Snow and sleet have piled up in communities across the country, creating difficult and sometimes hazardous conditions for pharmacies and patients. As the country's most accessible health care providers, our members are going to extra lengths to make sure services aren't disrupted. Sometimes, pharmacies' stories of perseverance through inclement conditions are inspiring, like when Jessi Stout of Table Rock Pharmacy in Morganton, N.C., managed to continue dispensing in the midst of historic flooding. Sometimes, they're just downright clever.
The stories don't have to be about pharmacy services, necessarily — independents contribute to their communities in other ways, too. Responding to community concerns around a road salt shortage, NCPA member Mayank Amin, of Skippack Pharmacy in Schwenksville, Pa., stepped up by providing his own supply. He called some friends in the trucking industry to lug salt from Delaware and got them to drop a dump truck's worth in his parking lot so residents could scoop some up for themselves. He asked for nothing in return, save for donations to a local café that employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
If you've gotten creative in your response to bad weather (not just this snowstorm!) to make sure your patients get the services or help they need, email [email protected] with your story — we'd like to tell it.
