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POG’s New Shawnee Location Featured in the Kansas City Business Journal

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Shawnee, KS — Pharmacy of Grace is proud to share that the Kansas City Business Journal is featuring our Shawnee expansion as a business spotlight.

The piece highlights what we’ve been building toward for over four years: a pharmacy model that works as both a sustainable business and a charitable mission, where revenue from insured patients helps support deeply discounted medications for neighbors who can’t afford them. We proved this model in Kansas City, Kansas, and carried it into Johnson County this summer.

The numbers tell part of the story. In its first month, the Shawnee location served nearly 300 patients. Since opening in 2022, Pharmacy of Grace has filled 80,000 prescriptions and served more than 4,000 unique patients across the Kansas City metro. More than 63% of patients are Hispanic or Latino. More than half live below 100% of the Federal Poverty Level.

But as CEO Michael Fink put it: “People think of Johnson County as affluent. But there are pockets where that prescription assistance is needed. We identified more than 2,000 uninsured patients within a mile of this location alone.”

We believe that medication access isn’t just a healthcare issue. It’s a quality of life issue here in our community. And we’re proud of the model we have built and look forward to continuing our expansion.

Read the full feature in the Kansas City Business Journal [click here]

 

KCBJ Sept 26

Telemundo Kansas City Features Pharmacy of Grace

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Shawnee, KS — Pharmacy of Grace was featured in a Spanish-language segment on Telemundo Kansas City, highlighting our mission to make prescription medications accessible and affordable for everyone in the community with or without insurance.

The segment spotlighted what sets Pharmacy of Grace apart: full-service pharmacy care open to all, with special pricing for patients who need it most. Telemundo also highlighted our commitment to breaking down language barriers, including our ability to provide medication instructions in patients’ own languages so they can better understand their treatment.

We are grateful to Telemundo Kansas City for helping us reach the Spanish-speaking families and neighbors we are proud to serve.

Watch the full segment here: Acceso Total Segment about Pharmacy of Grace

Screenshot Telemundo Interview

Meet Hope: The Robot With a Heart

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Advent Health Donation Provides Important Gift to POG 

Shawnee, KS – When Pharmacy of Grace opened its Kansas City, Kansas location in 2022, we saw how quickly the demand was growing and knew we needed extra help. We went from filling three prescriptions on day one to an average of 140 per day, and a big reason we were able to keep up with that demand is Gracie.

Gracie is our ScriptPro automated prescription-filling robot at the KCK location. She handles the counting, the measuring, the dispensing, all the tasks that are precise and essential but don’t require a pharmacist’s clinical expertise. That means our pharmacists have more time to do what no robot can: sit with a patient, answer questions, catch a dangerous drug interaction, explain a new diagnosis, and make sure someone leaves truly understanding their medication. 

As we opened our Shawnee location and prepared for the same kind of growth, we knew Gracie needed a sister.

The Gift and the Name 

Name recognition certificateAdventHealth Shawnee Mission has been a long-time supporter of Pharmacy of Grace since we first opened in KCK, and when we spoke to them about expanding in Shawnee, they were all in. They stepped up with not just a donation – but actually buying us the entire robot. The gift from AdventHealth marks one of the most significant gifts we’ve received. 

But then AdventHealth Shawnee Mission decided to make it a little more personal. They invited their entire team to participate in naming the robot through a hospital-wide campaign. The winning name? Hope. So you could say that AdventHealth literally gave us the gift of Hope. 

As our patient volume grows in Shawnee, Hope gives us the capacity to serve more neighbors without ever sacrificing the quality of care that defines Pharmacy of Grace. High tech and high touch – that’s the model.

Group picture of all in attendance for the ceremony

A Warm Welcome for Hope

On August 6th, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission presented a certificate to our Shawnee staff. Hope’s naming ceremony was attended by AdventHealth Shawnee Mission leaders, Pharmacy of Grace founders and staff, and U.S. Representative Sharice Davids, who was at the pharmacy that day for a tour.

Hope received an honorary AdventHealth “Heart Badge.” This is the same symbol worn by all AdventHealth staff. The badges read “I care for you like my_____.” Hope’s reads “I care for you like my sister Gracie.”

It’s a small detail that says a lot about the spirit of this partnership.

Thank You, AdventHealth Shawnee Mission

AdventHealth Shawnee Mission told us when we opened that they believe caring for a community extends far beyond the walls of their hospital, and this gift is proof of that commitment. It’s an investment in every Johnson County patient who needs affordable medications and the time and attention of a pharmacist who truly knows them.

We are deeply grateful to AdventHealth Shawnee Mission for this extraordinary investment in our mission and in the patients of Johnson County. Their generosity made our Shawnee expansion possible in ways that will be felt for years to come.

To read AdventHealth’s own account of Hope’s story, visit their website here.

If you’d like to see hope in person, she is on the job at 11644 W. 75th St., Shawnee, Kansas. We’re open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Her sister Gracie is so proud.)

 

Fox 4 Covers Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

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Shawnee, KS — We are incredibly grateful to Scott Kilbury and Fox 4 KC for visiting our brand-new Shawnee location on 75th Street to cover our official grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony!

The segment beautifully captured our mission to provide affordable, life-saving medications to uninsured and underinsured families across Kansas.

Highlighting the Need in Johnson County

Co-founder John Yost discussed the critical need that drove our expansion into a second Kansas location. Our original KCK pharmacy has served the community for four years, and growing to the point we knew we needed to expand. We were already delivering medications to patients at the Mercy and Truth Healthcare Ministry location in Shawnee, so the expansion there just made sense.

As John explained to Fox 4:

“The reality is there are more uninsured in Johnson County than in Wyandotte County. Right around the corner from here, within walking distance, there are 2,000 uninsured.”

Real Impact: Kerri’s Story

The Fox 4 segment also spotlighted the real-world impact through the story of Kerri Neighbors. After being laid off and losing her health insurance, Kerri found herself on a fixed income and facing an impossible $850 bill for post-hospitalization medications.

“I would not be alive if it weren’t for them because I couldn’t afford my medicines,” Kerri shared.

Fox 4 Ribbon Cutting CoverageAs a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we rely on grants, donations, and a unique community partnership: we accept insured patients, too.

When patients with health insurance fill their regular prescriptions with us, the funds we receive from insurance companies go directly toward covering the cost of medications for neighbors like Kerri who have nowhere else to turn.

Thank you again to Fox 4 KC for helping us share our story, and to everyone who came out to celebrate this next chapter with us!

You can see the entire story on the Fox 4 KC Website.

 

 

KSHB Spotlights Pharmacy of Grace’s Expansion to Johnson County

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Kansas City’s KSHB 41 recently featured Pharmacy of Grace in a story about our upcoming expansion to Shawnee and raised awareness about the need in that area, which doesn’t always get talked about in Johnson County. 

 

The story highlighted what our team sees every day: the cost of medications is a significant barrier for people across the Kansas City metro, and that need is growing in Johnson County. KSHB 41 Reporter Isabella Ledonne visited the Shawnee space at Mercy and Truth’s clinic on West 75th Street where our new full-service pharmacy will open.

“This is truly just a closet,” Powers told KSHB. “It’s not a pharmacy, we don’t fill prescriptions here, we just basically dispense them.”

Right now, POG only delivers medications to our Mercy & Truth patients in Shawnee. But that’s about to change.

KSHB News Coverage Headline: Pharmacy that helps uninsured patients get medicine is expanding to Johnson County

A Need That’s Been There All Along

Powers currently fills prescriptions at our main Wyandotte County location and drives them down to Johnson County — and hundreds of people rely on those deliveries.

 

 

The Shawnee expansion will mean patients no longer have to wait on a delivery or make the trip to KCK. They’ll have a full pharmacy in their own community, complete with counseling rooms and bilingual technicians. A pharmacy that will be open to anyone in the community. 


The KSHB story also featured patient Michelle Jacke, a former nurse who travels to KCK for her medications. Jacke, who relies on Pharmacy of Grace for affordable prescriptions to treat her heart condition, said she hopes the new location will help others who have fallen through the cracks. 

 

“There’s always been the thought that living in Johnson County that these people don’t have the same needs as other people in different areas,” she said. “I think we do have a lot of people here that fall into the cracks.” 

 

Data backs that up. Research from the Mid-America Regional Council shows that in the neighborhoods east of I-35 near our future location, up to 40% of residents live at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level, one in four lack health insurance, and nearly half of households in some areas speak limited English.


What’s Coming
The new Shawnee pharmacy will offer the same services our Wyandotte County patients have counted on since 2022: affordable medications for uninsured and underinsured patients, medication counseling, chronic disease support, and referrals to community resources. The pharmacy will be open to everyone, regardless of what doctor or hospital you go to. The Shawnee location is expected to open by June. 


How You Can Help
Stories like Michelle’s are why we do this work and why getting this pharmacy open matters. If you’d like to support the expansion, visit our Expanding Medication Access for Healthier Lives campaign page to make a gift. Every dollar goes directly toward pharmacy equipment, medications, staffing, and build-out of the new location.


Watch the full KSHB story here.