Why Local Pharmacies Matter for Successful Aging At Home

Lisa [: 00:00:07

Thank you for listening. I'm your host, Lisa. And today is our second podcast in our series called Aging at Home, where we are examining all kinds of things that, could potentially help you age successfully at home. Hopefully we bring some insight and solutions. And our topic today happens to be reasons why you should shop your local pharmacy. Might not think about that.

Lisa [: 00:00:38

As, you know, something that would help you age at home, but it can be. And I have a special guest with me to help us have this discussion. Hussain, are you there?

Hussain [: 00:00:49

Yes, I am.

Lisa [: 00:00:50

Hi. Welcome.

Hussain [: 00:00:52

Hello. So How are you?

Lisa [: 00:00:54

I'm good, sir. I actually Hussain and I have never met. I actually have met his partner, Ali, but you are stepping in for him today. So we are very happy to have you. And the reason why you're doing the interview is because you are more familiar with the seniors that you serve and the programs that serve seniors through your pharmacy. Is that right?

Hussain [: 00:01:15

That's right. Yes. I have longer experience, than my partner. I've owned, over eight pharmacies so far, and two of them were long term care pharmacies. So I'm very, well versed in the field.

Lisa [: 00:01:30

Okay. And the pharmacy that we're gonna talk about is called Good Neighbors Family Pharmacy, and it is in Toledo, Ohio. Correct?

Hussain [: 00:01:40

Yes. That's true.

Lisa [: 00:01:40

And how long have you been there?

Hussain [: 00:01:43

We have been there now for two years. This would be my ninth pharmacy that I've opened. In Toledo, I've opened seven pharmacies. And, over over the last fifteen years, I've owned and operated those. And, this this is my ninth launch in Toledo. So

Lisa [: 00:02:03

Okay.

Hussain [: 00:02:04

With Ali.

Lisa [: 00:02:05

And are you a pharmacist?

Hussain [: 00:02:07

I am a pharmacist. I graduated from the University of Toledo in 02/2009.

Lisa [: 00:02:12

So you are local all the way.

Hussain [: 00:02:14

That's true.

Lisa [: 00:02:15

That's true. Deeply rooted in the community, and that is one of the reasons that we want you to always shop local. It does benefit your local community and it generally benefits people who are a part of the community. And they were a part of the community before they were doing whatever they're doing now. So what do you think? I I think it's better to shop local pharmacy than the chains instead of one of the chain pharmacies, and I have some reasons for that. My first reason is because I think you get more personal attention. Do you agree?

Hussain [: 00:02:51

Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't think you'll get any more personal attention than anywhere than than a independent locally owned, pharmacy.

Lisa [: 00:03:03

And one of the reasons is because of staffing. You might not think about this, but the chain pharmacies and I'm not saying don't go to a chain pharmacy. I'm just saying there's a better option if you have a local pharmacy in your community. But, you know, they use as few employees as possible. In fact, we do not have a local pharmacy in the community where I live, and I do go to a chain pharmacy, and they do a nice job for me. But last Saturday when I was there, the window was closed due to staffing. You had to go in the store. And we all see this more and more.

Lisa [: 00:03:36

I'll bet you don't have that problem.

Hussain [: 00:03:38

Yeah. No. Not at all. We're very well staffed. Our staff is from the town that we're in. Usually, from the community we live in, from the neighborhood we live in. We prefer to hire from there. So, we never have I mean, in any business, you all you could have issues with staffing, but, we we tend to keep a tight ship, and and we're usually well staffed.

Hussain [: 00:04:05

Never have problems with this issue.

Lisa [: 00:04:07

Yeah. And in terms of this personal attention, this in your pharmacy, when you're speaking to a well, if you need to speak to a pharmacist, you can at a local pharmacy, and you can ask questions. You can have a consultation. You know, the you're not gonna get that at a chain pharmacy.

Hussain [: 00:04:27

No. Not not not as much as you would in an independent pharmacy. We we work on on the idea of quality over volume. So when we get a patient, we we we look at that patient as as a big account for us, not just the passing by person just walking in, filling the script, and leaving. We want to get to know that patient. We want to know everything about them, their health, how we can help them. We establish a relationship with them. After that, we can service them better.

Hussain [: 00:05:01

And then after we have pre after we do this, the next step, we try to get to know them, get to know their family, their friends, their neighbors, and see how we can help those people as well. Because most of the time, they're happy with us. And the number one thing we tell our patients when they start thanking us for their, for the great service that we do for them, we tell them my I always say this. I always say, don't thank me. If you wanna thank me, refer somebody to me. Let somebody know about me the same way you did.

Lisa [: 00:05:34

Yeah. That that's that idea of growing the community and staying in the community. Customer service is still a thing, folks, and you're gonna get it in some places more than others. And when it comes to your medication, it's very important to have an opportunity to have those conversations, get the education that you need, ask the questions that you need, and have people available to help you do all that, which I think you're more likely to find in a local pharmacy. Now we're talking about aging at home. And I happen to know that you have programs that would help an older adult age at home successfully, like your home delivery. Talk to me about that.

Hussain [: 00:06:17

Yes. So at our pharmacies, we always offer free delivery to everyone in the community. We almost, we offer delivery in person up to, like, 20 mile radius. And anything over 20 miles, we usually ship for the patient for free as well. But we do offer the service. It's free for the patients. It's free for anybody who's getting one script a month or 20 scripts a month.

Lisa [: 00:06:44

Okay. So you don't have to, you know, have a hundred prescriptions to get the services. No. No. And Ali was telling me that you even do vaccines at home.

Hussain [: 00:06:58

Yes. So we we do do house calls. We do vaccines. We can go into the house. If somebody cannot come in, get their vaccine, we can send either a pharmacist or a technician to go in. Usually, we send the pharmacist, to do this, to do this job. We go in. We get the vaccine that's needed, and we check on the patient.

Hussain [: 00:07:19

And most of the time, when we do that, we do as well a comprehensive medication review because it gives us a chance to be with the patient, see what they're taking, see, you know, their med cabinets, you know, check on if their anything is expired, if they need to change anything. So we take the advantage to do that, and that service is also free.

Lisa [: 00:07:40

Imagine getting a house call from a chain pharmacy. It ain't gonna happen, folks. I'm just saying.

Hussain [: 00:07:46

Never. Never.

Lisa [: 00:07:48

What else do you do, that would be exclusive to helping seniors?

Hussain [: 00:07:54

Yes. So one of the biggest programs that we do is our medication packaging, bubble packing, they call it, or medication packaging or compliance compliance packaging, Which which is, you know, we're taking the medications that somebody is taking. Let's say somebody's taking eight or 10 medications a day, two in the morning, one in the afternoon, three in the evening, two at night. So instead of instead of the patient themselves having to go through the bottles every day, and the challenges of finding the right time to take them and making sure they took the right medication, or even some people set up their own those weekly, pill pillboxes that they can buy at the pharmacy. We do that for them. So we're literally offering you that weekly pillbox. We do it at a four week at a time. It's free.

Hussain [: 00:08:51

We do the work freehand. We package all the medications at the right time, the right dose, the right day. Some medications like vitamin d, you can you could take them once a week, for example, and then there's other examples of that. So we set them up for you. We send them through you every month for free. We send four packs for the twenty eight days, and then every month you get that on and on and on. So you never get to miss a dose, and you're very compliant. And we know compliance and adherence leads to best results.

Lisa [: 00:09:27

Mhmm. Mhmm. Best way to stay out of the hospital is to get your medication right. We all know that. And so it's you're you're setting up medications for free. You don't need a nurse. You need a local pharmacist. How about that?

Hussain [: 00:09:41

Yes.

Lisa [: 00:09:41

Up to four weeks at a time?

Hussain [: 00:09:43

Yes. Absolutely. Up to up to four weeks at a time. And then if there's any changes in the medication regimen, we usually send you a new pack with the medications that you're taking. If we had to take something out or put something in, we make sure you're up to date all the time.

Lisa [: 00:10:02

Okay. Well, anything you wanna leave our listeners with. I mean, I think this is great information. I think a lot of times, pharmacies are overlooked, as being a part of the healthcare system, for seniors, but they shouldn't be. Choosing the right pharmacy can be wildly important to you and literally lifesaving. What would you like to leave our listeners with, Hussein?

Hussain [: 00:10:29

Well, you know, again, I I I don't wanna talk bad about chain pharmacies, but if you

Lisa [: 00:10:36

I know. I'm doing that for you. No. Just teasing.

Hussain [: 00:10:39

Yes. Yes. But if you follow the landscape and the news that's happening right now, you're seeing Rite Aid has been, you know, declaring bankruptcy, closing stores. Walgreens recently announced that they're selling, you know, selling their company to a private equity firm because they're having troubles. A lot of these companies, are struggling because they got away with it for for a while. They got away with the fact that they have the convenience. You walk can walk into a Kroger. You you can drop off your prescriptions and go shopping.

Hussain [: 00:11:14

You get some deals at Walmart, at Costco. And that's great. We want people to take advantage of every offer they can get, whether it's getting, you know, discounts over gas points or whatever that they that these pharmacies do. But the reality is they never give you the personalized service that you deserve, that you can be getting, that you should be getting. Mhmm. And you could be getting at no charge with somebody that's gonna get to know you. There's a we were we're not the only independent pharmacy in town.

Lisa [: 00:11:49

Of course not.

Hussain [: 00:11:50

Every every I I never talked bad about any independent pharmacy in town, actually, because I believe in the work that they're doing. They might might not be as best as we are doing it. It might be better. It might be lower, but it's way better than what the chain pharmacy is offering you. The personalized service. Yes. The the the the bubble packing, they don't offer that. None of them do.

Hussain [: 00:12:15

None of them do. That is a great service. Absolutely wonderful for free for you. Mhmm. A free delivery. That's that's free for you. Why not take advantage of it? Why not to get to know your pharmacist on a name and a name first name basis? Mhmm. You know? We don't have a a constant shuffling of of staff in our pharmacy.

Hussain [: 00:12:36

It's the same person you're gonna talk to. You call and you ask for me. I have patients. I give them my cell phone. They text me sometimes. After work, I I am they're unreachable. On the weekend, they need a they need something, need advice. They can reach out to me.

Hussain [: 00:12:52

I do offer that. You will never get that in a chain pharmacy. So why not take advantage of that when it's right there for you? And the biggest thing is, if you have insurance, it's the same exact cost to you. Mhmm. You're not paying any extra. As a matter of fact, we will be saving you money over your life's term with us. If something is not covered, we will give you the best price in town. We will definitely beat we will definitely beat the chain pharmacy cost by at least 20% and up to 70%.

Hussain [: 00:13:25

And and also, we we a lot of times, if if a patient medication is a brand name, it's new, it's not covered, or if it's covered and they have a high co pay, lot of times we tell the patient how they can save more money by applying for coupons. They're going online, finding some coupons from the manufacturers. We take that extra step to save them money. I've worked as an intern at Rite Aid and in in in chain pharmacies. We don't take our time to do that. We don't care because it's actually extra work for us. We have to take that information. We have to put it in and and process a new claim when it doesn't matter for us.

Hussain [: 00:14:09

We could just tell them this is the cost. Pay it or leave it. Yeah. So yes.

Lisa [: 00:14:14

Yeah. There's truly something to be said for familiarity. I don't care what anyone says. The more familiar you are with someone, the more likely you are to care. It's easier to care. It's easier to be kind, when you get to know them and you know their face and you know their name. And it sounds like we're bashing the chain pharmacies. That's not really what we wanna do.

Lisa [: 00:14:35

I shop at chain pharmacy. I will tell you this. When I have a medication, that I think is too expensive, whoever is at the window isn't trying to help me. So I will say, Is Rick in? I need to talk to Rick. And of course, Rick knows me and so he will help me shop for the coupons and the lowest price. But that just doesn't come from a clerk that doesn't know me. So, this is based on personal experience as well. You can make those connections, but then I've been going to that pharmacy for twenty five years and that's the truth.

Lisa [: 00:15:09

I think Rick's been there that long, but I also think he's the only one. So Good Neighbors Family Pharmacy in Toledo. If you happen to be in Toledo, Ohio and you need a pharmacy, we would recommend that you give these fellows a try. Where are you located in Toledo?

Hussain [: 00:15:26

We're at 6625 East Manhattan Road in Toledo.

Lisa [: 00:15:32

Alright. Well, Hussein, thank you so much for joining us. This is great information. We greatly appreciate it. Listeners, if you didn't think about your local pharmacy as a way to help you age at home, maybe now you will. Till next time. May the road rise to meet you. May the wind be forever at your back.

Lisa [: 00:15:49

Thank you, Hussain.

Hussain [: 00:15:50

Thank you, Lisa.