At a public hearing, selectmen discussed applying for grant money through the state Community Development Block Grant program to explore the feasibility of bringing a pharmacy into town.
Last year, Waltz Pharmacy closed its Main Street store.
Selectman Dick Desmarais said for several months he has worked on getting a drug store to Searsport, but that he was having difficulty finding a company or individual willing to make a move.
After contacting several in-state pharmacy chains and schools of pharmacy in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Desmarais said he contacted Chris Shrum with Eastern Maine Development Corporation in Bangor.
Two weeks later, Shrum pitched an idea that would bring a pharmacy into Searsport and provide technology to serve health centers in surrounding towns through a networking system of Massachusetts-based company, CBSRx.
Shrum said the firm takes on a variety of roles with regard to prescriptions. CBSRx has been instrumental in getting a profitable pharmacy into the Deer Isle-Stonington community, and has worked with a hospital in Sanford on fine-tuning its existing pharmacy.
“They make sure the hospital takes advantage of all the programs it can, and that they get as much reimbursement as possible from the insurance companies,” said Shrum.
Desmarais, Town Manager James Gillway, Economic Development Committee chairperson Dianne Smith and Shrum met with Jack Hellmann, CEO and president of CBSRx.
“The response was very, very good with them,” said Desmarais, adding it could lead to Searsport residents having a drug store “for many years to come.”
Hellmann, said Shrum, was vice president of operations for Rite Aid when it had 17 stores. Hellmann left Rite Aid 15 years ago after Rite Aid had opened about 2,500 stores.
Then he launched CBSRx.
And, said Shrum, Hellmann has been successful launching pharmacies. Part of Hellmann’s strategy is to conduct a market feasibility study in communities looking to partner with his company to ensure the store is needed.
“He’s figured out how to make it work in rural communities,” said Shrum. “… He’s never closed a pharmacy that he’s opened.”
EMDC, said Shrum, assists the town with the cost of the feasibility study in the form of the CDBG grant. Those grants, said Shrum, are part of a block of money - $12 million to $13 million - that the federal government annually sets aside for the state.
The funding is used for downtown planning, housing rehabilitation and municipal building restoration. for example, a CDBG grant was awarded to Searsport about nine years ago to assist with the cost of restoring Union Hall.
Once the board gives the go-ahead to apply for the CDBG funds, the town submits its grant application for the pharmacy feasibility study. Shrum said it takes four to six weeks to score the application, and if EMDC awards the grant, Searsport must hold another public hearing, followed by a townwide vote to accept the money.
Along with paying for the feasibility study, the funds will help plan ways of building a network of so-called satellite pharmacies.
The plan with CBSRx, said Shrum, would involve the establishment of a hub pharmacy, likely located at the former Waltz Pharmacy site, said Desmarais. That site is equipped with security systems that the state requires for businesses dealing with pharmaceuticals.
Once the hub pharmacy is established, CBSRx would assist in securing sites that could work as satellite pharmacies. The satellite sites, said Shrum, could include health-care facilities in Brooks, Lincolnville, and others under Waldo County Healthcare, Inc. umbrella.
Through that network, technology known in the industry as a "telepharmacy" would dispense medications through what Shrum likened to “candy machines” at satellite locations.
A doctor would prescribe medicine to a patient with a hand-held electronic device. That prescription would arrive at the hub in Searsport. A pharmacist at the hub would program the information for that particular prescription into the medication dispenser at a satellite location.
A physician, qualified nurse or pharmacist at the satellite location would check the prescription before giving it to the patient.
The medicine dispenser has a booth where patients can video conference with the pharmacist at the hub if they have questions about their medications.
Shrum said the nature of Searsport’s CDBG grant application would be the first of its kind in Maine in regard to its approach to how pharmacies operate.
Selectman Doug Norman asked if satellite locations could be susceptible to crime. Gillway said all sites are required to have security systems in place.
Desmarais said the upside is the town would not own the pharmacy; the board had established it did not want ownership.
Instead, Shrum said, an entity such as WCGH could serve as the owner of the pharmacy, and would contract with CBSRx. Shrum plans to meet soon with officials at Waldo County General Hospital to discuss the possibility of including the WCHI sites in the pharmacy network, and of the hospital taking ownership of the hub pharmacy.
Because of all the steps that must be taken to meet state and federal requirements, a hub pharmacy would not likely come to fruition before April, 2009.
Satellite locations would likely be online six to eight months later. The cost of one medication dispensing machine is $50,000 to $75,000, though Shrum said there was funding available to assist with those costs.Source
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