Student Operated Pharmacy

Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) runs a nonprofit community pharmacy in a medically underserved area in New York’s Capital Region. The College Hometown Pharmacy opened in 2016 at the Hometown Health Centers clinic in Schenectady, NY. The pharmacy provides a unique and innovative experience for ACPHS students while also improving access to pharmacy and healthcare services for local community members.

Meeting an Educational Need

The pharmacy allows student pharmacists to develop and refine their advanced practice skills. As full-service pharmacies, they include point-of-care screening services coupled with associated disease state counseling.

Under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist, students have opportunities to expand their patient counseling skills in areas that could include:

• Medicare Part D Plan Finder
• Blood Pressure Screening
• Disease Management and Prevention
• Medication Therapy Management
• Self Care
• Immunization/Vaccines
• Wellness Counseling

In addition to the clinical skills needed to be successful pharmacists, students have opportunities to learn the essential business skills required to manage a pharmacy successfully. The ACPHS pharmacy provides hands-on experience in revenue analysis, inventory turnover analysis, break-even analysis, and pharmacy cash-flow analysis.

Through their experiences in pharmacies, students are better prepared to “think like entrepreneurs,” proactively seeking out opportunities for operational efficiencies and growth and creative health care business models.

Meeting a Community Need

The unfortunate truth is that the nation’s lower-income communities do not attract as many retailers and service providers as more affluent areas. Pharmacy is no exception. Medical and public health services also lag in these areas.

A study in the November 2014 issue of Health Affairs found that from 2000-2012 the number of pharmacies in predominantly Hispanic and black communities of Chicago declined by 17% and 11% respectively. Over that same period, the number of pharmacies in Chicago’s white communities increased by 30%.

According to the study’s authors, the exodus of pharmacies from underserved areas has led to the creation of “pharmacy deserts.”

In a recent report, the National Center for Health Statistics noted that 8.4% of primary care physicians would not accept new patients. The acceptance of Medicaid patients is even more severe with 35% of physicians not taking new Medicaid patients. Lower-income areas with predominantly Medicaid populations are clearly not getting the primary care services they need.

Meeting Future Needs

In addition to dispensing medications and providing related services, the College collaborates with local health and social service providers to offer a broader range of clinical services together. Partnering with professionals like social workers or nurse practitioners helps prepare students to work as part of a healthcare team, which is a key element of a patient-centered approach to care. It also ensures patients have convenient access to various levels of health care. The “Collaboratory” is a community health resource that includes space where students can host educational forums on specific health topics or disease states, thereby broadening the learning experience to incorporate public health. The ACPHS student-operated pharmacy will act as a model for healthcare in underserved areas of the Capitol Region. It aims to prevent the expansion of pharmacy deserts by improving access to prescription medications and preventive health services for medically underserved communities. Over time, we see the pharmacy as a model for effectively delivering health care in disadvantaged areas.