Filling a Need
Over 25 years and four locations, Boone Plaza Pharmacy has served Boone employees and now patients.
Filling a new prescription can be worrisome. We wonder, what questions should I ask the pharmacist? How do I take the medication properly? How will it make me feel? What if I forget to ask? For 25 years, Boone Hospital Center’s outpatient pharmacy has answered these questions and many others, with priority on making sure the patient is comfortable and understands the medications they’ve been prescribed before leaving the pharmacy. Chris Janicek, RPh, Boone Plaza Pharmacy Supervisor says, “Anytime we
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BOONE HOSPITAL CENTER
Fall 2020
have a customer with a new prescription, we go over how to take the medication properly. We want the patient to know if their medication needs to be taken with food or on an empty stomach, what the side effects are, and if there are any drug or food interactions. When a patient is discharged after surgery, our pharmacists will counsel the patient on when and how to take the pain medication. Our pharmacists also want the patient to be aware of what is in the pain medication, for example, whether the prescribed pain medication has Tylenol. ” Boone Hospital Center’s first outpatient pharmacy broke ground on May 8, 1995. Boone Plaza Pharmacy, so named because it was originally located in Broadway Medical Plaza 1, allowed the pharmacy to fill prescriptions for both employees and patients. Before then, they could only fill employee prescriptions. This year, the outpatient pharmacy is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Since
opening its doors, the pharmacy has moved three times. In 2006, Boone Plaza Pharmacy relocated across the street to the hospital’s Nifong wing. In 2008, it moved next door to the inpatient pharmacy. And in 2017, Boone Plaza Pharmacy cut the ribbon on a prominent new location in the hospital’s main lobby. Chris and Pharmacists Amy Welch and Carma Pohl have all been with the pharmacy for every move. Chris says: “Moving every few years has kept things interesting. It’s exhausting and a lot of work. Since we’re dealing with prescription medications, we’re concerned with security. The Missouri Board of Pharmacy regulations only allows personnel registered through the Board of Pharmacy to handle the medications. So no one from outside the pharmacy department was allowed to help us with the moves.” Carma agrees: “I definitely remember all of the moves as exhausting. The challenge
