Success Stories

A grant-funded program to increase pneumococcal vaccinations among underserved black and Spanish-speaking adults included a value-based payment model. Dakota Barr, CPESN Kentucky Managing Network Facilitator, shares details and says the model is one that other networks might replicate.

Lynh Warnken, pharmacist and co-owner of Lamar Plaza Drug Store and Dripping Springs Pharmacy in Austin, TX, describes how a relationship with a local non-profit created an opportunity to hold profitable onsite vaccine clinics for visually-impaired and blind employees. The CPESN® Texas pharmacist is already thinking about other ways the pharmacies might support community members in their efforts to live more independently.

Thao Doan, pharmacist/owner of Tu Quynh Pharmacy and a CPESN® New York City luminary, says her Vietnamese and Chinese patients benefit by using their Medicare OTC cards to purchase healthy food items and traditional health aids. As Medicare Advantage programs increase benefit amounts, patients can use the dollars to buy certain foods. Doan says focusing on what patients need and use helps them make the most of the benefits and adds revenue for her pharmacy.

Mariela Silva, a clinical pharmacist at Lino's Pharmacy, encourages other community pharmacies to consider having at least one staff member who can communicate in basic Spanish. The CPESN® Texas pharmacy is located near the Mexico border and serves a large Hispanic population. With Spanish as the second most common language in the U.S., Silva says there is opportunity for most pharmacies to engage their Hispanic patients which can help expand services.

Vito Colombo, a first-generation Italian, is co-owner along with his pharmacist wife Elaine of Colombo's Pharmacy in Queens where they are members of CPESN New York City. Colombo says he learned from his father the value of greeting customers and making an effort to understand and speak their language. His Middle Village pharmacy is located in a walking neighborhood, rich in its ethnic mix of Italian, German, Irish, Albanian, Polish, and Spanish-speaking people. His tip for other CPESN pharmacists: Using Google Translate to help a customer feel comfortable and understood goes a long way in building trust.

CPESN® Maryland Managing Network Facilitator Dixie Leikach shares insights for understanding the upcoming Jewish High Holidays, and tips for supporting pharmacy patients during fasting, and schedule changes associated with the holidays. She also highlights opportunities when Jewish patients may be more open to conversations about preventative care, and overall health management.

Veronica Riera-Gilley, a board certified geriatric pharmacist, describes how she and the Medicine Shoppe team in Sherman, TX Medicare Part D patients. Watch this short video to learn more about working with a senior population.

Paula Miller, a CPESN Kentucky Managing Network Facilitator, shares her personal passion for providing healthcare services to disabled patients. She is co-owner of Ruwe Pharmacy with three locations in northern Kentucky, and her pharmacy works with local agencies to deliver pharmacy services to patients living in group homes.

Laura Rhodes describes how the UnitedHealthcare telehealth program allows CPESN pharmacies to be "connectors within our communities." The expansion of a Virginia network pilot has been introduced through the CPESN networks in Florida and North Carolina and is benefitting patients who lack access to broadband internet, live in rural areas with limited transportation options, or cannot miss work to make routine care appointments.

Pharmacist Clint Hopkins and Joel Hockman, co-owners of Pucci's Pharmacy in Sacramento offer STI, HIV, and HCV point-of-care testing and treating, PrEP and PEP in a growing program with 2-3 patients daily.

CPESN® USA Luminary Hashim Zaibak describes how Hayat Pharmacy in Milwaukee, WI, has grown by welcoming refugees and purposely hiring pharmacy employees who speak a second language. A facilitator for the CPESN Wisconsin network, Zaibak shares how Hayat is expanding clinical services with the purchase of a physician practice and addition of a primary care physician.

Chris Antypas, a CPESN® USA and Pennsylvania Pharmacist Care Network or PPCN (the CPESN network in Pennsylvania) Luminary, shares how Asti's South Hills Pharmacy in Pittsburgh cares for several hundred patients with Arabic as their primary language. The pharmacy has modified some processes to be sensitive to culture and religion, and added a pharmacist who speaks Arabic. Antypas says expanding services to meet community needs benefits the pharmacy as well as its patients.

Connecting first on a personal level is key to building trust, says Bandon Do, a first-generation Chinese-American pharmacist at Bob Johnson's Pharmacy in Seattle.

In this Community Connected Success Story, Ronnie Moore and his team at NYC Minority-Certified Allure Specialty Pharmacy partner with community organizations to provide disease management, and health and wellness education to neighborhood patients..

In this Community Connected Success story, pharmacist/owner Chichi Ilonzo Momah shares some of the steps she takes to welcome and successfully serve deaf and hard of hearing patients at her Springfield Pharmacy in Pennsylvania.

Sanjay Patel, Clinical Director with Haller's Pharmacy describes how the CPESN® California pharmacy built a multicultural team to serve patients in its diverse local community. Attention to cultural sensitivities is important for team members and patients. This is one in a series of Community Connected Success Stories.

CPESN® USA Luminary Joe Moose shares tips from his experience of hiring a bilingual pharmacy technician. Moose Pharmacy is better able to meet the needs of its Spanish-speaking patients leading to new word-of-mouth referrals.

In this first video in an ongoing Community Connected series, Elissa Brown describes the tradition of celebrating Lei Day on May 1 in Hawaii. To connect more closely with patients in outlying areas, CPESN® Hawaii pharmacists take clincis to remote communities to provide screenings, immunizations, and other health services.