Way up by the Canadian border in Plattsburgh, NY, where the closest major city is Montreal, lies a family-owned independent pharmacy that has been around since the 1940s. Condo Pharmacy is a proud member of NCPA, CPESN USA, and PSSNY, and is dedicated to meeting their patients’ unique healthcare needs with a variety of enhanced services. A ‘jack of all trades’, they offer med sync, compounding, DME, specialty, LTC, weight loss management, immunizations, dietary supplements, and more.

Steve Moore is a pharmacist at Condo Pharmacy where he works with his family. He is a luminary for CPESN, Chairman of the Board for PSSNY, and was named the NCPA Pharmacist of the Year in 2019.

“Pharmacist of the year and I still work for my mom,” he jokes.

He explains how Condo Pharmacy has taken on the new opportunity of performing COVID-19 testing, as well as preparing to administer the vaccine soon.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to do point-of-care testing. We’re very excited about the opportunity,” he says. “It was an unmet need. We’ve been saying for years here in New York that we need to update our Practice Act. So as awful as COVID has been, it’s been an opportunity for pharmacy to show what we can do. We’re still here. We haven’t closed. Patients are still counting on us. And this was one more service that we were able to bring to our community.”

Since they are required to report COVID test results to the state daily, Steve Moore found that it was very tedious to do it manually and so he reached out to PioneerRx to see if a solution could be programmed into the software to help.

“Something that I figured at best would result in ‘We might be able to help you at some point in the future,’ actually ended up being less than a month before they had turned around a report.” Moore explains. “It does the lion’s share of the work so that instead of doing most of the data entry, I’m kind of just going through and verifying a few fields…and then I’m able to submit that in about 10-15 minutes as opposed to a couple of hours.”

Reporting both positive and negative test results is important for pharmacies to help accurately reflect the rates of infection in their communities, but it can be time-consuming without the right tools.

“Other PioneerRx users in New York were able to use the same reports, so it was something that benefited more than just myself. It was a great thing, and we really appreciate PioneerRx turning that around so quickly.”

This is just one example of the ways that independent pharmacies have had to solve new challenges and adapt their workflows. Throughout the pandemic, pharmacists have had to step up to the plate in order to protect their communities.

“We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do,” says Moore. “That’s the thing with [COVID] and even the vaccine that’s coming, we still have existing patients and existing prescriptions that need our attention. And we absolutely cannot lose sight of that. But it’s been a pretty valuable service to our community, and it’s certainly been a learning one for us.”

It’s a true balancing act to run a pharmacy during this time, but with the right team and resources – and unwavering commitment to their communities –  pharmacies are making it happen despite the challenges.

“You go home one night and you come back the next day and everything’s different, but I think we’re used to that. Community pharmacists are flexible,” Moore adds.

Condo Pharmacy sees the true value in having a team of partners that can help you achieve your goals.

“I've got to give a shout-out to CPESN, they’ve been absolutely fantastic. NCPA as well with the resources and the best practice suggestions. I appreciate the webinars [they do] and the ones PioneerRx does too. Thank you, you guys have been right there. We appreciate working with you guys and knowing that I don’t have to introduce you to CPESN.”

Having a network of like-minded partners that have their goals aligned with yours can help a pharmacy be successful no matter what comes their way. Moore also highlights the continuing assistance he and his team get from their PioneerRx software support.

“I’ve definitely got to give a shout-out to Starla, who is our [software support specialist]. We appreciate all she does for us here at Condo Pharmacy.”

All PioneerRx pharmacies have software support, like Starla, who are specifically dedicated to their pharmacy and know the ins and outs of their store. All PioneerRx software support are trained pharmacy technicians with an average of 10 years of experience, so they are familiar with the situations a pharmacy will encounter.

As for their next initiative, Condo Pharmacy will be receiving their first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine very soon. They will be reporting records of patients who get immunized to their state registry, and they are already familiar with this process because they have been doing it through PioneerRx for their other vaccinations as well.

“That was one of the reasons we converted to PioneerRx, was the interface between PioneerRx and NYSIIS, which is the New York State Immunization Information System. My immunizations get reported through PioneerRx to STC Immslink and then STC sends them to the state.”

Administering the COVID vaccine will come with its own set of challenges, but Steve Moore and his team are ready to help protect their community and move forward in mitigating the effects of the pandemic.