“I noticed there was a need because I had a lot of immigrants and other diverse people referred to me,” Afua Nutor, CEO, Hope Pharmacist told TheNewAmericans.
While working at a chain pharmacy, Afua Nutor, who emigrated
to the United States of America from Ghana, West Africa always had immigrants
and other diverse people referred to her. This challenge ignited the need to
have her own Pharmacy – Hope Pharmacy – in order to serve this unique need
without restriction.
 |
| Afua Nutor |
Afua who did most of her schooling in Ghana immigrated to
the United States in 2000. “I went to the University of Science and Technology
where I took my Pharmacy degree and was licensed as well.”
Haven arrived in the United States, Afua did her equivalency
to get licensed with the Pharmacy Professional body. According to her, “It took
me about two years to be able to integrate into the system and have my
professional license to practice as a pharmacist.”
Experience
I started working with a chain pharmacy because there was a
required internship period. That was a time I got myself familiar with the
system and the pharmacy terrain here in the United States. It was not a
difficult transition.
Hope Pharmacy
Once I practiced at the retail for a big chain for a while,
I noticed there was a need because I had a lot of immigrants and other diverse
people being referred to me. I found that there were some unique needs that
they had. I did realize that I will be in a good position to help them without
any restriction if I have my own pharmacy.
We opened our doors in April 2014. It has been a gradual
steady growth. That has been good for us because we’ve also grown into doing
the work well. We have a passion for thoroughness and excellence in the job
that we do. We’ve grown not too fast but at good pace that we can connect with
our patients to meet their needs very well.
People are in denial that they have a chronic disease. They don’t want to be told that they have diabetics or high blood pressure.
Relationship
The key thing is to educate the people. I always start with
educating them on what is available and how the system is different here. I
collaborate a lot with other health care professionals so that I can send
people for physician visits and other health care specialties if they are
needed. We really personalize the interactions.
In the same vein we educate them about the insurance that
are available to them and that they already may have acquired from their jobs
or things that they are eligible for that they don’t know about. Also we help
with application processes if it is needed. Sometimes the paper work may be a
lot and intimidating. If there are coupons we could help them to apply for, we
do that too. It has brought a lot of people to us because of this.
Benefits
Most of our patients tell their doctors to send their
prescriptions here. Sometimes, after a previous interaction with them, they
come back. The good thing has been that when they come and they need a doctor’s
referrer and we do the referrer, they always come back with the doctor’s
prescriptions. It’s a win-win. We give them back and they come back. Because
we’ve built a personal relationship with them, they come back.
Program
We typically will give free vitamins to our first time
prescription patients. We also offer free diabetics counseling. We specialize
in diabetics as a pharmacist because it is becoming one of the predominant and
of big concern. Now diabetics is affecting the juveniles as well, even type 2.
We do a lot of counseling, we have a counseling area, we do flu shots,
basically immunization, and that has really opened doors.
Projection
I am hoping that Hope Pharmacy will be a destination to any
health care needs that anybody might think of. If they think of their health,
preventative health or maintaining their health, people will think about us,
that we will be the first point of call.
I am passionate about stressing preventative health and
chronic disease management. These are areas that a lot of people fall short.
There is a lot of medication and advancement in medicine that we are not taking
advantage of. People are losing their lives or not having optimal health
because they are not maximizing the opportunities that are available.
We come to be the gap and advocate because a pharmacist is the
most accessible health care professional. You can walk into a pharmacy any time
and be able to talk to pharmacists and they can direct you to where you should
be able to go. We want to be visible and to be available to help out our
patients.
Education
People are in denial that they have a chronic disease. They
don’t want to be told that they have diabetics or high blood pressure. They
think once they take the medicine for a month that they are good. We have to
educate them to let them know. If you want to have good quality of life you
have to control these chronic disease such that you have a longer healthier
life and not have kidney disease in the end or any complications. A lot of
people are maintaining and managing their diseases well because they are
complying with their medications. They are seeing their doctors for checks.
Science is so well advance that it hurts to see people hurting when there is
help. The education piece will help people come on board, take good care of
themselves because it is less costly in the long run to take care of it while
it is in the initial stage before you have any complication. If you can do that
the total cost of health care will go down.
/TNA
No comments:
Post a Comment