Pharmacy Practice — It's All About the Patient
While they often do not have an office or even work at a health center, pharmacists play a vital role in patient care and healing. Rooks County, unlike many rural areas, is fortunate to have pharmacies in Plainville and Stockton with a dedicated history of working with Rooks County Health Center to provide necessary services to their patients.
For Rooks County’s current and retired pharmacists, there is rarely a moment when they are completely off duty. Whether at a city council meeting or getting ready to tee off on the golf course, questions about certain medications or prescription refills always come up. But it’s something Kent Hahn, Lee Phelps and Francis and Keith Unrein do not mind although it did cause Phelps to take up a different sport.
“I remember when Dr. Mauck and/or Dr. Votopka used to find me at the golf course to come in to fill a prescription. I eventually took up bowling, because it was closer to the store,” laughed Phelps, who owned the pharmacy in Stockton for many years.
Each of these men decided just like the forefathers, who supported the building of Rooks County Health Center (RCH), to fill a need in the community. Francis Unrein was the first pharmacist at RCH and gave over 30 years of service. Keith followed in his father’s footsteps assuming the duties at the hospital until 2000 when Lisa Karlin became the in-patient pharmacist at the hospital.
“There was never a question that I would become a pharmacist. This is the environment where I grew up. Many of my fraternity brothers also followed in their father’s shoes. That is just how it was in those days,” shared Keith Unrein. The Unreins’ continue to support the new hospital. The pharmacy in the new hospital will be named in their honor.
When Phelps decided to retire and sell his pharmacy, Rick Braasch and his family moved to Stockton from Scottsbluff, NE to manage the pharmacy until his sudden and untimely death in 1990. Rick served the area for 8 years. After a brief transition time, Kent Hahn, a Norton native, eagerly took the chance to return to life in a progressive rural community. Hahn’s significant contributions through the tax credit program will allow for a new medication dispensing system at RCH. Phelps, who remains active in the profession and community, secured a new recumbent bike for the benefit of heart patients in the Cardiac Rehab Department at the hospital.
More so than their urban counterparts, rural pharmacists are on a first-name basis and are a readily accessible source of medical information whether in the pharmacy, at a ball game, at church and especially on the golf course where Keith Unrein also remembers being asked during a tournament to stop and fill a prescription. Having almost instant access to a health care professional is yet another benefit to living in a rural community.
Without local pharmacists who personally know their patients, many community members would be uninformed on the medications they take and left trying to sort them all out. Often patients bring bottles of medicines into the pharmacy asking what it is. “We want people to take their medications properly, and if they don't take them the correct way it could be very harmful to them,” said Keith Unrein. “Many of our patients do not drive. That's why we deliver."
If Rooks County like many rural communities were to lose their pharmacies, patients would have to drive to the next town for the nearest pharmacy or receive their medications in the mail, therefore losing the personalized pharmaceutical service. Maintaining access to pharmaceutical service—the advice, over-the-counter recommendations, drug interaction screening, consultation with physicians, health monitoring and immunizations that pharmacists provide in addition to dispensing medicines—is the number one issue when it comes to rural pharmacies.
“If local pharmacies were not here, I don't know how a lot of these people would get and manage their medications. There are a lot of small towns that do not have pharmaceutical services anymore. As a result, health care in those towns is not what it used to be,” Francis Unrein said.
While doctors and nurses are the obvious points of contact for health issues, pharmacist complete the circle of health care serving almost as an extension of the hospital and clinic. "Many times, the local pharmacy is the first point of contact," Kent Hahn said. "Folks go to the pharmacist before the doctor, because they're hoping not to have to see the doctor."
It’s the cooperative efforts of health care professionals in Rooks County that ensures residents receive personalized, quality health care from professionals committed to their patients and community. Right now 7 counties in Kansas do not have pharmacists. The next time you see one of these precious commodities at the ball park, in the store at the golf course or the bowling alley, please let them know how much you appreciate them.