Pharmacist of the year: Condo's Steve Moore

PLATTSBURGH, NY - Steve Moore, owner of Condo Pharmacy in Plattsburgh, N.Y., has been named the 2019 Willard B. Simmons Independent Pharmacist of the Year. HME News recently spoke with Moore, who took over the pharmacy from his parents in 2005, about getting provider status and going beyond filling bottles.

HME News: What are some of the challenges facing community pharmacies these days?

Steve Moore: The biggest challenge right now is we're not recognized as individual providers yet. The great thing about pharmacists is we're the most accessible healthcare professional, so we want to take advantage of that. One of the things I do, is I work with individual physician's offices where I see patients doing annual wellness visits and chronic care management for Medicare and Medicaid. But when I do that I'm working under the doctor's license. If I could do that on my own from my own pharmacy that would be a great way to expand the pool of people who receive these services, so we need to remove those obstacles. 

HME: Is that being worked on at the national level?

Moore: Yes, on a federal level and on a state level to some degree, though New York tends to be one of the more restrictive states. We were the 49th state in the country to allow pharmacists to immunize patients against influenza. We can only do 4 or 5 different types of immunizations, so we can't do all the CDC approved ones yet. And it makes sense where if pharmacists are having trouble with prescriptions, maybe we could do travel vaccines to make up some of that revenue.

HME: How do you see the role of the pharmacist evolving?

Moore: We have a number of patients every year that can't get to the store, so we'll go to their house and immunize them in their home, so that's a nice thing that pharmacists can do. Pharmacists can also provide different services. For example, we're working with the Department of Environmental Conservation in New York. It's a pilot program that takes back expired prescriptions. We're not getting paid for that, but we're helping by being stewards of the profession and taking some of this stuff out of the communities before it harms the environment or gets to somebody it shouldn't get to.