Rural Pharmacy

This week at MPhA was interesting to say the least!  We decided to expand our focus of independent community pharmacy out of the Twin Cities Metro area and into the rural setting.  This was a welcome change for me because I have not experienced rural pharmacy in any capacity in the past.  So I had a lot to learn…

We started off the week on a 2 day road trip to southwest Minnesota.  The group was myself, Julie, Laura, and the director of pharmacy for Astrup Drug Tim Gallagher.  Astrup is what you could consider an “independent chain” of pharmacies.  They consist of 10 pharmacies spread across the state, with the majority south of the metro area.  Our trip entailed visiting 4 different pharmacies in Fairmont, Worthington, and Adrian, the latter being a “telepharmacy.”  Our first stop was in the little town of Adrian, population 1234.  Adrian had recently lost their community pharmacy, but due to a variance by the Board of Pharmacy and a big leap by the leaders of Astrup, the town now has their pharmacy back… a telepharmacy.  This telepharmacy was really cool.  It was staffed with just one technician, Karen.  The way it worked is that Karen would do everything to prepare the prescription and then have a pharmacist in Worthington (about 20 miles away) verify the prescription via a computer connection.  The pharmacist would also be available to patients for counseling.  It was a lot like a web-cam where the patient and pharmacist could see each other and talk in realtime!  It was a great set up and the town seemed to LOVE having their pharmacy back.

That night we went out to dinner in the tiny town of Fulda, population 1196.  One of the pharmacists from Worthington joined us, his name was Bryan.  It was interesting to get his perspective about the telepharmacy, and by all accounts it has been running smoothly.  Laura and I also noticed something that we have only heard about in school.  Bryan was an integral part of the community.  He must have had 5 different people/patients come up to him to talk during dinner, just because they knew him as their pharmacist.  The kicker was that Fulda in a good 18 miles away from Worthington, and people STILL recognized Bryan!  To put it in perspective, that distance is about the same as leaving the college of pharmacy in Minneapolis and heading due west until you reach Long Lake (past Wayzata)!  That is the kind of impact a community pharmacy can have in a small town. 

The next day we visited Worthington and Fairmont, and visited 3 more independent community pharmacies and learned about all the services they provide, along with some of their struggles.  Overall, the road trip gave me great prospective about a subject that is lacking in the college of pharmacy curriculum.

Thursday was another day of travel, this time to Comfrey, population 344.  You want to talk about small town livin’… This was small town livin’.  We met up with Jim Schneider who had owned Schneider Drug in town for many years until he had to retire.  The next owner worked many years after Jim, but decided to close down.  This left yet another small community without a pharmacy.  Jim is on a mission to get the pharmacy back up and running again.  He is reaching out to anyone and everyone who would be willing to move to Comfrey and restart a once prosperous business.  I must say, Comfrey was unlike anything I had seen in my life.  A small community all within relatively close quarters, but you could tell everyone who lived there was invested in their town.  There was a definite pride that radiated from the residents.  The town was clean, well kept, friendly, and welcoming!  Talking with Jim was interesting and yet a little heartbreaking.  Here is a guy who put his life’s work into this town in the pharmacy, only to see it close down with little hope of reopening and carrying on the legacy.  Anyone who is interested in small-town community pharmacy should contact Julie Johnson (julie@mpha.org) at MPhA, and she can connect you with Jim about this wonderful opportunity!

Well, one more week to go here at MPhA.  On tap for next week is some talk about starting an independent pharmacy from scratch, as well as some financial information about the association.