Make your pharmacy a healthcare destination

Charlotte, N.C. – While space might not have been a significant concern at Jasper Drug, it is a consideration for the 2,600-square-foot Dilworth Drug and Wellness Center in Charlotte, N.C. Owner Josh Rimany, RPh, has transformed the store, which now includes a lab, two clinic spaces, and an office, into an integrative pharmacy that combines traditional pharmacy and complementary alternative practices.

Directly across from the customer waiting area, Rimany has stocked high-end nutritional vitamins and supplements, which have become a focus for the store.

“You have to start somewhere, and with me it started around nutrition and morphed into compounding, consultations around BHRT [bioidentical hormone replacement therapy], clinical nutrition, and MTM,” he said.

One of the easiest ways to make your store a healthcare destination, he said, is to understand the quality control behind nutrition and to become expert in drug-induced nutrient depletions. For patients seeking information and recommendations about vitamins that will counteract those effects, pharmacies are the obvious choice.

While each pharmacy found its own path to revitalizing its identity in the community, ultimately all three had the same goal.

“We all did something different, but we all created that concept. People see us as a healthcare destination, not a convenience,” Rimany said.

Jill Sederstrom is a freelance writer based in Kansas City.