be taking on an added role in the near future because of the shortage of general practice physicians in the state.

The Central Valley group works closesly with all the hospital in the area including St. Josephs, San Joaquin County Hospital, Memorial in Modesto and the UOP School of Pharmacy. 

DHM continually has UOP pharmacy students and from other schools serving six week internships at the hospital under the guidance of a registered pharmacist on staff.

There are 15 regional chapters of the California Society of Health System Pharmacists in California with eight student chapters at eight pharmacy schools.

The CSHP is a professional society of pharmacists and associates who serve patients and the public by promoting wellness and the best use of medications.  The Central Valley Chapter serves pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and associates from San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Calaveras and Tuolumne counties.