New London ― It's been estimated that at least a quarter of all patients discharged from the hospital fail to fill the prescriptions they’ve been issued.

Some who do don’t take their medications properly.

Now, what if they could leave the hospital in possession of their meds as well as a thorough understanding of how to take them?

For Lawrence + Memorial Hospital patients, that prospect promises to become real this spring when the hospital’s long-planned outpatient pharmacy opens in the first-floor space formerly occupied by a gift shop the nonprofit Auxiliary of L+M Hospital ran up until the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to close.

L+M’s new Outpatient Pharmacy and Gift Shop will be the first hospital outpatient pharmacy in southeastern Connecticut and the second in the Yale New Haven Health system. The first, at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven, was in place when Yale New Haven Health acquired St. Raphael’s in 2012.

The health system also operates a pharmacy at a medical building in North Haven and plans to open an outpatient pharmacy in Bridgeport Hospital and, eventually, in its hospitals in Greenwich and Westerly.

Yale New Haven Health’s $1.5 million investment in L+M’s outpatient pharmacy could pay big dividends for patients, according to Mark Rogers, L+M’s pharmacy director.

“Our goal will be to put meds in patients’ hands before they leave the building,” he said.

And that means the hands of virtually every patient admitted to the hospital as well as those who leave the emergency room with prescriptions or visit hospital clinics and have prescriptions to fill.

L+M discharges, on average, between 40 and 50 patients a day.

The new pharmacy also will serve L+M employees and their families in addition to the public at large. It will fill prescriptions regardless of where they were written and it will deliver medications to the homebound by courier, or ship them overnight by Federal Express, if necessary.

Pharmacy staff will run deliveries out to people who choose to wait in their cars in a designated parking area beyond the hospital’s main entrance.

It’s about breaking down barriers, Janet Mattiucci, the new pharmacy’s manager, said.

“Patients might have financial issues, insurance issues or a transportation problem that prevents them from getting their prescriptions filled outside the hospital,” she said. “They end up not taking their meds and having to be readmitted. Studies show so many prescribed meds are not taken.”

An outpatient pharmacy helps “close the loop” in patients’ care, Alex Dozier, L+M’s associate pharmacy director, said by coordinating with a hospital’s inpatient pharmacy to reduce errors.

The space in front of the new pharmacy’s counter has shelves that will be stocked with over-the-counter medications and other items, as well as the gift shop, whose return L+M employees are said to be particularly happy about. Behind the counter, empty shelves await the supplies of medications that will fill them.

Another feature of the pharmacy is a state-licensed drug disposal box where patients can drop off their unused medications.

And then there’s Mattiucci’s “pride and joy,” the consultation room, where she and a patient will be able to sit down and discuss a patient’s medications and, for that matter, the patient’s entire medical records, which pharmacy staff will be able to access in the case of patients treated in the Yale New Haven Health system.

In the consultation room, patients’ questions about drug prices, insurance coverage and other concerns will get their due.

Once the pharmacy has been up and running for a time, Mattiucci, who came to L+M from the CVS in Groton, plans to pursue partnerships with organizations in the area, including Mitchell College.

Dozier said discussions about an outpatient pharmacy were taking place when he joined L+M more than a decade ago. He said it took a certain volume of prescriptions for it to be feasible from a business standpoint.

He credited Dr. Geoffrey Nadzam, L+M’s chief of surgery, who came from St. Raphael’s, with advocating for L+M’s outpatient pharmacy.

Among the new pharmacy’s staff ― the seven full-timers include Mattiucci, two pharmacists and four pharmacy technicians ― there's an air of anticipation. Although an event marking the pharmacy’s opening is scheduled for Tuesday, its actual debut is expected sometime in early April.

Its hours will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

b.hallenbeck@theday.com