<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1UsjFq_1AdALv8r00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1UsjFq_1AdALv8r00" width="400" height="400" >After the Carrabelle Medical Pharmacy closed its doors a decade ago, the city has been without a local druggist, forcing residents on the eastern end of Franklin County to have to drive to Apalachicola or to Wakulla County to have their prescriptions filled.But that could soon change, after the county commission gave its blessing last week to a Weems Memorial Hospital plan to create a pharmacy.It will be at least nine months, and likely longer than that, before the pharmacy is up and running, as there are several hoops that have to be jumped through. But the enthusiasm behind the project was strong among the commissioners on April 15, as well as the hospital administration and members of the Weems board of directors who had approved the proposal two weeks earlier.Commissioner Cheryl Sanders, and later Kristen Willis, a member of the Weems board, noted that the commission had “kicked the can down the road” ever since the Carrabelle pharmacy closed in 2016.“Do whatever you got to do,” said Sanders. “I don’t see nothing bad out of this. I was in Alligator Point Saturday, and the folks over there (said) they’d rather come to Carrabelle than go to Crawfordville.”A key factor in the decision was that Weems’ status as a critical access hospital will remain, and thus its patients will continue to take advantage of the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which allows it to offer significantly reduced prices through a partnership at Buy-Rite.“There are a lot of special prescriptions that they don’t stock on the shelves,” Willis said. “This would also be utilized at our Carrabelle pharmacy. I’ll take my 83-year-old grandmother, (who) can barely drive anymore. She has to come all the way to Buy-Rite (and) I have to meet her in Eastpoint to give her her medications. I want you to think about indigent people that ride bicycles, that walk, or have golf carts, that have no way to get back and forth. We could also implement a courier service for those patients as well that would bounce off of the Weems pharmacy.”To keep the 340B program, the county has rejected a Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation created by Medicare that would have required Weems to abandon its inpatient beds and its designation as a critical access hospital.In a detailed presentation, Jason Prokopik, a senior manager and pharmacy consultant at Blue and Co., shared with commissioners details of a retail pharmacy analysis that he had prepared.The data showed that with about 50,000 prescriptions written annually, about 40% will end up at a retail pharmacy “because people are loyal to their local pharmacy or insurance information dictates where that patient goes.”The value per prescription, Prokopik said, would be estimated at about $113, which when multiplied by about 24,000 prescriptions, would bring in total net revenue of roughly $2.74 million at the end of year two. With a pharmacy manager and staff, as well as a technician and driver, expenses would run close to $357,000 per year.The Carrabelle pharmacy would have a volume of about 7,700 prescriptions in its first year, with revenue of about $871,000 and gross profit of nearly $422,000.With capital expenses running about $114,000, and salary and benefits and other operating expenses coming in at $493,000, the first year would see a loss of about $185,000, Prokopik said.But with prescriptions stepping up in the second year, possibly tripling, and capital expenses dropping off, that year would see gross profit of about $1.48 million, and net profit of about $819,000, he said.“This equates to a much better picture of a 30% net profit compared to revenue,” he said. “This will fluctuate based on capture rates, and based on payroll and operating expenses but we feel pretty confident that this, even though we feel it’s conservative, we feel that this pharmacy can make money over time as long as you utilize the 340 B program.”Weems CEO David Walker said there are two possible spaces available to put in the pharmacy, which would serve all retail customers, not just Weems and health department patients.Walker said he is in talk with state officials on the possible creation of a pharmacy residency program to serve communities like Franklin County. “There may be some more exciting news as we begin to talk about this, because we can get designated as a pharmacy residency program from the state and get these pharmacies to rotate through us here in our county,” he said. Funding for the pharmacy’s start-up costs would come from Weems operating funds. Commissioners also asked whether money could be obtained from Triumph funds, although it remains unclear if that could be done.</div></body>

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After the Carrabelle Medical Pharmacy closed its doors a decade ago, the city has been without a local druggist, forcing residents on the eastern end of Franklin County to have to drive to Apalachicola or to Wakulla County to have their prescriptions filled. But that could soon change, after the...

County moves to create Carrabelle pharmacy

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After the Carrabelle Medical Pharmacy closed its doors a decade ago, the city has been without a local druggist, forcing residents on the eastern end of Fr

County moves to create Carrabelle pharmacy

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