Pharmacy of Grace Grand Opening

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

July 29th, 2022 

PHARMACY OF GRACE GRAND OPENING IN WYANDOTTE COUNTY 

Charitable pharmacy helps uninsured and underinsured people access affordable medications

Kansas City, KS – It started as a vision to create something unique in the Kansas City area and increase access to prescription medicine. Now this vision is a reality. 

On August 16th, Pharmacy of Grace, a charitable pharmacy, will mark its official grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. at 721 N 31st St Kansas City KS 66102. Pharmacy of Grace will also be offering community outreach services that morning thanks to our neighbors Mercy and Truth Medical Missions and the Church of the Resurrection Mobile Food Pantry, offering services such as food, blood pressure checks, and diabetes testing (Rapid on-site A1C) from 10 a.m. until 12 p.m. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet members of our community, the people who Pharmacy of Grace will be serving. 

Pharmacy of Grace (POG) is unique and fills an important gap in the Kansas City metro as the only stand-alone pharmacy dedicated to serving uninsured and underinsured patients on a long-term basis, whereas many programs in the metro focus on short-term needs. 

Many medical conditions (such as hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, COPD, Bi-Polar, and migraines) often go unmanaged simply because patients can’t afford medication or do not understand how to take it, and this eventually causes people to seek emergency medical care. Pharmacy of Grace aims to break the cycle of homelessness, poverty, school absentee days, and unemployment caused by these unmanaged medical conditions. This is why POG Pharmacists will also meet with patients in one-on-one consulting rooms to make sure patients fully understand their medications, how to take them properly, and staff can help overcome language barriers that could impact medication adherence. 

MORE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND DATA: 

Pharmacy of Grace’s story started several years ago while founder John Yost was on a mission trip in Ohio and toured a charitable pharmacy there. As a pharmacist, he understands how important it is for people to manage their chronic illness with medication, so he wanted to bring this concept to Kansas City’s most vulnerable populations. 

Pharmacy of Grace is now an approved 501(c)3 and is located in Wyandotte County, Kansas, the county with the highest percentage of people living in poverty in the greater Kansas City Metro.  The pharmacy’s location near I-635 and Minnesota is an area of tremendous social and healthcare need with 30-40% of residents uninsured. According to a recent news report, Wyandotte County ranked at the bottom in Kansas when it comes to health outcomes and health factors. 

Another challenge: research finds 20-30% of prescriptions that doctors write for their patients are never filled and 50% of medications that should be taken for chronic conditions such as heart disease and diabetes are not taken as prescribed. Doctors who care for uninsured or underinsured patients often know that the prescriptions they are writing won’t or can’t be filled, which only compounds the patient’s chronic health conditions. 

Pharmacy of Grace Vision, Purpose, and Mission

Our Vision is for all people, regardless of age, race, national origin, ethnicity, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation, to have affordable and sustainable access to prescription medications and pharmacy services that optimize health in our community.  Most of all, we will provide hope, often at very dark times.

The Purpose of Pharmacy of Grace, Inc. is to break the cycle of homelessness, poverty, school absentee days, and unemployment caused by unmanaged medical conditions. Many chronic medical conditions (such as hypertension, diabetes, congestive heart failure, asthma, COPD, bi-polar, and migraines) often go unmanaged, which eventually can cause people to seek costly medical care and possible emergency hospitalization.

The Mission of Pharmacy of Grace is to improve access to prescription medication for uninsured and underinsured individuals and to increase the number of prescription medications available to vulnerable populations in Kansas.

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Contact: 

Tess Koppelman, Tess K Communications

EMAIL TessKComms@gmail.com