Earlier this month, when a customer came to Duquesne University's Center for Pharmacy Services in the Hill District, pharmacy director Terri Kroh noticed a can of condensed milk in the woman's shopping bag.

"Doing some baking?" she asked.

The woman replied that no, that can of milk would be her dinner for that night and for later in the week. With co-pays for her medications priced at $40 and $50, she couldn't afford much else to eat.

Right then and there, Ms. Kroh sat down and figured out that the customer was being charged more than she should have been because of default billing from a mail-order company. Her correct co-pays were less than $10.

The Center for Pharmacy Services isn't your typical pharmacy -- and not just because it's believed to be the only stand-alone pharmacy in the country operated by a pharmacy school.

One year ago last week, Duquesne opened the Center for Pharmacy Services -- a $600,000 project -- to try to fill a void in the Hill District, which had gone more than a decade without a pharmacy. In its first year, the pharmacy has built up to a clientele of about 1,900 patients a month -- or 95 per day, with about half getting new prescriptions and half getting refills.

"With nothing being up here in the Hill District -- no stores, no supermarkets, nothing convenient -- it's been a godsend," said Kimberly Spruce, community outreach coordinator for primary care health services at Hill House.

Thursday morning, workers arrived to install a neon sign marking the pharmacy's official presence in the Triangle Shops Complex shopping center on Centre Avenue.

The center, which aims to provide each customer with appropriate medical services, is a large, freshly renovated space that looks more like a medical office than a commercial pharmacy. No candy or magazines are for sale, and the over-the-counter drugs are actually behind the counter. While customers wait for their prescriptions to be filled, pharmacists take them in for a consultation and screen them for health problems such as high cholesterol and diabetes.