Dear Colleague,
Hurricanes Helene and Milton washed away whole towns. Roads and bridges disintegrated. Thousands of people are still without food, water, power, communications, and medicine. Businesses were flooded. Feelings of despair would be understandable. Instead, community pharmacists are helping bring some sunlight through their actions.
Morganton, North Carolina, is a town of about 17,000 people, nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains about 75 miles from Charlotte. Helene came through like a freight train.
On the morning of the storm, Jessi Stout, owner of Table Rock Pharmacy, went to work just like every other day. 
She didn't see the warnings to stay home, and when the trees started coming down everywhere, she and one of her employees were stranded. They lost electricity for a while, and the store suffered some damage.
As soon as the power came back on, she opened her doors so patients could pick up their meds and charge their phones. Now she's working with pharmacists and doctors across the state to donate and deliver medicines to places where supplies are short.
"I connected with other pharmacy owners across the state who also make significant donations of medications," Stout said.
Stout loves her community and the people in it. She and her family live there. She knows the people and they know her. I'd bet money she can't go to the grocery store or to the hardware store without running into someone whose life she has touched in some way big or small. Sound familiar? That scene plays out every day with community pharmacy owners and their teams.
Stout noted in letters to her Senators that she has not seen any sign of a PBM volunteering to help out during these rough times. In fact, the only things she's heard from them were the delivery of not one, but two audit notices coming right after the hurricane had ravaged the area. Revolting.
It's a point worth noting to all the PBM's customers—employers, health plans, and local, state, and federal politicians and bureaucrats who collectively make up the bulk of the PBM's customers. When they hire a big 3 PBM, they are indirectly choking the very communities where their employees or the people they are charged with serving live and breathe and systematically putting the people who are there when the times are tough out of business.
In Black Mountain, NC, another little town about 45 miles west along I-40, two other community pharmacists are quietly saving lives.
Taylor Jones and Jonna Munroe own HealthRidge Pharmacy, which was thankfully spared by the storm. They are dedicated pharmacists who know their neighbors need them now more than ever.
The first thing they did after making sure their family was safe was to save the drugs their patients need. They didn't have power, so they rushed all the most essential medicines, like insulin and vaccines, including tetanus, back to their home where they kept it refrigerated with the help of a generator. Two days after the storm struck, they reopened the pharmacy. Volunteers spread the word, and desperate people from all around made it there anyway they could. They stood in the parking lot, waiting for hours to see their local pharmacists.
Taylor and Jonna said their experience during COVID helped prepare them for dealing with this terrible crisis. When most other healthcare providers are closed, community pharmacies find a way to stay open, comfort patients, and provide life-saving medicine and counseling.
The NCPA Foundation's longstanding and very worthy Disaster Relief Program helps community pharmacies damaged in natural disasters. Please visit the website and consider making a donation.
In the meantime, we are closing in fast on the 2024 NCPA Annual Convention, this year in Columbus, October 26-29. There's still time to register and enjoy the networking with other pharmacy owners and the peer-to-peer business education. It's the best event on the calendar for independent pharmacists—the unsung heroes of their communities.
Best,
B. Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
