Pine Bluffs finally has a pharmacy ... sort of

A video link and drug vending machine make the Telepharmacy possible.

By Jennifer Frazer
jfrazer@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE - No matter what it looks like, the drugs in a new Pine Bluffs machine aren't snacks. They're just dispensed that way.

With a prescription in hand, Pine Bluffs patients can now watch the amoxicillin for their strep throat be pushed out by a turning piece of coiled metal behind glass just as they would their daily sugar fix.

There are a few differences, however. There's no coin slot or button pad. Instead, a pharmacy technician in Pine Bluffs and pharmacist in Cheyenne - connected by video link - handle the dispensing of the drug.

After lacking a pharmacy for more than six years, the Hoy's Drug Pine Bluffs Telepharmacy opened for business on Feb. 21. It has only been inoperable one day since then, said Dr. Douglas Parks, a physician at the UW TriCounty Clinic whose lobby holds the telepharmacy, because the phone lines between Cheyenne and Pine Bluffs were down.

"People coming in with illness are just thrilled to be able to fill their prescription before they go home without having to travel somewhere," Parks said.

The machine is filling about 10 prescriptions a day, resulting in a savings of 600 to 900 miles of travel time and gasoline per day.

That means a lot to people, Parks said, particularly at current fuel prices.

"If you're driving an old Ford truck, it's a $30 trip to get your $12 prescription filled," he said.

And it's a great help to senior citizens who can't drive and formerly had to depend on getting their medicine through the mail.

The installation of the machine paves the way for other communities in Wyoming to take advantage of the technology, Parks said.

"Off the top of my head, I can think of eight to nine communities in similar situations," he said, "They have (doctors) but no pharmacy services. So I'd anticipate we'll be seeing this technology used in other communities in the state in short order."

Pine Bluffs resident Wendy Rohde has been very appreciative of the telepharmacy - she's been using it since the day it opened for her four foster children, she said. It has saved her at least one trip a week to Cheyenne to fill prescriptions, a savings of about $15 per trip - and an hour and a half in the van.

"I don't know if you've ever driven 45 minutes with a 4- or 5-year-old, but let me tell you, it can be something," she said. "And that's one way."

What the machine cannot offer, by law, is controlled substances like many prescription painkillers. That poses a problem, Parks said, for patients who break an arm or have teeth extracted in Pine Bluffs. They must still make the trek to Cheyenne to get their prescriptions filled.

Back in 2004, Parks' medical group approached several Cheyenne pharmacies about telepharmacy, but only Hoy's expressed interest in it.

"We're interested in helping out the community," said Jim Massengill, president of Hoy's Drug, of the reason they decided to pursue the telepharmacy in Pine Bluffs.

Though Hoy's knew there was potential for a drug store in Pine Bluffs, after the eye-opening cash layout they had to make to place a branch of their pharmacy in Cheyenne Regional Medical Center - more than $500,000 - they weren't prepared to lay out that sum of money again soon.

The telepharmacy seemed the ideal compromise.

But the organizers soon realized it was not yet legal to install one.

Working with Sen. Wayne Johnson, R-Cheyenne, and Rep. Rodney "Pete" Anderson, R-Pine Bluffs, they got a bill passed to legalize the machines in 2005. The state Board of Pharmacy approved rules the following year.

Though at 10 prescriptions per day the branch is not yet profitable, Massengill hopes with time it will be.

"It's totally a community service so far," he said, "but it has a lot of potential, it's growing each week, it's getting a little bit better, but it's going to take quite a bit of time before it gets there."

When a prescription is brought to the pharmacy, a pharmacy technician faxes it to the Hoy's in Cheyenne, where a pharmacist enters the information into the computer, which dispenses the drug back in Pine Bluffs. A label also is printed, and the Cheyenne-based pharmacist checks the appearance of the pills, the label and other information via video link.

Though the telepharmacy currently carries only about 100 drugs, any other drug stocked by Hoy's main branches can be delivered by the next business day.

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