FLATIRONS FAMILY PHARMACY

Flatirons Family Pharmacy offers opportunities for patients to engage in their wellness and preventative care that goes beyond standard pharmacist care.  With a Clinical Pharmacist Certified in Functional Medicine and Hormone Therapy, and Staff pharmacists with advanced certificate training they have created an edge with their community pharmacy model that is prosperous and sustainable.

Jen Palazzolo, the Pharmacist Owner of Flatirons Family Pharmacy, is the business’ leader.  She has created a successful Cash Pay Model with preventative health reviews, alternative therapies, Functional Medicine consults, compounding of both Human and Veterinary products, POCT Test to Treat, Hormonal Therapy, and supplemental care with wellness checks.  Combined with the full range of “Traditional Pharmacy Services” like immunizations, custom packaging, and free home delivery, she shows that diversifying your business model will create great success in alternative revenue.

They take advantage of an Appointment Based Model and Colorado’s Scope of Practice with SWPs and Test to Treat models.   They leverage their relationships with providers to advance their service menu allowing for enhanced patient care.  Consistently communicating with collaborative providers has been important in upholding expected standards and services they offer to patients.  

Jen would advise other members to create a niche within their business models.  She mentions that consistent communication and connection with her current and future customers through marketing and social media posts are highly important. Using consistency to build relationships is their key to marketing success.  She suggests that “Private Labeling” of supplemental products that fit your client base can increase sales.  They have “Private Labeled” the MyCOLove adaptogenic mushrooms tinctures which are selling well along with a nice line of whole-body supplements. 

At the NCPA’s Annual Convention this month in Orlando Jen will be presenting a CE event “The ROI for Adding UTI, Nutrient Depletion, and Other Unique POCTs to Your Service Portfolio”.  It is exciting to see one of our Board Members and Female Business-Owners stepping out to promote valuable resources that lead to viability and success for other Independent Pharmacies. 

https://flatironsrx.com/

Capitol Heights Pharmacy, owned by Kristin and Chris Holmes, is an original liquor-licensed drugstore first opened in 1881 in the Congress Park area of Denver. Kristin and Chris have owned the store for 10 years. Kristin is The Pharmacy Manager and PIC and Chris has an MBA and is a Licensed Hearing Specialist with an Audiology Clinic in the pharmacy. Capitol Heights Pharmacy now gives up to 60 vaccines daily during the fall, administers Influenza and COVID vaccines to patients including infants down to 6 months old, and has just started implementing various new services including UTI treatment, birth control prescribing, Naloxone prescribing and Travel Health consultations. They have embraced Point-Of-Care Testing and Colorado’s State-Wide Protocols for Test to Treat in Flu, COVID and Strep infections. They are gearing up to provide a large menu of services for this upcoming season. Kristin is currently credentialed to bill Aetna, United, Cigna, and Colorado Medicaid and is awaiting approvals for Kaiser, Humana, and BCBS. In the meantime, Capitol Heights Pharmacy has started offering cash pricing for services to patients. Kristin was also recently informed by CU that she won the Horizons Alumni Award for those who have graduated in the last 10 years and exemplify the highest potential for significant contributions to the profession of pharmacy. She hopes to show other Independent Pharmacies how to implement these new services which are both profitable and meaningful for our communities. Chris is excited to showcase another revenue generating opportunity to other Independent Pharmacies with his CE presentation on “Success with OTC Hearing Aids in the Pharmacy” at our RXPlus Annual Meeting in August. Capitol Heights Pharmacy is showing us great examples of how to integrate enhanced services within the pharmacy and its workflow. They are trailblazing with Pharmacist Credentialing and the incorporation of alternative revenue building opportunities. We are so glad to have them as RXPlus members and as an example of how to keep our Independent Pharmacies viable.

GEM PHARMACY

Gem Pharmacy is taking advantage of revenue building opportunities and provider relationships. They are fitting services like LAIA, POCT testing and test to treat protocols into their daily workflow. They are providing services following an ABM with full participation in technologies that stretch beyond the dispensing workflow. They have learned and leveraged the use of good business relationships to forward their services and increase their reimbursement. Remembering who they collaborate with now may lead to further collaboration in the future. They had to take action towards these providers and organizations that they are now partnered with. Due to positive previous business relationships, Gem Pharmacy was known by people who worked for these organizations. Gem had already built trust, good communication and reliability with members of these teams.

Gem had a connection with a family practice that hosts Residency Programs and uses a clinical pharmacist from within their practice to fulfill this role as an institutional, clinical teaching rotation. The family practice lost the clinical pharmacist that was in the role and reached out to Gem to fulfill it. This allowed Gem to step in and offer their services. Out of this connection came a Collaborative Practice Agreement that is broad enough to cover the many clinical focuses and services that Gem provides, including the state Test to Treat protocols. This broad range of clinical topics allows for the Resident to receive a variety of training and experiences in their practice.

Gem finds value in offering services to the family practice that fill gaps in care, while increasing the practice’s star ratings and total reimbursements. The CPA allows them to prove how direct collaboration with a pharmacy can decrease ER and Urgent care visits, hospital admittance and readmittance, therefore decreasing total healthcare costs for these targeted patients. “You must show providers how you can benefit their bottom line. Give them examples of how you can fill care gaps and increase adherence.” Says, Selena Owens Director of Operations. To sweeten the deal and enhance the collaboration agreement Gem will offer in-services for the practice’s staff in device training, patient coaching techniques and ways to identify if their patients are becoming non-adherent to important medications like disease state controlling inhalers and Insulins. The In-Service fee is built within the CPA and offers tangible benefits to the practice upon the collaboration.

Gem Pharmacy is leading the way in collaboration which benefits total patient care and health care costs. Some of the plans and programs they have in the pipeline will surely add to their success. Gem Pharmacy is an example of how an Independent Community Pharmacy can bridge gaps in patient care, increase total patient outcomes and change the face of Community Pharmacy.

LOPEZ ISLAND PHARMACY

Our Owner Showcase this month is with Lopez Island Pharmacy in Washington State! Rick McCoy, Owner and Pharmacist of Lopez Island Pharmacy, is not only one of the Founding Fathers of RxPlus, but has been pushing the envelope for pharmacies and pharmacist scope of practice for years. What the founding fathers created in the 80’s has given a voice and leverage to the Independent Community Pharmacy Owners to this day. Without the perseverance and risks they took to unify the Independent Pharmacy Owners, we would not have the foundation of support held within the RXPlus membership.
A number of years ago, pre-COVID pandemic, Lopez Island Pharmacy created many lengthy CDTA’s (Collaborative Drug Therapy Agreements) due to Washington State’s Pharmacy friendly rules and regulations providing larger scope of practice to Pharmacists. Lopez Island Pharmacy’s list of CDTA’s is long, ranging from Bee Sting protocols to Antivirals, now with Test to Treat protocols for COVID, FLU, UTI’s and more. Some of their protocols answer to what the Provider may have forgotten about during the office visit, like prescribing the Nebulizer that goes along with the solution that they ordered for the patient.
Currently they continue with their all-cash model for these services. Rick has been generous with us and shared his list of current CDTA’s (CPA’s) and Test to Treat protocols and has offered his templates to share with our members. I am so grateful to hear Rick’s story and get to know one of RxPlus’ originators. It takes guts to make things happen in our industry and to create an organization that has lasted and helped so many Independent Pharmacy’s survive is proof of the power in unification.