Where Healthcare Knows Your Name

Key Points:

• Community pharmacies help connect patients to medications, services and support close to home.
• Pharmacy teams build trusted relationships that help patients navigate their health needs beyond filling prescriptions.
• Oswald's Pharmacy supports its community through services ranging from breast milk access and pediatric diabetes support to screenings and medical equipment.
• Pilgrim Pharmacy has evolved to meet changing community needs through immunizations, testing, delivery and personalized patient care.
• Through the Health Mart network, McKesson helps independent pharmacies strengthen access to care while preserving the community connections that make local pharmacy unique.

In communities across the country, local pharmacies help connect people to medications, services and support that keep care close to home. They answer questions, help patients manage ongoing conditions and often provide resources that make it easier for people to access the care they need. During American Pharmacists Month, we’re recognizing the role community pharmacies and pharmacists play in strengthening the health of the communities they serve.

Through our Health Mart network, McKesson supports independently owned pharmacies with tools and resources that help them operate efficiently while preserving the local relationships that make community pharmacy so valuable. Two pharmacies, separated by nearly 800 miles, show what that commitment looks like in practice.

Care that extends beyond the counter

Oswald’s Pharmacy has stood in Naperville, Illinois, for over 150 years of continuous family ownership across six generations. What began as a small-town apothecary has grown into a full-service pharmacy and one of the largest medical equipment showrooms in the area. Alex Anderson, the sixth-generation owner, runs the business alongside Melissa McLean, Pharm.D., the pharmacist in charge.

At Oswald’s, care stretches well beyond the counter, showing up in practical ways that help families and patients get what they need, when they need it:

• When preterm babies are discharged from a nearby hospital on weekends, Oswald’s keeps donor breast milk in stock so families can access it when they bring their newborns home.
• They partner with that same hospital to stock pediatric diabetes medications, ensuring newly diagnosed children don’t wait days to begin treatment.
• They offer blood pressure and A1C screenings, multi-month pill packaging, daily delivery, and run a durable medical-equipment department where staff deliver and set up lift chairs in patients’ homes.

“You can find somewhere online to rent something, and you can find an online pharmacy that delivers prescriptions,” Anderson says. “But to have that continuity of care all in one local business, one that knows your name and knows your face when you come in or when we come to your door, that’s what makes this work special. We’re seeing more patients than ever who are looking for that kind of care and that care is here.”

McLean sees it in the daily details.

“One thing that I strive to do as a pharmacist is to make sure that people have the right medication,” she says. “I will not allow myself to go home until that happens. I make sure that when we’re hiring, we hire staff that have that same mindset, that the patients come first. Anything we can do to help a customer, we do it.”

The same belief, that healthcare is built through relationships, travels east to a very different setting.

Support that meets patients where they are

For 50 years, Ray Macioci has owned and operated Pilgrim Pharmacy in the Bronx, New York. In that time, he has watched the profession transform and helped drive that change himself.

“The practice of independent pharmacy is no longer looked upon as just putting pills in a bottle but far beyond that,” Macioci says. “We’re caring for people as individuals as though they are members of our own families.”

That closeness is the point. “Having a local community pharmacist who really knows his patients, and in many cases the patients’ extended families, gives confidence and comfort to them,” Macioci says. “It’s kind of like the old TV show ‘Cheers,’ a place where everyone knows your name.”

Knowing the needs of his patients and the community, Macioci and his pharmacy staff began implementing services that made meaningful impact.

“We began administering flu shots as soon as New York state law allowed,” he says. “When COVID-19 arrived, we set up testing in a safe, secure environment, extended delivery to patients unable or unwilling to leave home and vaccinated as soon as doses were available. Those shifts, I believe, reframed what an independent pharmacy can be.”

Supporting independent pharmacies

As Health Mart pharmacies, Oswald’s and Pilgrim have access to the distribution, clinical programs, technology and operational support that help independently owned pharmacies serve patients on their own terms, while helping to preserve what makes them local.

That support shows up in the kinds of services Oswald’s and Pilgrim provide every day:

• Coordinating access to medications
• Offering screenings and immunizations
• Extending delivery
• Supporting patients with complex needs
• Investing in the personal relationships that keep people connected to care

“Pharmacists play a vital role in shaping a more accessible, patient-centered model of care,” said Crystal Lennartz, president of Health Mart. “When independent pharmacy owners succeed, their communities stay healthier and that’s what motivates me and my team every day. Our role is not to replace what makes these pharmacies local, but to help protect and strengthen it.”

As patient needs continue to evolve, pharmacies like Oswald’s and Pilgrim demonstrate the enduring role community pharmacy plays in helping people access care close to home. Through trusted relationships, personalized support and a deep understanding of their communities, pharmacy teams help connect patients to the medications, services and resources they need.