Rounding the Bases with Pharmacy of Grace
1/16/23 Joel Goldberg Podcast
Rounding the Bases with Pharmacy of Grace
Click the link to listen to the full interview with John Yost, Michael Fink, and Liz Sutherlin or read the transcript provided below.
(Disclaimer: transcript provided by AI)
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of rounding the bases presented by community America credit union believe in unbelievable. This is a podcast about culture, leadership, a little bit of twist of baseball, and oftentimes just. Really important causes that are changing the world changing communities.
And that’s what we have today Quick shout out to my friends at chief of staff, kansas city fantastic partners. We we align so well If you’re looking to be placed to place somebody job advice, whatever it might be check them out at chief of staff, K. C. staff, Kansas City, makin matter. Let’s get to the got three guests all wrap episode.
Prescriptions ha you well, but for many ba and transportation give w reality. Today’s guests a pharmacists and um, just important people here in our community that are on a mission to spread good health through access to life and quality of life. Saving medications. I’m joined by dr Michael Fink, Liz Sutherlin and john Yost of pharmacy of grace, a state of the art charitable drugstore that’s breaking the cycle of unmanaged medical conditions since finally opening its doors in august 2022.
The patient experience has been at the forefront of everything it does by removing care lim affordable, sustainable p to our most vulnerable po their mission to shine li and most of all show grace in need. That’s not even So let me bring in right brain child, child’s Chil I guess. John Yost, Liz S think.
Thank you guys all extreme pleasure along with my broadcast partner, Jeff Montgomery, um, at the invitation of Liz to come and tour pharmacy of grace in December. And it blew my mind. I think it was one of those things. And I think it did for, for Monty as well. It’s one of those things, Liz, I’ll start with you that I think you all know, it’s one thing to talk about it, which is what we’ll try to do our best today of it’s another thing to see it.
How powerful is this? How did this all come about and finally come to fruition? Well, Joel, it’s been, um, about almost five years in development. Um, John is really the one with the big idea for this organization and he found a model of a charitable pharmacy that he got to see when he was working as a pastor for Church of the Resurrection.
And he was like, I need to bring that to Kansas City. We need this model of pharmacy. And really, this charitable pharmacy model focuses on the patient and focuses on the patient who is uninsured, underinsured, and we not only provide access or medications for these patients, but we also educate these patients because what we know as pharmacists is we can give you the drug, but if you don’t take it as it’s prescribed, You will never achieve success at managing your chronic medical conditions.
So our population has multiple obstacles when it comes to actually achieving that goal of managing their condition from actually not having enough income. So they often can’t buy the drug. And many times can’t even speak English. And so, you know, that’s a big barrier, which we have solved. And then, you know, nobody really has ever thought about the fact that they need to be able to take this drug home and actually follow the directions.
So, you know, Those are all the things that Pharmacy of Grace does and, um, it started way back in 2017 and we are really glad to be here in 2022 actually helping patients in Wyandotte County. Yeah, it’s, it’s amazing and the numbers are staggering too when you talk about Wyandotte County and where they fall locally and nationally in terms of those, um, below the poverty line and there’s a pretty good chance.
John, this really was your brainchild. I know that you were inspired by. movement in Ohio and you background in terms of ph very mission driven. And all happening. Tell me ab this is really a long time in the making and how ful
Well, Joe, the as Liz mentioned, the process was a long one. Even before I first met Liz in 2017, I, I went on a trip to Ohio in 2016. So it’s, it’s been about six years before we opened the doors. But, what I saw there and discovered was that one on one patient interaction, the impact it can have because that organization, Ohio, actually did research and they showed that They decrease hospitalizations and emergency department visits by their interactions by almost 50%.
Incredible impact. So the, the journey has taken us to, as Liz said, opening our doors, and it’s, it’s a total patient focus, which Mike is the one that delivers. But, as far as how I feel about it, you, you look in your life, what you’ve done, and six years is a long time to be working on something. five years starting to assemble a team, which Liz was part of.
And my wife, Sarah, who’s the board secretary, she was on two of those trips that to Ohio to learn about the pharmacy and has been behind the scenes. But just to keep working on it and finally getting people to understand and support it and help fund it has been gratifying. But the most impact for me personally is when we serve the first patient.
And we continue to do that each and every day. We’re open. It’s truly remarkable. And I just, I got such a feel Mike, when, when you took us around, all three of you took Jeff Montgomery and I around, just to see what a potentially small and mighty force can do to save lives, really. I mean, I’m not exaggerating when I say that this will save lives because you look and I learned, and it all makes sense.
It really falls in the same category as anything I’ve ever done in terms of economic status, oftentimes, um, status of race and lack of access, whether it be lack of access to food, to education, whatever it is. And so so many people like myself may take this for granted. And oh, by the way, we live in a world inflation or not recession or not, where medicine Medical treatment is really expensive.
And, and, and then, you know, you’re telling us about some of these people that are coming in and how many diabetics that are out there, probably all because they don’t have access to better food in part, and it’s thousands of dollars to get that insulin. So they’re never gonna do that. And so their life expectancy isn’t, isn’t good.
Now, suddenly they can come in here. And maybe for 10 bucks or whatever that is, they can have their lives changed, their lives extended. I’m curious as a pharmacist, as the pharmacist there, what’s your feeling as you see the impact and I assume the gratitude of some of these people that have oftentimes been overlooked?
Yeah, definitely a great feeling. Um, like you said, when, when you’re mentioning that 10 and they can leave there with that, um, I try to relate it to How most of us would view it as if, you know, you’re, you’re on a medication, like, let’s say it’s for hepatitis and it’s going to be like 10, 000 a month, , and all of a sudden your insurance isn’t going to cover it and you’re trying to fight through the thought of.
How do I pay for that 10, 000 a month? And a lot of us would probably, you know, just walk away, see what else we could do, um, how we can manage it without that medication. Um, so in relation to my patients and, you know, it’s no longer 10, 000 a month for you. Let’s say it’s 100. And you’re like, we I can now take my medicat covered it.
So that’s kin trying to take with our p to bring their medication level of the, you know, i To treat their diabetes and we’re taking it down that same 100 fold to $10 a month for ’em. , so it’s something that hopefully, you know, they’re able to see the value of that medication and along with that, afford that $10 a month, , for a life saving chronic medication.
Liz, I, I want to get your take because. You, you are, you’ve, you’ve done so much charitably boards, you know, had all types of really high level jobs in the business world. And so, I mean, this is, I know how personal this is to you, but I, I’m curious kind of what you’ve learned in watching this over time through the process, because, um, I learned a lot just by walking in there and spending, you know, 45 minutes.
You’ve been engrossed in this. What are you learning about? about people and access and the way that this can change lives. Well, I think, you know, one of the things I’ve learned is you have to build a powerful team to be able to accomplish any goal. And at Pharmacy of Grace, we began doing that. Actually, John began doing that in our first discussions.
And as we added board members to our board to be able to Lead the organization in the direction it needed to go and to add multiple skill sets to that board has been really important. And then when we found Mike Fink, it was like a gift from heaven because Mike has incredible pharmacy skills, but he also has the technical skills that we needed to be able to gut a building and put a pharmacy in it.
And that is no small feat. So I think we’ve really, um, We pulled a lot of things together to create this, and our translation services, our ability to have Mike be able to connect with each of these patients in a language that is not his own, through the use of an interpretation service that’s easy for the patient, so he sits behind his computer screen and the patient sits behind an opposite facing computer screen, and they both talk to the same interpreter about the medicine and so that they can really understand not only the medicine, but if the patient has questions about his disease, Mike can answer those.
It’s amazing. We have such a talented staff at Pharmacy of Grace. We have A fabulous, , interpreter slash hospitality manager who is fluent in Spanish and can just, you know, actually communicate with anyone who is a primary Spanish speaker. And then our pharmacy operations manager, Sandra, has huge experience in being not only a pharmacy technician, but an incredible manager of the entire operation.
So this mighty small team is able to address some very complex for these patients. And it’s just a beautiful thing to watch. Yeah, it really is. And I want to, I want to jump over to, to Michael because, um, and Liz talking about how fortunate they were. Two part question for you. Um, you’ve been in the pharmaceutical world or as a pharmacist forever.
I know this is different. This is completely different. So I’m wondering, as a pharmacist who helps people, what it’s like to now help people that haven’t been helped before, and how that translation has worked. I mean, you have people coming in, speaking languages. Like for me, I don’t speak Spanish, but I know enough to kind of get by with a little bit maybe.
But I mean, we’re talking about, I think you guys told me that the second most common language you’ve heard is Swahili here in Kansas City, Kansas. So I’m curious about how that experience has been, how this has moved you and what it’s been like to be able to communicate with people from totally different backgrounds that came from different parts of the world.
Definitely, with the patients that we have, you know, I’ve had patients throughout my career come in, with just the inability to successfully communicate with them. So, you know, what we would do, and I really don’t speak any Spanish or any other language whatsoever, was to, Basically work through on a just google translate app.
Get out what you know, the main points were of each medication, probably rarely successfully. I mean, all pharmacists want to help their patients, but you know, most of us aren’t given the time and the ability to do so. So definitely, you know, they’re in the Kansas City area where these You know, language barriers are occurring at pharmacies across the city.
So by us trying to bridge that gap, having a translation service where we can sit down with the patient, counsel them on their medications, um, I hope is just going to be so beneficial to these patients in the Kansas city neighborhood. Well, what do you, what do you hear from them too? I mean, there are a lot of people that are coming in and then you guys mentioned to me too, it, it oftentimes may be a whole family.
You know, which which makes sense. I’ve seen that so much from from immigrant families. Maybe there’s only one car or there’s no car and so everybody’s coming in together and suddenly they’re getting treatment for something they never could get before. I’m curious what you’re hearing back from them. If if they could even believe this is happening and how it’s you know how they’re articulating to you through the language barriers, how much it’s changing their lives.
When they do come in and get those medications, you know, after I’ve sat down with them, they’ve, you know, paid for their small co pay on some of our medications that aren’t donated. Um, they leave, some of them have left the pharmacy just so thankful and, you know, still, still haven’t understood a word of what they’ve said except through the interpreter, but.
When they leave and give you a handshake and just you can see they’re they’re happy about what we’ve done for them. That’s really satisfying and, , you know, a testament to the background. John and Liz and the board, you know, put in the thought of being able to, you know, treat those patients who have that language barrier and patients who’ve had that financial barrier.
Um, because some of them have left successfully, , as well and with a smile on their face and, you know, have been able to speak English. So I mean, we, I get to see it on both ends and then my story goes to Liz and John to be able to tell them, um, so that, that’s one of the greatest feelings when somebody, you know, gives you a handshake and just leaves the pharmacy happily.
I think that we talked about this all of us, um, john, that the sort of dark side of all of this is the world of. of pharmaceuticals and insurance, none of which is easy. That I mean, that’s that’s just a problem across America for for everyone. And of course, those that are being left behind the most are the underserved.
So that’s what you’re doing here. At the same time, you need to be able to get access to these drugs. You need to be able to get access into a world that, let’s be frank, overcharges everybody. How have you been able to, to this point, navigate that tricky That, that tricky endeavor. Well, we, , early on in my travels, I identified an organization called Charitable Pharmacy or Dispensary of Hope in, , Nashville, Tennessee.
And they’re an organization non-profit that takes donations from pharmaceutical companies, and they have about 60 manufacturers that donate to them. And one of them is Lily, who donates insulin, which is maybe the most important products that we get from them. So that’s been a blessing for the patients and, , has helped us have access for this drug.
So we’re continuing to work on it. Major manufacturers have programs and, um, unfortunately it’s not easy to get into that, but, , Mike and his staff are very diligent to do that. And it’s so important. One thing I wanted to mention, Joel, is that people may view pharmacy, it’s a, you know, it’s a small cog in the healthcare wheel, but it also may be the, , if you’re going baseball terms, maybe picking that, , the hitter gets up there, picks their bat, and they each have their own one they want to use.
And it’s a tool they use to hit base hits and home runs. But for us, the prescription drugs, if you think about the health care system, you may have the greatest primary care providers in the world who do the perfect diagnosis. They run the perfect lab tests, they get all the results, they prescribe the drug.
And then the patient can’t get it. So the tool of the people taking care of the patients, the providers are the prescription drugs and that’s why it’s so important and why we do go back to your question, continue to work on access. We have several companies that are very close to providing donated drugs to us and it will be another big impact for the community.
Well, I mean this is This is everyday work beyond serving the people of raising the awareness of raising the funds. Liz, I know that you’re a master at that. I mean, I, I, I’ve seen you involved in other causes where, where you go all in on it. Right? I mean, that’s you, you, you’re great at connecting with people.
You, you are great at explaining these causes and then you’ve done a lot of them before. And so I’m curious what the challenges are for you with this one, because I You guys are going to continue to need to raise awareness raise funds and the more you can do the more people you can help I’m wondering how much that’s on your mind on a regular basis Well, I think that’s the thing that john and I lose the most sleep over for sure is how are we going to fund this?
operation because as you mentioned You know We want to provide access for uninsured and underinsured patients and we can use dispensary pro products to do that Which is fabulous Still, there’s a huge cost in operating a pharmacy. So we need hundreds of thousands of dollars just to operate each year.
And so we reach out into the community. We work with foundations. We were blessed by the Sunderland foundation who provided all the funding for our construction. And then we had other funders who chipped in for equipment and other big expenses that we have. But, you know, it’s, it’s interesting because this cause is one that I can identify with.
From my education, um, from being a pharmacist and then understanding what these patients really need. And looking at the fact that nobody else is trying to use this model. And that’s what really got me in was when John was talking about, we’re going to practice pharmacy, the way it was meant to be practiced, the way you learned in school about how you’re supposed to counsel the patient.
And we were commenting and he says this often, which is, you know, you go into Walmart or Walgreens and they ask if you have any questions for the pharmacist. And you’re like, I don’t know, I don’t even know what to ask. And there are 10 people behind me that want their stuff and they want me out of the way.
And that’s not how we do it at pharmacy of grace. You know, he explained. Explained how important the counseling model was. The thought that we would have Mike sit down with each patient and really help them see what was going on. So that’s what got me involved. And then the thing that has really become most powerful as we’ve tried to raise funds is the opportunity to show them what we’ve built, because nobody could really understand from the slide decks that we put together, the cool presentations that we went into people’s offices with exactly what we’re gonna do.
And now that we have it. Somebody walks in the door and they go, I get it. I get why you’re different. I get why this works. How can I help you? And the greatest way to help us is to donate and come fill your prescriptions at our place. We can fill all the insurance, the Medicaid, the Medicare, you know, all that revenue actually helps support the uninsured and underinsured patients.
So that’s what it’s all about, Joel. Well, it’s. It’s, it’s something I said before, and you just echoed it that you have to see it to believe it. There was a great article in the Kansas City Star recently, which really focused in, and I think this is the key to everything, on, on some of the patient’s stories, when you start to understand how life changing this can be.
And I, I want to pick up where, where you just were, Liz, because, Mike, I know that in the, the world for most pharmacists, and you guys have all been there before, that, There’s not time to sit down with everything. I mean, go into a CVS or whatever it is, a grocery stores pharmacy and you know, you’re in and you’re out in five seconds and here, read the label and call us if you have any questions, I’m not even knocking that.
That’s what we’ve come to expect. But I sit there and I think about somebody that doesn’t speak the language, can’t read the language, can’t get there, whatever. Well, there’s a reason why their life expectancies aren’t as good. There’s a reason why would they ever go to that? And so I’m wondering what it’s like for you to actually be able to have that one on one, even if you don’t understand what they’re saying.
And, and you. Guys told me that sometimes you’ve got people that can’t even read that aren’t literate Um, how much has that changed for you instead of being that, you know, crank them out factory assembly line World that is what we come to expect. Yeah, like liz said Definitely, you know what we can do to help our patients to you know Be able to get them the medications they need and they understand me And I have the time to sit down.
I’m not having to, you know, just go for the dollar amounts, , that, you know, the corporations might be requiring or their pharmacists, like I have a board that is willing to back me, you know, they’re trying to raise funds to keep this model going in this community. , so that’s a nice thing to have where, you know, I don’t have to worry about seeing, .
a little light telling me I’m getting behind on my script count or my volume or I have too many voicemail messages from doctors on the line, , that we’re really trying to focus on the patient’s health care needs. Um, and also go into their background, the stories that they have. Like, I’ve definitely had, , several, um, patients that aren’t even from this country, whether they’re visiting or.
else that they are here a The only way they can seek treatment is through, you know, some of the safety net clinics that are out here, , or some of the free clinics that might be in the area as well. And so we’re just trying to be another piece to that puzzle that bridges that gap, , to where they’re not only seen for their health care needs, but they’re also able to get a medication as well.
And instead of just getting the medication, you know, you want to get their background as far as, you know, are they Are they in a food supply issue? Do they need shelter? You know, we’re working with so many different organizations. It’s like a, I guess the baseball diamond just keeps changing every day as to what we’re trying to do, , for our patients.
Like, you know, we have multiple levels of programs that we’re trying to establish. Maybe, maybe not have established them yet. But we’re, we’re just doing it to help serve the patient’s needs along the way. John, go ahead. Oh, Joel, one comment on that. Um, I’m a seasoned pharmacist. I’ve been out there a long time and I practice community pharmacy out of school.
When I was in school, Kansas was the first state to pass a counseling law. And the spirit of the law was pharmacists were supposed to interact with patients. The compromise of the law was that big packet you have stapled onto your bag and it tells you all about the drug. But when I first came out, we were trained to talk to patients and we did.
We were in a very busy pharmacy, but it’s amazing how much you can talk to a patient. It only take a few minutes. I mean, especially if it’s refills, you may be just touching base. I know she didn’t refill this for 10 days past the due date. Are you still taking the medication? And each patient has a story related to that.
So what we’re doing is, as Liz mentioned, trying to practice pharmacy as all the pharmacists are trained. Every pharmacist that’s out there in community practice would love to talk to the patients. But as Mike said, the pressure is to not talk to patients. You can ask for a pharmacist, but the second thing we noticed was there’s no privacy to really talk to them.
Do you really want to talk to somebody when there’s 50 patients around you? So as you can tell, I feel pretty passionate about that. And I believe that even the insured patients deserve that same interaction with the pharmacists. And if they come to Pharmacy of Grace, they’ll get that whether you’re uninsured or whether you’re fully insured.
You can have that patient interaction And once you’ve experienced it a few times, I think patients will want that. I mean, I do not expect to go to my pharmacist. Well, I don’t even know who my pharmacist is. I don’t expect to go to, to CVS or Walgreens. I mean, the most interaction I have with someone is whoever’s giving me a COVID shot or a flu shot.
And That’s unfortunately me just being scared of needles and whining like a baby the whole time, and that’s about the extent of a conversation that I have with anyone. That’s not even the pharmacist, right? I mean, unless something, and quite frankly, if I’m unsure about something, I’m calling my doctor. I don’t have that relationship with the pharmacist.
Mike, I want to go back to you real quick because I want to ask about that to me, everything I talk about with businesses, it’s true in sports, you know, people say, Oh, wow, you’re, you’re in baseball. What’s it like? No, I’m in the people business like the rest of us. And what I do every single day with our athletes, whether they’re brand new on their first day, or whether they’ve been there for five or 10 years, even Salvador Perez, who have been around since even before 2011, is to build trust to build those relationships.
And I’ve got to think, Michael, that to break this cycle of people not getting the treatment they deserve. That you have that opportunity, even if you’re not speaking the same language, to be able to build that relationship with these people. Yeah, definitely. One of the things we first thought of, , when opening the pharmacy, , is to establish that trust as soon as the patient walks in the floor.
Ergo we have a hospitality manager that greets. You know, almost 96 percent of our patients fluently, , she speaks English, of course, and also speaks Spanish. , so just giving them that comfort level, the first step they hit in the door with a greeting of hello and their own language, I think is the first barrier to, , breaking down, , that.
Like I mentioned when I worked at another store, I would not have had that, , thought in mind when they, you know, brought me their prescription. I would greet them, of course, friendly, but not in the language that they really understand the whole process of a prescription being filled. , and then on top of that.
After they have met with, , our hospitality manager and get their prescriptions filled, you know, she’ll even go in with me to some of the consultations, , where you get that human touch of, , , you know, just the interpreter being her and then me being the pharmacist, , but that isn’t possible for us to do that in every language.
So that’s why we use that language service. But definitely one of our main thoughts along the way is always to have that personal touch and we greet the patients, , just to put them at peace and, you know, go about their day knowing that they’ve. Talk to humans at their pharmacy. I’m guessing every language that comes in wants to say in whatever their language How tall are you by the way anyway?
I’m about six six. So yeah. Yeah I’m sure that you’re getting you’re getting some wide eyes and then and then some very happy people along the way I wanted to ask you something too because it’s it’s one thing to be able to provide the service It’s another to be able to get them there. And so that’s something I know that you have all thought of Thoroughly thought through that You might have to be able to help in getting them there or they’re never going to make it.
Can you talk about that? Sure, so we recently established a partnership with the Wyandotte County Transportation Services and they run buses to all of The clinics around Wyandotte County and now Pharmacy of Grace is the only pharmacy that’s been added to those stops So you can actually reach out as a patient to the Wyandotte County Transportation Services get a ride to our pharmacy and then they schedule the ride back.
So what it allows for is the patient gets there, we have plenty of time to counsel, then the patient gets up or picked up and then they come back. So, you know, it’s, it’s really great that we can now provide that service to patients. And any way that we can get a patient to our doors, you know, we want to try to find even more ways to bring them in.
So I think that’s going to be part of our mission for 2023. How do we get more patients to understand we’re here, we can provide you with access to your medicine, and we can also teach you how to take it in your language. And I think that’s really one of the things Pharmacy of Grace offers. You know, we hope to do that more and more.
John, if this was, was your vision from what you had seen in Ohio and all your mission-based work, , I’m curious what the emotions were like for you when the doors opened and, and where you’re at right now.
Well, when we opened Joel, it was, I guess I would define as surreal. It’s like it’d been going so long trying to get there. And then we had, especially at the grand opening when many people, probably a thousand people showed up for. And it’s just, it was a feeling of disbelief almost, but realizing it was really open.
So the emotions, I think, when I start thinking about those patients and the impact and some of the stories Mike has, and you know, the woman who gets tears in her eyes when she realized she’s getting her insulin and the, you know, the father walks in with his six year old daughter and can’t speak a word of, of English and can’t read in his own native language, but he still gets his prescription.
And I asked the staffs, do you think that man would have got that prescription any place else? And of course the answer is probably no, because how, if you can’t speak and you can’t read, how do you maneuver through the chaos of most pharmacies you walk into? And so I guess the emotion is gratitude for the people who have supported us, and it could be support from just forwarding a post on social media or writing us a check or volunteering or just passing on that we exist to somebody they know.
So I guess those are the emotions. And sometimes when I start talking about the patients, that’s when it really hits me what we’re doing. It’s so powerful. Before I get to the baseball theme questions, Liz, I want to, I want you to jump in here. The building’s really cool too. I know it took a lot of work to do what you did.
I just don’t, I don’t want to undersell it because it’s, it’s a really cool. Old looking facility. Tell me about that. So that building is owned by mercy and truth medical missions and it was originally a dormitory for a baptist ministry, so candidates for um You know, going into the ministry would actually stay in that building.
So, it was built in the early 1900s, and it will withstand probably an earthquake. It has solid cement floors and ceilings, which is cool, but also presented all of these technical challenges for us when we were constructing the pharmacy. So, you know, stars aligned for us. We, we really feel as though, you know, there were a lot of good things that happened to pull us into that location.
And, Mercy and Truth Medical Missions, their development director is the one who reached out to John not just once, but twice and said, Hey, you know, we really want you to come build your pharmacy here. And, , finally, , we said, Yeah, that’s where we want to be. And it has turned into something that, , we think will really support the community.
So it’s a cool building. It really is. I want to get to the baseball theme questions and then we’ll wrap it all up with some final thoughts in terms of long term expectations and how people can help because I don’t want to lose that ability either. I’m going to go to Michael first. I’ll have each of you answer one of the baseball theme questions in terms of Pharmacy of Grace.
Mike, what’s the biggest home run that you guys have hit? , well, the biggest home run I think we’ve hit is just getting our doors open, like two are at right now, like, , you know, we, we may have, we may have heard the crack of the bat, can see their trajectory of the ball. It, but it isn’t clear the fence yet.
We got a lot of fans cheering for us. Um, they think it’s going to go out of the park, but we just won’t know until it clears that fence. So, you know, as I mentioned, or I think we mentioned earlier, John and Liz, the way I’ve kind of viewed it is, you know, they’re like the management of the, of this baseball team.
I’m the newest, you know, person that they brought on board. I came on board right here at the end of, . December of 2021. So just to have been here a year and for them to put me in that place to, you know, even be able to get up to bat, , they built a great baseball diamond for me and now I get to enjoy it, but hopefully, you know, we move out of this white baseball diamond, we go to several more parks, but definitely, definitely this is the biggest home run so far.
Yeah, you got a beautiful park to play in if we’re going with the baseball analogies and the references and hopefully many more parks and a full league, if you will, of Pharmacy of Grace, um, opportunities for somebody in the community. So, Liz, I want to ask you, and by the way, John is the board chair, Liz is the board treasurer, and when she’s not busy coaching CrossFit, she’s helping and doing amazing things with this, but you know this, Liz.
With. Any endeavor comes a lot of swings and misses. I always say that they’re okay if you learn from them but you’re going to make your mistakes along the way. How about a swing and a miss and what did you learn from it in terms of Pharmacy of Grace? So I’d say one of our swings and misses and we’ve had a couple but I think one of the ones that’s memorable to me is In the beginning, we weren’t really reaching or stretching for the best possible place to serve our patients.
And , we had signed a lease in another building and, and that location, even though it was optimally located with physicians, it wasn’t a great space and we were going to try to modify it and try to do this and try to do that to it. And um, it wasn’t going to turn into the pharmacy that we wanted. So it was kind of a miss.
The good news is COVID came along. Now people are going to say COVID came along. Yeah, well, COVID came along and it made us stop. It made us stop everything we were doing. And I still remember one of our board meetings in which the whole board was talking about, you know, like. We need to build the best possible space.
We need to build something for these patients that they really deserve and they deserve the best, the most, um, technically supported pharmacy operation that we can provide. And so that’s swing and miss because we. I decided not to go in that location, brought us into that really cool building that we’re now in and allowed us to build something state of the art.
And that has, you know, so we learned and then we move forward and, , you know, we’ve got a lot of other little swings and misses, but that’s the one I’ll share today. I like it. It all has worked out and much more to come. All right. The final baseball theme question. We’ll go to John. Let’s talk a little small ball, the little things that add up to the big results.
What is small ball for pharmacy of grace? Well, Joel, I think small ball for us is just like in baseball. If you’re hitting singles, maybe doubles if you’re lucky, but you do enough of those in an inning, you score a lot of runs for us. Small ball is things like podcasts, interviews, dozens of emails, conversations with people.
You know, sometimes we’ve had conversations 10 times with an organization before something happens. And then they, they may give us funding, but that’s small ball out there meeting clinics out there, um, handing out candy trick or trunk or trunk or treat things in the community, having art, in our pharmacy, just things like that.
That’s all small ball. It’s different interactions with the community, with funders, with supporters, volunteers. that we think will end up in a successful operation and win. I love that. I love it all. , let’s go around the horn here for one final thought. Michael, I will start with you as the pharmacist in charge.
Where do you see this going? I mean, you’ve already impacted so many lives and I’m sure that that we don’t have to use all sports and baseball terms, but that That feels like victories, right? I mean, every time you send somebody out and, and you’re sending them in the direction they never thought they could go.
Those are wins every single day. A lot of those are the singles and the doubles that the John is talking about. Grand scheme, grand vision. Where do you want to see this? Oh, well, I’m talking grand scheme of in like the next five years. And that’s to open a couple more pharmacies just like this around the KC Metro and, , the, the closer part to home of where we’re located at right now.
You know, I hope to inspire some of the kids that are coming in with their parents and seeing them get a medication, , seeing the interaction they get with the pharmacist to, you know, drive them into the school of pharmacy and become a pharmacist someday and serve their own community. Pretty cool. And that, that’ll come full circle on you, which will really be amazing.
Liz, how about for you? And I’ve seen you raise funds. I have seen you raise a lot of money just for something as simple as diapers. You know, you and I worked on a little something with that, with, with happy bottoms way back when. And, and that was so important to be able to make sure that, that the, the underserved were able to take care of their babies.
This is my opportunity to ask you how people can get involved because I know you’re going to be out there asking them to get involved. Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that we really need is if you are a pharmacist and you’re looking for a way to get back to your community, we would love to have you come volunteer.
We also need technicians who are willing to volunteer. So those are our primary, you know, healthcare provider volunteers. But we need other volunteers who really want to get involved with the organization and carry our message out into the community. Um, so you don’t have to have a medical degree. You just need to be able to go out and tell people about our services.
So, um, we would love to hear from you as volunteers. And one of the interesting thing too, is we partner with other organizations to provide vaccination clinics. And we’ve done this a couple of times and a lot of times we need some volunteers for that. So to help queue up people and get information and all those kinds of things.
Um, so, you know, you just never know what we’re going to be up to and, you know, follow our social media. We have a. Fabulous social media person who is trying to get the word out that way. But, um, yeah, please, , you know, send us a, a post on Facebook. Tell us you wanna come volunteer and we will sign you up.
You know, the website is pharmacy of grace.org, pharmacy of grace.org. How about some of the social media, Liz? Like you’re probably getting the wrong person on exactly what the Search in Instagram or if you search in Facebook or if you search in Twitter for pharmacy of grace, we will pop up It’s all there.
We will have it. We will have it in the show notes I promise that final thought will go to the the man that got all this rolling From the beginning, John Yost and John, I, you know, I asked, I asked Michael about big picture and he talked about kind of five years. How about bigger, bigger picture in terms of legacy, look way down the road.
If you’re looking back way down the road, what do you want to see this become? Well, I think, you know, Mike mentioned it and I’d say multiple locations. It could even spread, , multiple states or nationally. , I think the, the other legacy. That I would look at is, you know, our focus is on the uninsured, but it’s really for all patients.
And I, I’d like to be the pebble in the, in the pond, if you would, for pharmacy practice to bring that pendulum, pendulum back. to the way pharmacy should be practiced, the way they’re all pharmacists are trained to be practiced pharmacy. So for me, big picture, if you look 20 years down the road, there’ll be a swing back to where even if you walk into, say, a chain store, that every patient will be asked by a pharmacist, if you have any questions, or more specifically, to tell them what they should know about their drug and not just let them walk out.
So that’s, that’s big picture. Pharmacy of Grace expand and serve those that, that can’t serve themselves or can’t afford it and then have an impact on pharmacy really nationwide. Liz, I just found it like in one second on instagram pharmacy of grace. I mean, it doesn’t get any easier than that. I already just followed.
I think you had one more thing you wanted to add in in terms of pharmacy students. I did want to mention, you know, we are a preceptor ship site for both KU pharmacy school and UMKC pharmacy school. And we love having our students because senior pharmacy students can do everything that a pharmacist can and they love to come and counsel So if you’re a pharmacy student listening to this out there, or you know a pharmacy student pass along the fact We’re a preceptorship site and mike has had experience not just with pharmacy of grace during that but in his previous life He has done this before he’s a great mentor and we would love to show People who are in their last year, what it can be like if they go out and serve their community in this way.
Found, found Facebook too, by the way, , Pharmacy of Grace. Just search that and like it. That works. John? , just two other things. We are also on LinkedIn for those that use that platform. And on that same website, pharmacyofgrace. org, you can donate, and we do appreciate donations and take notes. It will make an impact in the community, making people healthier.
On Twitter it is pharmacy underscore grace. So the others are pharmacy of grace, this one is pharmacy underscore grace. So we’ve got that all taken care of. It’ll be in the notes. This is, this is so amazing, it really is. And as I said, I’m not exaggerating, you guys know this, it’ll save lives. And especially in an area with so many underserved that have been often overlooked, the chance to do something just as simple as get insulin, which can change their lives.
And I know that Michael, you’re experiencing that every single day, John and Liz with your backgrounds and now being on the board, Michael Fink, John Yost, Liz Sutherlin, thank you all so much for spending time here on Rounding the Bases. Congratulations. Good luck. I can’t wait to see where this is all going.
Thanks, Joe. Joe. Thank you.
