NELSON COUNTY, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The University of Virginia Health System opened its ninth community pharmacy, called UVA Health Pharmacy Stoney Creek, in Nellysford on Monday.

Before Monday, Nelson County residents had to drive at least 40 miles round trip to get to the nearest pharmacy.

“This is fantastic. It's five minutes from me," Houston Sorenson said.

A pharmacy desert is classified as a community without a pharmacy within 10 miles. Nelson County was 30 miles beyond that.

"People need to have easy access to medications, especially when they're sick, especially if they have any barrier to being able to travel from place to place easily, which is true for a lot of people in this community," Justin Vesser, director of ambulatory pharmacy at UVA said.

He said the pharmacy contributes to UVA Health's mission of transforming health for Virginians and beyond.

"There's something really special about knowing your patients, knowing their names and then knowing your name. Knowing what medications they're on without them even having to tell you," Kasey Griffith, who is the new pharmacist at Stoney Creek, said.

"I'm looking forward to having a bit of a smaller pharmacy, where we can get to know the pharmacist and pharmacist technician. And that makes a huge difference in terms of ever running into any issues," Jim McCaffery said.

The pharmacy has paperwork to welcome new patients.