DCAM Pharmacy

Sometimes generic drugs need to take the place for brand name drugs. This can happen if your insurance company wants you to use the generic, or it may be done to lower your co-pay.

Unused Medications

• Drop off unwanted medications in the green MedSafe Box located outside the DCAM Outpatient Pharmacy.
• To dispose of a prescription drug patch, remove it carefully by the edges, fold it in half with the sticky sides together and throw it away in the trash.
• You can also view disposal guidelines on the FDA Consumer Updates page and the FDA Safe Disposal portal.

Needles and Sharps

• Always place needles, syringes and other sharp objects into a dedicated sharps container.
• Ask the UChicago Medicine pharmacy team if you need a container.
• Check with your local town garbage service or health department for specific city laws, visit Safe Needle Disposal or ask your doctor if your clinic accepts full sharps containers for disposal.

If the FDA or a manufacturer recalls your medicine, we will call you with instructions on what to do.

In the event of a disaster in your area, contact UChicago Medicine Pharmacy at 773-834-7002 to tell us how to deliver your medication. This will make sure your therapy is not interrupted.

A pharmacist is here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are always here to answer any questions or deal with any concerns you may have.

Call us at 773-834-6245, press 0, and ask the operator to page the Mail Order Pharmacist On Call.

Call Us at 773-834-7002 if:

• You have any questions or concerns about your medication and need to speak to a pharmacist.
• You have a side effect or allergic reaction to your medication.
• There is a change in your medication use.
• Your contact information or delivery address has changed.
• Your insurance information or payment source has changed.
• You have a question about your insurance claim.
• You need to check the status of your delivery.
• You need to change your delivery date or time.
• You have any questions or concerns about the service we offer.

If you have a medical emergency, call 911 to get help quickly.

If you have a reaction or side effect to your medication, contact your doctor or the UChicago Medicine Pharmacy as soon as possible.

If you believe there is an error with your medication, call us at 773-834-7002.

UChicago Medicine Pharmacy will send claims to your health insurance carrier on the date your prescription is filled. If the claim is rejected, a staff member will let you know the reason why, and work with you to solve the problem.

If the claim is rejected because our pharmacy is not in network with your insurance, we will let you know and work to transfer your care.

You may have to pay a part of your medication cost, called a co-payment or co-insurance. If you have a co-payment or co-insurance, it must be paid at the time of shipping or pick-up.

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover credit cards. We can keep your credit card information on file in a secured and safe place.

If our pharmacy is out of network, and there is any cost for you to use our service, we will let you know.

We will help enroll you in financial assistance programs to help with co-payments, and make sure there are no financial problems with starting your medication.

These programs include discount coupons from drug manufacturers and help from many different disease management foundations.

No person shall be refused admission or treatment on the basis of his or her race, ethnicity, culture, language, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, national origin, marital status, veteran status, religion, or any other classification protected by applicable law.

• Receive quality health care, whatever your race, ethnicity, culture, language, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, national origin, marital status, veteran status, religion, or any other group protected by any laws that apply, and to be treated with dignity and courtesy.
• Be given foreign language or sign language interpretation or other reasonable accommodation of special needs or disabilities.
• Have access to protective and advocacy services and get pastoral care or spiritual services.
• Ask for and take part in an Ethics consultation.
• Ask for a second opinion or to talk with another doctor and to have a transfer to another health care facility.

• To be given information about diagnosis and treatment plans, in language that is easy to understand. This includes risks and benefits, with an explanation of any other options, so you can make an informed decision.
• Know the names and professional responsibilities of your health-care team and the role they take in your care.
• Be given information about the outcomes of care, treatment and services, including any unanticipated outcomes.
• Be told about ongoing health care needed such as return visits and following hospital treatment.
• Be given an explanation for and other options to a proposed transfer to another facility.
• Understand that you may get two different bills. One for UChicago Medicine hospital and another for doctor services. Be given a reasonable explanation of your bills, including a detailed list of each charge.
• Be given written notice of your rights when admitted or as soon as possible after being admitted.

• Take part in the development and giving of your plan of care and treatment.
• Give your permission for medical treatment or to refuse medical treatment to the extent allowed by law. The patient does not have the right to services deemed medically unnecessary or inappropriate.
• Create and have advance directives (with the right to change or remove your advance directive at any time) and have hospital staff and practitioners who provide care at UChicago Medicine comply with those directives. This includes end-of-life wishes. When asked, UChicago Medicine will provide you with information about advance directives, including statutory living wills or powers of attorney.
• Have a family member or representative and your doctor told as soon as is possible when you are admitted to the hospital.
• Take part in volunteer research projects with the possible risks and side effects or possible outcomes fully explained before taking part. This includes those that informed consent will be needed. You can refuse to take part in research projects without the refusal impacting your care.

• Be given information about ways to relieve pain and access to the proper pain assessment and pain management by dedicated pain control specialists.
• Be free from restraints of any kind that are not medically needed or not used to prevent harm to self or others, or are used as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience or retaliation by staff.
• Be given care in a safe setting, free from all forms of abuse or harassment.

• Have my personal privacy respected and my private medical records kept secure. See UChicago Medicine Notice of Privacy Practices or details.
• Ask for restrictions or to limit the medical information UChicago Medicine uses or shares about you and to get private messages from UChicago Medicine.
• To see and copy your medical record in a format you request, if that format is available, within a reasonable amount of time after leaving the hospital. To ask to change or add to your health information and to be given information about the sharing of your medical records in accordance with laws and regulations that apply.
• To give your permission or to refuse permission to be filmed or recorded and that this will not affect the health care you are given.
• Have visitors, mail and phone calls as long as they do not interfere with treatment.

File a complaint by calling or writing to the UChicago Medicine Patient and Family Insights Department, any UChicago Medicine representative, or the UChicago Medicine Hospital Operations Administrator on Call (HOA) at 773-702-1000, pager 188-7500.

This includes complaints by patients who believe that they have been mistreated, denied services or discriminated against because of a handicap.

You or your representative may also file a complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health (“IDPH”) at:

525 West Jefferson Street, Springfield, IL 62761-0001.

Fax: 217-524-2913

Phone: 800-252-4343

TTY (hearing impaired use only): 800-547-0466

If you get Medicare benefits, you or your representative may file a complaint about the quality of care or coverage decisions, or appeal your having to leave the hospital. To file a complaint, contact the Illinois Foundation for Quality Healthcare (a Medicare-approved Quality Improvement Organization (QIO)) at:

1776 West Lakes Parkway, West Des Moines, IA 50266.

Fax: 515-223-2141

Phone: 800-647-8089

• Tell a family member or representative if you have made an advanced directive and to tell caregivers when you are admitted to UChicago Medicine.
• Give correct and complete information about your present condition and past medical history to your doctor.
• Follow the treatment plan and tell your doctor or nurse of changes in your health.
• Ask questions to get a better understanding.
• Share your concerns and disagreements with health care recommendations and accept responsibility for health care decisions.
• Ask for pain relief when pain first begins and talk about pain management options to help in developing the right pain management plan for you.
• Keep appointments for follow-up care or tell the clinic ahead of time if you need to cancel.
• Be considerate of other patients and respect their privacy and property.
• Provide UChicago Medicine with complete and correct financial information and comply with agreed-upon payment plans.

• For reasons of mutual trust and respect, the University of Chicago Medical Center will not allow patients or their family members to ask that a member of the health care team be changed or assigned when the request is based on discriminatory bias against the member’s legally protected characteristics. Legally protected characteristics include race, ethnicity, culture, language, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, physical or mental disability, socioeconomic status, national origin, marital status, veteran status, religion, or any other classification protected by law.
• The Medical Center will consider requests to change a member of the healthcare team at sometimes when it has to do with the patient’s own legally protected characteristics. This includes, for example, in matters of reproductive and sexual health, matters involving a patient’s sincerely held religious beliefs or when getting care from a provider of a particular gender may cause the patient discomfort. Decisions whether to honor a request of this type will be made on a case-by-case basis and follow the law as it applies. No request will be honored if it is based on discriminatory bias against legally protected characteristics.
• This policy applies to patients and their family members seeking treatment within the Medical Center. This includes the inpatient setting and in the outpatient care setting (such as X rays and treatments in clinics). It does not extend to the choice made by patients in making appointments and making ongoing doctor and patient relationships with outpatient care physicians (including, for example and without limitation, primary care physicians, obstetricians and gynecologists.)
• The Medical Center will offer to plan the transfer of a patient to another hospital or provider organization if a patient or the patient’s family members have made a discriminatory request as described above. This transfer will be made if the patient or the patient’s family members will not, after talking with representatives of the Medical Center, agree to get care from that member of the health care team, provided the patient is medically stable.