Welcome and Farewell to Meadow Lane Pharmacy!

I absolutely love being your pharmacist! I take great pride in helping my patients achieve and maintain their health. Without your health, what else is there?

Over the years I've modeled my pharmacy practice not toward filling as many prescriptions as humanly possible, but toward teaching my patients what they need to know about prescription and non-prescription medications and how they affect various disease states. We remodeled the pharmacy severl years ago to accomodate this philosophy. We implemented numerous programs with this goal in mind.

In the early 1990's we began flavoring prescriptions for kids that wouldn't take their yukky meds. We were the first pharmacy in Nebraska to do so.

We developed a diabetic education program to teach those with diabetes how to monitor their blood sugar and what to do about the results. We taught them how to inject insulin, how to cook, what and when to eat, how to take care of their eyes and feet, and just about everything else to help prevent developing the long-term complications that make diabetes so devastating.

We began offering cholesterol testing over 15 years ago. Since heart disease was the number 1 killer in the US, we enhanced our wellness center to offer on-site cholesterol screening with immediate results. Most people are more likely to know their golf handicap than their cholesterol. Knowing the total cholesterol alone is meaningless, however, so we offered a complete lipid profile, including the LDL, HDL, triglycerides, and more. Since high cholesterol and diabetes are highly correlated, we included a blood sugar result with each cholesterol measurement. All results, like our other tests, were explained to the patients immediately, rather than waiting 2 weeks for a letter from the doctor. Of course we have always emphasized that our services were intended to complement, not replace a physician's care. Many physicians have referred patients to us for these services.

One out of every two women over the age of 50 will develop a fracture due to osteoporosis. Since this disease has no symptoms until a bone breaks, it is vital to understand the risk so corrective steps can be taken, to lower the risk. We began bone density testing 8 years ago and have tested and advised thousands of men and women of their risk and advised ways to improve their odds.

We've implemented other programs to foster wellness, such as immunizations, weight management, drug review consultations, hormone replacement consultations, liver function testing, blood pressure screening, A1c testing for diabetics, body composition analysis, metabolic rate testing, skin damage assessment, diabetic shoe fitting, surgical stocking fitting, and many others.

We opened our compounding lab in 2000 to custom create medications not readily available from the pharmaceutical manufacturers. We have provided thousands of patients with medications made from scratch, just for them. We are not a one-size-fits-all population, but the drug makers usually only provide medications that will be popular by millions of people, in a very few strengths. Compounding fills the voids left by this approach.

These are the types of pharmacy service that set Meadow Lane Pharmacy apart. As a locally-owned, small independent pharmacy, we were able to know our patients well. We enjoyed calling most of them by their first names and taking an interest in their health and other issues. We were happy to offer free delivery, in-store charge accounts, and a frequent buyer reward program. We provided free gift wrap in our gift and collectible department.

As a service to our patients, we accepted most third-party insurance plans, including Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross, and others. Whenever possible, we accepted assignment of the patients' claims, meaning that we did not collect from them until the insurance plan acted on the claim and informed us of the patient's responsibility. At that time, we would bill the patient.

Life as a pharmacist in such an environment has been very enjoyable and rewarding. I love my patients and my colleages and co-workers in the pharmacy. This has been a family operation from the beginning. The unwaivering support of my wife, Kellee has been a Godsend. Although busy as a third-grade teacher, she has always found time to be my sounding board and has helped immensely in a gift-buyer mode. She was born to shop. A good manager always places people in a role for which they have an aptitude. All three of my children, Kasey, Brendon, and Corby worked in the pharmacy. Corby has always had a God-given gift of technological understanding, and he developed this website at age 12. He has been the answer to all of our tech issues, whether it's email that we can't receive or problems with the wireless network. He has spent many a late night in the pharmacy making sure the computers were going to work the next morning when we opened. Some of these were nights he was expected in class the next morning.

Unfortunately, the demands of running a business have grown exponentially over the years. I have had to spend more and more of my time attending to billing the insurance companies, reconciling the claims, paying the vendors, preparing the payroll, and adhering to a growing list of regulatory requirements. It has become increasing difficult to obtain payment from Medicare, Medicaid, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, and other insurance companies. We gladly provided services, but our billings for reimbursements were seemling being ignored. I soon found myself devoting over 60% of my 80-hour weeks to such management activities, taking away from the time I treasured dealing directly with patients.

For these reasons, and after careful consideration, I made the difficult decision to close Meadow Lane Pharmacy on December 1, 2006. I transferred pharmacy records and inventory to Walgreens at 70th and O Streets, where I have since been employed. A key concern in considering this decision was disposed of when Walgreens offered employement to those of my staff interested in working for them. I am delighted that Kristi, Gaileen, Allie, and Amy have joined me in the Walgreens family. I had some anxiety about giving up what I love best and taking on new challenges with a new employer, but my fears have been dissolved. Walgreens has been a super company to work for and have treated all of us extremely well! They've literally bent over backwards in making this transition easy for not only myself and my staff, but for my customers and patients as well. I am truly blessed in having the opportunity to work in a professional setting, answering patients' questions, and knowing that others are tending to the bill-paying, insurance company collections, payroll, and all the rest. I never knew pharmacy could be this much fun and only regret that I did not make this change years ago.

And so, the era of Meadow Lane Pharmacy has come to a close. However, my interest in providing wellness to Lincoln, one patient at a time, continues. I have developed a new company, called PharmaFit, through which I will continue to offer diabetes, asthma, osteoporosis, skin health, and other screenings vital to keeping my patients well. More information will be disseminated as the company gets its feet off the ground. Please visit our website at www.getpharmafit.com.

I am so grateful for all the wonderful people I've met and interacted with over my 25 years of owning Meadow Lane Pharmacy. I hope we've made a difference for some of them along the way. I plan to continue in that light at Walgreens and PharmaFit.