Vashon’s healthcare landscape, in recent months, has included the arrival of Vashon Health Care District’s mobile urgent care provider, DispatchHealth, and the expansion of Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s Mobile Integrated Health program, which serves islanders in their homes with a wide range of healthcare needs.

But now, there’s also a third new option for islanders: a clinic open five days a week at Vashon Pharmacy that is currently staffed by three credentialed pharmacists.

The clinic, said pharmacy owner Tyler Young, can help fill the gap in providing treatment for a variety of needs and acute ailments that islanders have, in recent years, struggled to find immediate care for.

“A patient shouldn’t have to make the choice,” Young said, “to weather [an illness], or drive off the island, or wait until tomorrow” to be treated for some of the conditions his new clinic can now address.

Services offered include diagnosis and treatment of acute conditions including urinary tract and yeast infections, stings, bites, and burns, and management of chronic conditions including diabetes, cholesterol, asthma, and blood pressure screenings.

The clinic also offers consultations on travel vaccines, vaccine assessments, and point-of-care testing and treatment for COVID-19, flu, and streptococcal pharyngitis (Group A strep). The clinic can also diagnose respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Looking to obtain birth control, or stop an addiction? Vashon Pharmacy’s clinic offers consultations on hormonal contraception, as well as risk assessments for opioid and tobacco cessation.

Nutritional consultations and medical therapy reviews are also available.

Young, in an interview last week, said that these clinical services began slowly rolling out last summer, even as a major renovation of the pharmacy was being completed to provide space for examination rooms.

That renovation “took longer than we wanted,” said Young, with construction bleeding into the fall flu season — during which the pharmacy and local partners including VashonBePrepared launched a mass vaccination campaign to inoculate more than 2,300 islanders against flu, COVID-19, or both. Because some islanders received multiple shots, the total number of vaccinations given totaled about 4,500, said Young.

Through a partnership with Mobile Integrated Health, that campaign also included a successful effort to vaccinate home-bound patients. Young hailed the partnership, saying it had streamlined earlier efforts to vaccinate people in their homes on Vashon.

But with those campaigns winding down, he said, the pharmacy’s new clinic is now poised to become more fully operational.

Young said his staff has a collaborative approach to treating patients, referring them to Mobile Integrated Health, DispatchHealth, or primary care providers in cases when those entities can provide more appropriate care.

But he urged all islanders to think of the pharmacy as a resource for navigating acute healthcare needs on Vashon.

“My sense is that people don’t want to bother us, but you can call us for everything and we’ll help you,” he said.

Young said that the pharmacy’s clinic accepts most health insurance plans, with one important and unfortunate exception.

The federal government, he said, does not currently recognize pharmacists as medical providers, so his clinic cannot accept most types of insurance associated with Medicare plans.

“It will take federal legislation to change that,” Young said, adding that he hopes to see that happen sooner, rather than later, because there is a strong bipartisan effort to address the issue.

In the meantime, he said, those insured by Medicare plans should know that payments for most clinical services at the clinic will not top about $150.

Washington State does recognize pharmacists as medical providers, so Medicaid and other state insurance plans are accepted for services at the clinic, Young added.

The clinic is generally open for appointments between 9:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with same-day appointment sign-up at vashonpharmacy.com.

Those with urgent needs should contact the pharmacy directly at 206-463-9118 or just drop in, with the understanding that they may have to wait to see a provider, Young said.

To read more about the clinical services offered, visit vashonpharmacy.com.