“It runs in the family.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
People usually use these sayings for comedic effect. In the case of Richard Stryker and Bayshore Pharmacy, they couldn’t be more true.
Independent pharmacies play a special role in the healthcare industry. The objective remains the same: take care of the patient. But the road to providing excellent patient care has different lanes, avenues, and even destinations.
The pharmacy road is what makes up Rich and Bayshore Pharmacy. His is a family business in every sense of the word, offering exceptional healthcare to the Atlantic Highlands community for more than half a century.
Bayshore Pharmacy opened in the Atlantic Highlands community in 1964 with pharmacist owners Richard C. Stryker and Joseph McDonald.
Over the years, Richard’s son Richard P. Stryker took over the family business and has been the owner ever since.
Currently in its third location, Bayshore Pharmacy is located at the very same shopping plaza where it first opened nearly 60 years ago.
“I grew up in the pharmacy and watched my dad (Richard C.) and uncle (Joseph McDonald) work and I took a liking to it.” He continues, “I grew up here, so the workers and people coming through the door are people I’ve known for years.”
As every pharmacist will tell you, the work starts feeling routine after a while. Though pharmacy work is usually fast-paced and sometimes chaotic, it can feel as normal as flipping on a light switch.
Rich knows this feeling firsthand. “The work is going to feel mundane sometimes. That’s just how it is.” He continues, “But I think the most important thing is that we enjoy what we’re doing.”
What he and the rest of Bayshore Pharmacy love doing is interacting with their patients. Bayshore is a family business, and the community connections run deep in its ownership and patient base.
“The people who work in the store and customers coming in the door are all people I’ve known for years,” Rich says. “I like seeing people we know come to us and getting to know the ones that are just starting to come into the store.”
As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, everyone’s health journey is unique. Everyone requires different solutions to their health problems, all in the name of better health.
While patient care is constantly evolving and complex, Rich continues to be a pillar of his community with the help of PioneerRx.
“We switched to PioneerRx back in February and we now have more access to better-detailed patient information,” he says. “We’re able to dive deeper into what they’re going to need.”
That’s how Rich Stryker and Bayshore Pharmacy find value in the mundane. The fill queue requires you to do the same thing over and over: put pills in a bottle and slap a label on an amber vial.
But it’s how that bottle impacts a patient’s health journey that makes the work feel fresh.
No matter how you cut it, pharmacy ownership is stressful. Whether you’re taking over the reins or starting from the ground up, the journey of pharmacy ownership can be a rocky one. But for Rich, the journey is the reward.
The main challenge is to embrace the new while staying true to what makes Bayshore Pharmacy a hallmark of the Atlantic Highlands community.
“Things are going to change in pharmacy. It always has and always will. If we’re looking to do the same thing we did three or four years ago, we’re looking at it wrong.”
He continues, “A lot of the challenges are coming from the change that’s needed. We need to focus on changing the things we can control and identify the things that we can’t change.”
The things we can’t easily change? New laws and regulations, and so much more. But the things you can change open doors to innovation and hidden breakthroughs.
Bayshore Pharmacy offers a large variety of health services to meet the community’s current health needs. Whether you’re looking for complimentary delivery services, discount card programs, convenience packaging, medication flavoring, or med sync services, Bayshore Pharmacy has you more than covered (literally).
Richard Stryker and Bayshore Pharmacy continue to be a hallmark of their community. For nearly a century, the Stryker family has provided vital and transformative healthcare services to its patients.
But they show no signs of slowing down. Rich envisions a future that’s even more patient-centered, striving for exceptionally patient-centric care.
“I’d like to see diabetes and hypertension education programs and working with doctors in the area. Working with doctors who know these patients for years will help streamline patient care and help us focus more on the education side of things.”
Patient literacy is a vital element of pharmacy work, one with growing importance. That’s simply part of the journey, one that Rich Stryker and Bayshore Pharmacy have lovingly been on for a near century.
