Topeka Pharmacy takes home Good Neighbor Pharmacy of the Year honor

LAS VEGAS — Topeka Pharmacy was named the Good Neighbor Pharmacy of the Year winner here at AmerisourceBergen ThoughtSpot 2015’s General Session. Topeka Pharmacy — which serves Topeka, Ind., a town of about 1,100 people that’s 60% Amish and has a single stoplight — garnered more online votes than Santa Monica, Calif.-based McCarthy Pharmacy and Bayshore Pharmacy in Atlantic Highlands, N.J.



For Topeka Pharmacy owner Tom Miller, the honor was the result of his community rallying around the store that he and his wife Morag strive to make central to the town. Miller measures up to that challenge not just by providing patients their prescriptions, but also by tailoring the store’s merchandise to the needs of the Amish community. Topeka Pharmacy stocks fabric and quilting material, as well as bonnets worn by Amish women.



“Our community, I think, is the key for independent pharmacies all over the country, not just us,” Miller told Drug Store News. “We want to be the center of town. We want to be the one-stop spot where they can come, stay local, keep their money local, but feel good about it and get what they need. To me that's the daily challenge.”



During the Pharmacy of the Year voting period, Miller had a computer station set up at the pharmacy that allowed Amish customers to vote, and allowed pharmacy employees to set up email addresses for them and vote on their behalf. For Amish — and non-Amish — customers, Miller provides a fax machine and computer for their use.  



“We’re doing what we think we can do at this point to perpetuate where we are,” Miller said. “We want to be our own pharmacy of the year every year, and we hope that our patients will think that too.”



In addition to the support Topeka Pharmacy receives from its community, Miller noted that much of the support he gets from being part of Good Neighbor Pharmacy also contributes to his ability to serve customers better, while also giving them a big-picture view of the independent pharmacy field.



“I think one thing that they've done is giving us a larger view of the industry in general, because it's really easy to get blinders on and think about your own problems every day and think you’re the only one,” Miller said. “Good Neighbor Pharmacy has given us a different perspective, the business coach has been very helpful, and tried to show us things that are out there on the market and say 'Hey, you better keep up to date on this.”



Like Miller, both Bayshore Pharmacy’s Rich Stryker and McCarthy Pharmacy’s Mordechai and Honey Nikfar receive assistance from Good Neighbor Pharmacy that enhances their ability to better serve their patients.



The Nikfars  — who serve an area of largely underserved patients, including a significant amount of homeless patients, some of whom have chronic conditions like HIV — have been Good Neighbor Pharmacy customers for 12 years and use Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s premier level resources to their advantage.



“They are trying to help take [away] some of our concerns and focus more on access to the patients and patient care,” Mordechai Nikfar said. “The personal contact they have and the care they provide is like what we provide to our patients.”



At Bayshore Pharmacy, which played a central role as a community space in the aftermath of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Stryker said that they have been using services from AmerisourceBergen for 48 years — since the days his father ran the pharmacy.



“Their national provider network services and their marketing services are fantastic,” Stryker said. “We get to use that, and it really takes us away from signing 150 contracts a year and it makes our credentialing easier. ... So it really takes us out of the back and gives us a chance to move out front a lot more than we'd be able to do without them.”



The tools, in all the finalist pharmacies, are helping the owners expand their services. In Topeka, Miller said that he’s hired a certified diabetes educator and a medication therapy pharmacist — moves that are supported by the resources his Good Neighbor Pharmacy affiliation opens up.



“Their expertise, their buying ability and the fact that they understand they need to count on us and we need to count on them is a mutual win-win — and those almost always are good,” Miller said.