2015-08 georgia pharmacy magazine

Inside:Cut your

student loanrate in half

our 2015 Convention

in photos

Meet Gpha’s new president, toMMy whitworth

August/September 2015

Coverage You Need.Service You Deserve.A Price You Can Afford.

Georgia Pharmacy 1August/September 2015

3 prescriptLearning by doingPhil Ratliff gets a taste of the pharmacy business while getting a taste of pharmacy food

4 newsWhat’s happening in the pharmacy worldOur Immunization Compliance Kit, student loan refinancing for pharmacists, board changes at GPhA, and more

19tommyHe keeps honeybees and raises llamas. He’s got a man cave and tools around on an ATV. Oh, and he’s also a pillar in his community.Meet GPhA’s new president, LaGrange’s Tommy Whitworth

Once upon a time, the drugstore lunch counter was an American fixture. Today they’re a little harder to find, but definitely worth the trip. So we sent Phil Ratliff out to find some of the best pharmacy food in the state.

10 cover story: druGstore eats

contents

19

23convention recapEnjoy the view...in these pictures from the Georgia Pharmacy Convention 2015 on Amelia Island 29PharmPACInvestors in the future of the pharmacy profession in Georgia

31contact usWho does what at GPhA, and how to reach us

32postscript A note from President Tommy WhitworthAs he takes the reins, our new president considers the blessings he’s had in life as a pharmacist

5

23

Cover illustration by John roman

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When I was a kid, I had charge account privileges at a tiny store: Plaza Phar-macy, Nancy Pylent, proprietor. People who know me won’t be shocked to learn that (until the inev-

itable happened and I was cut off) I ran up huge monthly bills on Mad magazines and soda pop.

Plaza Pharmacy had a Coke machine, not a cool-er or fountain, so to charge a drink Nancy would hand me 15 cents to plop in the drink machine then record the transaction in a ledger. Fifteen cents seems minuscule by today’s standards, but in the age of “The Brady Bunch” and “The Monkees,” it added up, especially when you wanted to be a big shot and buy your friends a round.

Traveling from McCaysville to Metter, hit-ting drugstores in Conyers, Commerce, Athens, LaGrange, and Columbus along the way (see “Pharmacy Eats,” page 10), I heard several stories about kids who were given this privilege — and who went on to shock their parents with their exorbitant ice cream habits and lengthy itemized monthly bills. (They didn’t see that one coming?)

My nostalgic lunch counter road trip lasted about a week. But it has been part of a lengthier journey to discover what’s important to pharma-cy and pharmacists in the Peach State. I’ve been with GPhA a little more than six months. I’ve helped register pharmacists for MTM and diabe-tes certification training sessions. I’ve socialized at the convention and joked over goofy posts on the convention app. In all that, I’ve learned that pharmacists don’t just dispense medicine and sell ice cream, cokes, and magazines. Pharmacists are at the front line of healthcare. We can’t live with-out them. I didn’t understand that about Nancy years ago, but I do now.

Along the way to providing healthcare, phar-macies also became the hubs. Maybe it’s a lunch counter, or, as I found, a drink machine and an extensive selection of fine literature. Pharmacists and the businesses they operate have provid-ed Georgia communities with a place to meet friends, be known, and fill a prescription. I can say without the slightest sense that I’m overstat-ing, that pharmacists make life possible for some — and better for everybody.

Phillip Ratliff is GPhA’s vice president of communication and engagement.

PhilliP rAtliff

prescript

Georgia Pharmacy magazine is the official publication of the Georgia Pharmacy Association.

Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Direct any questions to the editor at [email protected].

President and Chair of the Board Tommy Whitworth

President-Elect Lance Boles

First Vice President Liza Chapman

Second Vice President Tim Short

Chief Executive Officer Scott Brunner, CAE [email protected]

Vice President of Communication and Engagement Phillip Ratliff [email protected]

Director of Communication & Editor Andrew Kantor [email protected]

Art Director Carole Erger-Fass

ADVERTISING All advertising inquiries should be directed to Denis Mucha at [email protected] or (770) 252-1284. Media kit and rates available upon request.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Georgia Pharmacy is distributed as a regular membership service, paid for with membership dues. Non-members can subscribe for $50 per year domestic or $65 per year international. Single issues are $10 issue domestic and $20 international. Practicing Georgia pharmacists who are not members of GPhA are not eligible for subscriptions.

POSTALGeorgia Pharmacy (ISSN 1075-6965) is published bi-monthly by the GPhA, 50 Lenox Pointe NE, Atlanta, GA 30324. Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, GA and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Georgia Pharmacy magazine, 50 Lenox Pointe NE, Atlanta, GA 30324.

charging ahead

1

FLAT COLOR

OPENBLACK & WHITE

GLOSS/GRADIENT

Georgia PharmacyA S S O C I A T I O N

Georgia Pharmacy 4 August/September 2015

So you know that as of July 1, phar-macists across the state could begin administering the herpes zoster, pneumococcal disease, and meningi-tis vaccines. Well, sort of.

Obviously you can’t just begin sticking needles in people; there are steps that have to be in place first: A (new) protocol agreement, new paperwork for patients, a possible change to your pharmacy layout, and more.

The devil’s in the details, as usual. But as usual, GPhA’s got you cov-ered. We’ve put together a website and downloadable package we call the GPhA Immunization Compli-ance Kit. It’s a step-by-step guide — and more — available only to GPhA

Not only do we have a training video as part of our immunization info page (left), we’ve also got one on the other big new Georgia pharmacy law: MAC transparency. Sure, most of the onus is on the PBMs, but there’s plenty affecting pharmacists as well. Hear GPhA’s CEO Scott Brunner talk with VP of public policy & association counsel Greg

Reybold about how the new bill affects pharmacies, and learn what your rights — and responsibilities — are. Check it out at GPhA.org/mactransparency.

KeeP uP with MAC trAnsPArenCy

news

read more @gphabuzz.com

Meet (And downloAd) the GPhA iMMunizAtion CoMPliAnCe Kit

members.What’s in the kit? A physician

protocol agreement. A blank adult immunization record. An immuni-zation consent form and affidavit. And more.

But get this: These aren’t just samples. These are actual, usable documents you can print out and give to patients to meet the require-ments of the law.

The kit is part of our Immuniza-tion Resources page (GPhA.org/im-munization), and it was put togeth-er with the help of GPhA attorney Greg Reybold — a guy who knows the ins and outs of the new law intimately because he was instru-mental in its creation. Greg and the Immunization Compliance Kit can help you implement the new law legally and effectively.

GPhA and its members got the new immunization law passed. And now we’re here to help you take advantage of it. That’s not just a shameless plug — that’s the power of your association, making pharmacy in Georgia the best that it can be.


If you or someone you know is paying off a student loan, you’ll want to read this. It’s one of those major GPhA deals we love to share.

GPhA has partnered with a company called SoFi to offer a new program that can reduce the inter-est rate you’re paying on a student loan. (We have it say it “can” reduce the rate because obviously it’s going to depend on your financial situation.)

Through SoFi and GPhA, you can knock your student loan’s interest rate to as low as 3.375 percent fixed.

Considering that most student loans in the last few years are in the 6 to 6.8 percent range, that can mean saving more than $20,000 for some pharmacy grads. Really; we ran the numbers.

You can just go to SoFi yourself, of course, but if you go through GPhA as a member, the company will

knock another .125 percent off your rate and save you a few hundred bucks more.

Want the math? You got it:• Let’s say you have a $100,000 loan

for 10 years. (We like round num-bers.)

• At 6.8%, you’d pay $1,151 each month, and a total of $38,096 in interest.

• At 3.5%, you’d only pay $989 a month, and only $18,663 in interest.

That’s $19,433 difference.Now, if 19 grand doesn’t mean

anything to you, awesome. (Hint: You can give it to the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation— it does great work.)

But if saving the price of a small car does seem like a good deal just for filling out some paperwork, you need to check this out.

Just go to sofi.com/GPhA and fol-low the instructions there. It’s simple and an easy way to save a few grand.

Got a student loan? you need to read this

If you’ve ever been to the GPhA world headquarters in Atlanta, you know that it’s a… decent space. But for a place that’s supposed to not only represent the pharmacy profession across the state, it really could be better.

We found “better.” This December, GPhA will be moving to

a new facility near the intersection of I-285 and Georgia 400 in Sandy Springs.

Besides allowing the staff to collaborate in a modern, well-designed office (and replace some of the decades-old office equipment they’re using), the new digs sport an 80-seat classroom where we’ll offer CPE

sessions, certifications, and other training courses each month.

We’re confident we can make this move with little or no increase in GPhA’s current budget. We’re doing that by launching a fundraising campaign: asking leaders in the pharmacy profession and industry to demon-strate their support for GPhA and our role as the voice for pharmacy in Georgia.

So if and when we come to you asking for a one-time contribution to help make the new GPhA headquarters a place the profession can be proud of, we hope we’ll be able to count on you.

GettinG our move on

the GeorGia

pharmacyconvention

2015

279attendees

228soft drinks

consumed between sessions

1,191total app

interactions

175Photos uploaded

to the Georgia Pharmacy

Convention app

6+16 Georgia legislators

and 1 u.s. congressman

✓✓


news

We want you to be a pharmacist lead-er — someone your peers turn to and someone the profession can call on. And we’ve got a program to make that happen.

LeadershipGPhA is GPhA’s elite training program for tomorrow’s phar-macy leaders. Each year it accepts only 15 applicants from across the state — Georgia pharmacists who demon-strate leadership potential — and engages them in a seven-month-long series of training and strengths-build-ing activities to develop those lead-ership skills through a combination of group sessions and actual project experience.

They learn to identify leadership skills in themselves and others, to understand their strengths and weak-nesses, to set and achieve the right professional goals, to network more effectively, to make the best — and right — decisions, to improve their communication skills, and more.

They’ll learn to use these skills to understand today’s pharmacy issues on both the large and small scale, and how they can become part of the solutions.

The result is a network of leaders across the state who are actively involved in improving our association and profession, and who can serve as professional ambassadors to commu-nity, business, and political leaders.

Is this you? If your vision for your future includes a leadership role in the association, LeadershipGPhA is where to start. Visit GPhA.org/leadership for more info and an application.

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If you know the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation, you know it does a lot of good work. If you don’t know it, that’s about to change, as we ramp up the foundation’s efforts to make a difference to pharmacists, technicians, and students.

The Georgia Pharmacy Foundation is GPhA’s philanthropic wing. It provides scholarships to student pharmacists, it provides training and education programs for seasoned pharmacists, and it extends a helping hand to pharmacists struggling with addiction.

The foundation’s primary mission is education, but its board knew it needed to update its vision — and also to bring the foundation back on pharmacist’s radar. So you’re going to be hearing a lot more about the foundation and its new, fourfold mission:

1. Continuing to provide scholarships and grants that support education for pharmacy students and professionals.

2. Making a commitment to funding research on the financial benefits of pharmacists’ role in healthcare. We need the public to know just

how much we contribute to the effectiveness and affordability of healthcare.

3. Helping incubate innovation in pharmacy practices that advance the profession, or that provide tools to make pharmacies — or pharmacists — more efficient.

4. Continuing to invest in the PharmAssist program to help Georgia pharmacists face and overcome addiction.

Having a vision is a start, but we need your help to make it a reality. So yes, we’re going to be asking you to reach into your pockets, dig out your checkbooks, and support the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation. A well-funded founda-tion can do so much for so many people, and for the entire profession. It’s a commitment we hope you’ll be willing to make.

Don’t wait to be askeD. Help support the work of the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation today with a tax- deductible contribution. Just go to GPhA.org/foundation.

Forward the foundation


news“I’M ALWAYS WATCHING OUT FOR MY PATIENTS, BUT WHO’S WATCHING OUT FOR ME?”

We are the Alliance for Patient Medication Safety (APMS), a federally listed Patient Safety Organization. Our Pharmacy Quality Commitment (PQC) program:

• Helps you implement and maintain a continuous quality improvement program

• Offers federal protection for your patient safety data and your quality improvement work

• Assists with quality assurance requirements found in network contracts, Medicare Part D, and state regulations

• Provides tools, training and support to keep your pharmacy running efficiently and your patients safe

PQC IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOUR STATE PHARMACY ASSOCIATION

WE ARE.

Call toll free (866) 365-7472 or visit www.pqc.net

ShuFFling the boardLike a lot of organizations, GPhA has a board of directors that makes the big decisions. We also had a separate “executive committee” that also helped make those big decisions.

Now we like bureaucracy as much as the next guy, but we also knew — thanks to members’ input — that it made sense to have a bit less of it.

We needed to thread the needle between a board large enough to represent the association’s geographic and practice-area diversity, but be small enough to be responsive and make quick decisions.

That’s why, at the Georgia Pharma-cy Convention 2015, the membership voted to create a new, streamlined board structure. Instead of a 41-mem-ber board and a separate executive committee, GPhA’s new leadership consists of a 11-member board repre-senting all practice settings.

Remember, the GPhA Board of directors represents you. Get to know them and get in touch if you’d like to see your association do something. Just visit GPhA.org/board.


Inspiring confidenceGPhA/UBS Wealth Management Program

We know pharmacists think about much more than prescriptions. You think about your future and retirement,

making the right financial decisions for your family, andhelping your employees so their future looks confident too.

UBS provides GPhA with exclusive UBS benefits for the complexities of your life and pharmacy. Contact us today

and let us help you plan with confidence.

Harris Gignilliat, CIMA®, CRPS®

First Vice President–Wealth Management Senior Retirement Plan Consultant

404-760-3301 [email protected]

Wile Consulting GroupUBS Financial Services Inc.

3455 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 1700Atlanta, GA 30326

ubs.com/team/wile

As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, we offer both investment advisory and brokerage services. These services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate contracts. For more information on the distinctions between our brokerage and investment advisory services, please speak with your Financial Advisor or visit our website at ubs.com/workingwithus.UBS Financial Services Inc., its affiliates and its employees are not in the business of providing tax or legal advice. Clients should seek advice based on their particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor. CIMA® is a registered certification mark of the Investment Management Consultants Association, Inc. in the United States of America and worldwide. Chartered Retirement Plans SpecialistSM and CRPS® are registered service marks of the College for Financial Planning®. ©UBS 2014. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. 7.00_Ad_7.5x4.875_AX0220_WileConsultingGrp2 GphA

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Some new names are going to be appearing on the GPhA org chart, including a couple of old friends who are get-ting a bit more formal treatment.

First, after our big wins this year in the state legisla-ture, we’re beefing up our legislative advocacy team.

Greg Reybold joins the staff as our vice president of public policy & association counsel. You may recognize him as the attorney who helped us craft (and later, ex-plain to members) the immunization expansion bill that passed this year.

Cindy Shepherd joins us not as full-time staff, but as our dedicated legislative consultant. She’s been work-ing with GPhA on our lobbying efforts before, and this solidifies the deal.

Outside our government affairs department, Dianne Jones of Suwanee has joined the GPhA staff as our new vice president of finance & administration, following in the footsteps of Dan Griggs (see “A farewell to Dan, right”).

Dianne has a ton of experience leading the finance and operations side of not-for-profit membership orga-nizations: She spent seven years as controller and CFO for the Atlanta Athletic Clubs, and more recently as CFO and general manager for the 1818 Club, a business club associated with the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce.

new lobbying punch and a VP of finance: staff changes at GPhA

Dan Griggs, GPhA’s vice presi-dent of finance and administra-tion, is retiring this August. You may not know Dan, but you’ve indirectly felt his impact.

Since he joined GPhA in April 2010, Dan’s helped clean up and restructure the association’s finances and saving a lot of money — your dues dollars — by working with our contractors and re-working our agreements.

He’s “looking forward to do-ing nothing for a while,” he says of his retirement — “nothing” meaning spending time with his wife, two children, and (we sus-pect) his three grandchildren.

He’ll be missed.

A fArewell to dAn

Reybold

Shepherd

Jones

Georgia Pharmacy 10 August/September 2015Georgia Pharmacy 10

cover story


heir food is simple but satisfying. The atmosphere is more friendly than fancy. We’re talking pharmacy lunch counters and soda fountains, artifacts of a simpler time in American life, when people connected with one at the corner drugstore over milkshakes or a patty melt.

Although we may see them as relics of a bygone era, wildly success-ful lunch counters and soda fountains still inhabit small-town Georgia. Some operate as grills, offering burgers and dogs. Others, offer frozen treats. There’s even one meat-and-three in the mix.

I took a tour across the state — a tour of some of Georgia pharmacy lunch counters and soda fountains. The assignment was rife with potential for delicious excess: Visit seven old-timey establishments over the course of four days. It was, in short, the ultimate road trip, covering more than a thousand miles and 18 hours, each step of the way snapping photos of dishes ranging from artisanal ice cream sundaes to fried baloney sandwiches. The caloric intake was obscene.

The result: A peek at why Georgia’s pharmacy lunch counters and soda shops are among the best places on earth.

The label said “Take wiTh Food,”so we Took ThaT To hearT.

story and photos by phillip ratliff

illustratio

n by Jo

hn

rom

an


Conyers:beasley drug Companytwo slices of nostalgic bliss

When Ora Bailey, owner of Beasley Drug Company in Conyers, felt that the grilled cheese at her phar-macy’s iconic lunch counter wasn’t grilled cheesy enough, she insisted that her cooks make every sandwich with not one but two slices of American. This was a grilled cheese she could feel good about handing out, at no charge, to sledders during the snowpocalypse — and it’s the same grilled cheese she wants to eat herself.

“I try to eat salads, but, boy, when I eat one, I’m in heaven,” Ora says.

Ora’s grandfather, Ralph Beasley, opened the pharmacy in 1934, moving Beasley’s to its current location in 1942. It was at the heart of downtown Conyers, surrounded by a grocery, a feed and seed store, a cobbler, and a five and dime. Ralph sold ice cream and sodas early on, then sometime around 1964 added hotdogs and hamburgers to the menu.

It’s that 1964 lunch counter experience that Ora is dedicated to preserving: parquet floors, Formica counter, vinyl stools — and, besides sandwiches like her beloved grilled cheese, lots and lots of ice cream. A kid’s scoop is only 73 cents with tax, an Beasley offers free ice creams for completing the public

Come in to Beasley’s any day during lunch and you’ll find the counter packed.

cover story

library’s summer reading program or remembering to get a flu vaccination.

Free ice cream is one small way that Ora keeps Beasley Drug Company as a constant in a city that has changed drastically in the past few decades. Today, with strip malls serving up the basics like groceries and housewares, downtown, dubbed Olde Towne, houses mostly boutiques and specialty shops.

“This community means a lot to me. I know most people who come in [to Beasley]. I’m the seventh generation to be baptized at the Method-ist church down the street. I feel like I have been blessed with a lot. So I bought this store to be able to give back to the community,” Ora says.

duluthduluth rexall drugsCome for the meatloaf

Pharmacist and entrepreneur Lynda Alley, owner of the award winning Duluth Rexall Drugs, can recite her massive weekly menu like it was the peri-odic table: by days of the week or by food group.

But invariably, her exorbitant litanies come back to a single dish, one that Dultuh Rexall serves


On the books it’s called McCaysville Drug Center, and much about the bustling north Georgia operation lives up to its name. There’s a pharmacist counter built in the late 1960s and covered with something resembling a Mansard roof, and rows of shelving stocked with such standard drugstore fare as diapers and OTC remedies, orthopedic shoes and candy bars.

To its fans and customers, however, McCaysville Drug Center goes by another name, McCaysville Drug and Gun, a place that can help you knock out a head cold or take down a wild boar. Tourists drop in while shopping in McCaysville or across the Ocoee in Copper Hill, Tennessee. Husbands sneak in to daydream while their wives shop downtown for antiques. Wives sneak in while pretending to shop for antiques.

And some of those gawkers end up buying guns, owner Hugh Rogers says. He sells to hunters wanting to bag white-tail deer and to first-time gun buyers wanting to feel safer. Hugh devotes roughly 65 percent of his time and his business to keeping up with gun piece of McCaysville Drugs and Guns.

Hugh makes a brisk business of selling hats and t-shirts online, mostly to aficionados of Internet oddities. The “drug and gun” aesthetic is a little on the Sons of Anarchy side, but when you’ve made the leap to a gun and drug store, you’re probably long past subtlety.

That leap happened in 2011 when Hugh, fed up with com-peting with big box stores on the price of ibuprofen and toilet paper, started fishing for new ideas. He’d heard about a gun dealing-florist-pharmacist in South Georgia, GPhA member Billy Connelly, and decided to give two-thirds of that concept a try in his own neck of the woods.

It’s all working out in a way he couldn’t have imagined when he decided to pull the trigger four years ago:

“That’s the crossroads we were at the time. Up-front inven-tory wasn’t moving and we had to make a switch. Now, the gun side keeps edging out more and more. Gun sales started with a six-foot counter. Guns now fill half the store. We could fill a place twice this size if we had the room,” Hugh says.

MCCaysville: This ain’T no soda FounTain

everyday — a humble main course that everybody loves and hardly anyone knows how to make well:

I’m talking meatloaf, juicy slabs of it. Meatloaf is to Duluth Pharmacy what 5-W-30

is to Jiffy Lube. It’s made fresh every day in Duluth Rexall’s kitchen, sliced thick, doused in gravy, and surrounded by sides.

The roster of those sides reads like a who’s who: There’s creamed potato, rice and gravy, pinto beans, white beans, lima beans, black-eyed peas, and plenty of biscuits or cornbread for sopping, too.

Lynda’s operation is dripping in history. The counter with its vinyl-covered stools and booths datd back to around 1960. Coca-Cola wallpaper and memorabilia cover most of the wall space, with photos and newspaper clippings filling in the empty bits.

Danielle Sexton serves up a hamburger plate featuring Duluth Rexall’s burger, hand patted out of ground chuck. And don’t forget the side dishes, like the gravy-covered potatoes, collard greens, and beans with this pork roast.

Lynda’s commitment to quality is getting her noticed. There are smaller awards, like best sweet tea in Gwinnet County. And big ones, like No. 10 on Thrillist’s list of best Georgia restaurants outside 285. (That’s one spot above Paula Dean’s Lady and Sons, and you better believe Lynda made sure I knew that.)

It’s nice being noticed b the press, but Lyn-da’s biggest fans are her customers. “We have reg-ulars who eat breakfast then half of those come back again for lunch. My wait staff knows that they want when they come in. They’ll have the sweet tea coming to them before they sit down. I feed 200 to 600 a day, breakfast and lunch,” she says. “The week starts slower, but by Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we’re slammed.”


athensadd drugKeeping it simple, keeping it real

In case you’ve missed it, Athens is sort of a college town. That means that nine months out of the year, tens of thousands of students arrive. A host of them flock to ADD Drugs, a pharmacy outfitted with a 16-seat lunch counter in Athens’ hipster-lad-en Five Points business district.

At ADD, you can get a fried baloney or grilled cheese sandwich and only be out a buck fifty, some-thing you don’t have to be a student to appreciate. ADD’s owner, pharmacist Kevin Florence, points out that there’s a delicate and predictable mixture

of patrons to the 60-year old estab-lishment that includes the atheltc community, seniors, and elemtnary kids on summer break.

The secret to ADD’s low prices and perennial appeal is consisten-cy and simplicity. A grilled cheese sandwich requires bread and

cheese, the same cheese you can put on a hamburg-er and the same bread you can use in a baloney sandwich. A patty melt is just sliced-bread-not-bun variation on a regular hamburger.

From a solid core and a lot of creative mixing and matching, and the addition of a limited signa-ture ingredients, you can get all manner of break-fast and lunch items.

“And some of the best milkshakes in town!” That’s Tony Glenum, a NYC native who has been coming to ADD Drugs for years, and is devoted to the one-dollar fried egg sandwich.

That’s just what pharmacist owner Kevin Florence is going for. He’s owned ADD for the past three years, after spending time in a retail chain and working as a compounder. When he heard that ADD was being sold, he spent a couple of years working out details of the purchase.

Along the way, he became a pretty clever busi-nessman.

“Keep it as simple a possible for the cost side,” he says. “It’s easier on storage space, easier to pre-pare the easier to move people in and out; you have to turn over seats.

Above all, Kevin wants his food to taste like it did decades ago — for a visit from a UGA alum to feel like old times. When students return to

ADD this fall, they’re going to find the same great, affordable food that got them over the hump three months earlier.

“They get the same experience every time they come. It’s not changed,” Florence says. “They could have eaten here in 1974 and we still have the same burgers and the same French fries.”

CoMMerCeCommerce Pharmacyhere for the long haul (and bingo)

It’s 8:55 on a Tuesday morning and more than a dozen people, most all seniors, are lined up outside Commerce Pharmacy. The sidewalks are still pretty sleepy this time of morning — so I can’t help but notice that something extraordinary is erupting in front of Commerce Pharmacy.

What has convinced more than a dozen Com-merce citizens to queue up this early is not a run on prescriptions but a pastime more often associated with retirement homes and parish halls: Bingo.

Bingo is part of a master strategy not only to get people to fill their prescriptions at Commerce Pharmacy — but to stop off for a bite at the soda counter. It’s not a fancy counter: just seven vinyl covered barstools and a well-worn strip of Formica. When the doors finally open, the throng makes its way to auxiliary seating while Bingo cards are handed out.

Soon, ice tea begins to flow, served up by counter manager, Melle Rearden. Melle, an expert on Commerce Pharmacy first came to the company as a customer some 40 years ago.

“After school I’d sit in the corner and read com-ic books,” Melle tells me.

Melle and her colleague, Patricia, are making tea and salads that morning. Pimiento cheese, along with tuna salad sandwiches and daily spe-cials like pasta salad and chicken wraps, are what

Amy Tyndell serves up smiles and small talk to ADD regulars, while Faye Mosley works the grill.

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SHOW YOUR SUPPORT! Attend this year’s Aip Fall Meetingplease fill out and fax this form to (404) 237-8435)

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Sunday, October 25, 2015 • Macon Marriott & Centreplex Macon, GA

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feATURIng

• CE programs

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COnTInenTAl BReAkfAST& lUnCH PROvIded!


cover story

bring the downtown businessmen to Commerce Pharmacy. They come from the nearby funeral home, the insurance agency, and the dozen or so other businesses lining main street Commerce, and they’re the drugstore’s bread and butter.

But it’s the ice cream that attracts kids. Commerce Pharmacy has had tubs of the frozen treat delivered from Atlanta’s own Greenwood Ice Creamery for 60 years.

Rebecca, a 2000 Mercer graduate, usually spends her time across the store behind pharma-cy counter. But when the lunch slam is on, it’s all hands on deck. As a result, she’s gotten to know the ins and outs of working in a soda fountain.

“I started as a soda jerk. Now I’m just a jerk,” she jokes.

Regardless of which counter she’s standing behind, Rebecca chats with diners, and she’s learned a lot from her interactions about what Commerce Pharmacy has meant to people over the years.

“People spent their childhood here. To this day, they’ll come in to fill a prescription and talk about when they were children coming here,” she says.

Soon the Bingo crowd will leave as a new crowd, downtown businessmen, enters Commerce Pharmacy. Minus the Bingo innovation, it’s a pat-tern that’s been around for a while.

Rebecca sees the Bingo as a variation on a theme that’s been unfolding for what will be century and a decade next year. “Commerce Phar-macy has been here since 1906. Anything in the downtown area, any sort of downtown activity, the drugstore has been a part of that,” she says.

ColuMbusdinglewood drugstorescrambled dogs: pretty in pink

It’s the lunch slam at Dinglewood Drugstore in Columbus and the counter is lined with customers. Resting before about half of those is a Styrofoam boat filled with what best can be described with language borrowed from Georgia’s folk art world: an assemblage of found objects.

There’s a hot dog bun. There’s gooey slices of factory-made Velveeta. There are oyster crackers and pickles topping a ladle’s worth of chili.

The most striking ingredient has to be the weenies, diced into chunks and pinker than a high-lighter. Add them in and you’ve got what the folks at Dinglewood call the scrambled dog. In the minds of some Columbus residents, it’s a work of art – and something of an acquired taste.

Alison Lund, a military wife from Texas who is eating her first at Dinglewood. “It’s good!” Alison says, the way you’d say that the first time you ate sushi or liverwurst.

A few seats over is an old Dinglewood pro, Leslie Vann Lazrovitch. Leslie grew up in Colum-bus but now lives in Louisville. She’s been bragging about Dinglewood Pharmacy for years and has finally managed to convince her family to make the pilgrimage.

“This is the first scrambled dog I’ve had in 15 years!” she gushes.

“I got the hamburger,” Leslie’s daughter says, casting a furtive glance at the monstrosity her mom is dissecting.

“What’s in the chili?” I wonder aloud.“Regular chili and some other stuff, “ the chili

Meet the scrambled dog: Dinglewood Drugstore’s signature dish.

Patricia Shubert of Commerce Pharmacy makes a mean banana split, thanks in part to Atlanta’s own Greenwood Ice Cream.


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ladler, Ernestine, says.“What other stuff?”“I’m sworn to secrecy. I want to continue,”

she says, unclear if she means “working here” or “existing.”

I float a theory that there’s a scrambled dog because someone couldn’t decide between a bowl of chili and a chilidog.

Yep, Ernestine says. The credit goes to a man named “Lieutenant.” According to Dinglewood sources, Lieutenant adapted his chili recipe from that of his predecessor, Sport Brown. After working alongside another friend Dinglewood owner and pharmacist Terry Hurley, for more than 40 years, Lieutenant left it to Ernestine and toppings special-ist Tiffeny to carry on the Dinglewood legacy.

Scrambled dogs are moving fast. Soon, a fresh plastic container of neon weenies arrives.

“They’re special made for Dinglewood,” Tiffeny explains.

“Yeah, but what I mean is, why are they so …. pink?” I ask.

“Because they’re special made for Dinglewood,” she says, as she dumps the package contents into a bright pink pile.

laGranGeThe Medicine CabinetWe all scream for ice cream

Pharmacist Scott Meeks and his brother Randy were knee-deep in executing a plan to open 18 inde-pendent pharmacies throughout Georgia. Then it took an unexpected turn. The building they bought for their LaGrange store, the Medicine Cabinet, was an old Bruester’s ice cream shop, and the former owner was having trouble removing the giant freezer. He asked the Meeks if they’d like to buy it.

Randy suspected that opportunity had just fallen their laps. Sitting two blocks from LaGrange

The Medicine Cabinet’s sundaes are named after the Meeks’s grandkids.


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teacher at the local elementary school. Nowadays it’s Jodie who’s texting or phoning in the requests for secret food service, and Laura who’s making the backdoor deliveries.

There is no shortage of resourcefulness at IHS. In the absence of a stovetop, lunch counter manager Paula Dekle assembles her homemade soups in a pair of crockpots. Paula prepares her burgers, bacon strips, and grilled sandwiches on a pair of tabletop griddles she picked up at a nearby hardware store.

Owner Dean Stone bought IHS when it was a mere 1,900 square foot store. But IHS had something Dean had always wanted: “I said if I ever bought pharmacy with a soda fountain I was planning on keeping it,” he says.

The first year, Dean grew sales by 114 percent. A year later, he relocated to IHS’s current 6,500-square-

Metterihs Pharmacya fountain ahead

When Laura Cardell was a junior at Metter High School, she’d crave the food so bad she’d text her dad to smuggle it to her during class.

Today she’s a college student, working part-time at the very source of the food she craved: IHS Pharmacy in Metter.

As if that wasn’t poetic enough, Laura works alongside Jodie Kemp, who is also a part-time art

College, a block from the town’s main churches, a block and half from the city center, the Medicine Cabinet was hovering in the vortex of an ice cream vacuum.

The Meeks got to work, outfitting the Medicine Cabinet in LaGrange with an old-fashioned soda fountain, building a lunch counter out of reclaimed wood, and bringing in Randy’s son, Greg, to run it.

Greg developed signature sundaes (named after the Meek grandkids), and will soon begin mar-ket testing hamburgers grilled on a Big Green Egg. But his greatest triumph is probably perfecting the formula for the Medicine Cabinet’s signature drink, the lemon sour. It’s been a smash.

Through the soda fountain alone, they brought up front of store sales to 3.5 percent. A cute-as-a-bug’s ear gift shop, run by Scott’s daughter-in-law Isa, raised it to a whopping 7.5 percent.

It’s not a model that will work in every one of their 18 stores, Randy says, but thanks to some plan-ning, some luck, and the public’s insatiable appetite for ice cream and fountain drinks, it’s a model that is killing it in LaGrange.

The Medicine Cabinet offers a lot more than medicine.

It’s no surprise that IHS Pharmacy’s food is a hit at the local schools.

foot location. Sales grew another 40 percent. IHS is now positioned at a busy downtown

intersection, near the town’s education community. When lunchtime rolls around, the counter is usually slammed.

IHS is the sort of place where employees enjoy hanging out with one another, to catch their breath after the lunch rush or to lighten the mood with a quick story at the edge of the lunch counter.

Customers pick up on the friendly vibe, often finding that themselves treated like one of the gang. Even after the lunch rush, they continue to come in, stopping off at the lunch counter for a brief chat with Paula and milkshake master Tripp Parker.

It’s at that point you’ve crossed over, from cus-tomer to regular. And that’s a good thing.

“I’ve had people who forget to pay, coming back the next day [to settle up],” Tripp says. “Some forget their wallet. I say ‘Come on back whenever.’ And they do.”

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Tommy Whitworth is on his Cub Cadet utility vehicle. He’s dressed in a T-shirt and jeans, having doffed his lab coat several minutes before, and he’s riding along the highway shoulder on his way to the quickie

mart a mile up the road from his farm in LaGrange. Traffic whizzes by, but Tommy is unfazed. He steers the Cub Cadet deftly along the narrow stretch of grass, then veers left to cross the highway. Soon we’re walking inside the store.

Tommy enters like he owns the place, opens the door to the employees-only walk-in cooler, and grabs a 24-pack of aluminum-bottle Miller Lite.

“They drink this at Talladega,” he says.Tommy sets his beer and three bags of pork rinds

on the counter, lays down his money, and we’re soon barreling up the driveway of his 40-acre farm. The ex-panse of acreage before us is a breathtaking sight, like TV eye candy: the Ponderosa or the opening credits

profile

LLamas, caTTLe, and bees — and a 34-year career in pharmacy. Meet GPhA’s new President.

By phillip ratliff

Tommy


profile

of Dallas, maybe. To our right is a copse of southern pine. Dotting the fence line are several small white boxes swarming with honeybees. To our left stand a half dozen cows, two Jerusalem donkeys and what must surely be a subject of LaGrange conversation, a family of llamas.

We pass Tommy’s ranch house and head straight to what appears to be a garage a couple of hundred yards down the drive. It’s Tommy’s “man-cave” he says, outfitted with a bar, a beer cooler, as much Auburn Tigers memorabilia as wall space will allow, and a TV the size of a small movie screen blasting Tommy’s beloved Atlanta Braves.

the Good life

To Tommy, this is the good life — the fruits of 34 years of hard work. He’s been an independent phar-macist owner, a hospital pharmacist, a community pharmacist in both retail chain and independent settings, and a compounder. Currently, he owns and runs his own compounding operation, CMC Pharmacy, located halfway between his farm and LaGrange’s quaint town square, while working shifts at nearby Emory Clark Holder clinic as an oncology infusion pharmacist, doing sterile preps for chemotherapy patients.

But Tommy’s embrace extends beyond the various practice areas of his field. He’s a devoted to his daughter Megan and wife, Susan, a pharmacist with 33 years experience. He’s an avid cattle farmer, specializing in high quality beef from delta Gallo-way cows.

Being a cattleman and a pharmacist has al-lowed Tommy to combine his passions in a way he didn’t see coming.

“I’m a pretty good makeshift veterinarian,” he says. “I have a good relationship with our vet. At CMC, we do a lot of compounding with the veter-inary clientele, have a good relationship with vets — and dentists, OB/GYNs, podiatrists, pain doctors, internal medicine — very broad compounding.”

Medicine was integral to Whitworth’s life from the start.

a pharmacy lineaGe

He was born in LaGrange 1957, “to two of the most caring human beings to ever set foot on this earth,” he says. His father, Jack Whitworth, a UGA and Medical College of Georgia graduate, ran a booming

medical practice in Greenville. Later, Jack went to work as the company doctor for a textile mill, West-point Pepperell, in Lanett, Ala. Jack was a humani-tarian, rich in bedside manner and concern for his patients. But he was brilliantly analytical, Tommy says, conducting research on work conditions in textile mills that would eventually influence medi-cal policies at other U.S. mills.

Tommy witnessed his father applying the rigors of science to a people-oriented sort of profes-sion and so much liked what he saw that he may have gone to med school … had a man named Frank Tigner not entered the scene. Frank Tigner, besides being Jack Whitworth’s best friend and undergrad-uate roommate, had chosen a different path in the medical profession: pharmacy. After earning his B.S. at UGA, Frank moved to Greenville to work along-side Jack. Together, Jack and Frank became the little town’s indefatigable medical team.

“They had a collaborative agreement. They practiced together,” Tommy says. “I remember as a small child the respect Frank and my father had. They would go out together on house calls during flu seasons and work unbelievable hours. Frank had heard that you wouldn’t have to work as hard if you’re a pharmacist than if you’re a doctor. But it didn’t work out that way.”

“He and Daddy came back to Greenville and practiced medicine and pharmacy together in some shape or form or fashion until each died. Frank is the reason I am in pharmacy today,” Tommy says. When the family moved to Alabama as a teenag-er, Tommy’s dream of UGA made a slight detour toward Auburn.


takinG care

It’s daybreak on the Back 40 farm, and Tommy and I are in our respective cars, heading toward downtown LaGrange. We exit our vehicles at the town square and walk past a statue of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat whose estate, La Grange, or “the farm,” gave the town its name.

A small peloton of cyclists pass us and Tom-my strikes up a conversation. One is a pharma-cist himself, it turns out. We approach a glorious Georgian structure just off Lafayette Square and Tommy punches a code into a keypad. Soon we’re inside First Baptist Church’s nineteenth-century preaching hall. I wonder if Tommy is a deacon or volunteer of some sort, that he would have access.

“I’m a Baptist by faith, but I am also very ecu-menical, “ Tommy says. To illustrate, Tommy rattles of the denominations he’s a part of. “I teach Sunday School at the Baptist church and attend a Bible

“i Learned from my dad and frank thAt you leAve soMethinG better thAn you found it.”


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study at the local Methodist church,” he says. For the last several years, Tommy has served with an Episcopal Church-based medical mission team in Honduras, usually departing just a few days after GPhA’s annual convention.

It is all about loving people and taking care of them, he says, a habit of heart and mind he learned from watching Frank Tigner and his father serve Greenville patients.

“That is what Christ has us here for, to love your neighbor as yourself, treat them as you would want them to treat you,” he says.

We exit First Baptist Church in search of breakfast. Tommy knows the perfect spot, a diner just off the main square bustling mainly with men decade or so older than Tommy, huddled in groups of two and three discussing news while students from nearby LaGrange College bring them sausage and biscuits, gravy and eggs, grits and coffee. Tommy orders some of each and I ask for a bowl of oats and a banana. “There’s no fruit here,” the waitress tells me.

Meanwhile, Tommy has jumped into a conversation about church and politics with two 60-somethings. The men joke and back slap and trade stories. It’s obvious that Tommy is like a light bulb in a roomful of moths.

lookinG ahead

Tommy was installed at GPhA’s president on July 11. If you want a taste of what Tommy’s presidency will look like, envision him at that roundtop in La-Grange, surrounded by instant friends, telling tales, waxing philosophical about all the threads of his life, woven in a cord, binding him to the profession and to its people, envisioning his year much as he does his farm — as an expanse of opportunity.

“I learned from my dad and Frank that you leave something better than you found it. You put back more than you took out of it. You can’t complain unless you’re involved in the process of making it better.”

Tommy has a vision for his presidency: Making GPhA more responsive and more inclusive.

“We’re streamlining our board. We’ve got a great plan — our strategic plan — in place and we’re al-ready working on that. And we’re going to be doing a lot more on the legislative side, because we’ve got to be even more ambitious there,” he says. “I’m excited.”

And he wants everyone on board. “Hospital, chain pharmacist, nursing home pharmacist, in-dependent owner — we’ve all got the passion, and we need to harness that.” Tommy says. “We want everybody to have a place at the table.”

profile

We greW.We played.

We connected.

It was hot on Amelia Island — hot and humid enough to fog your eyeglasses when you walked out of the air-conditioned comfort of your room or the convention hall.

And that hall was crowded with hundreds of pharmacists and stu-dents, with some education sessions filling their space and then some, chairs spilling out into the hallway, or attendees standing against the back wall, taking notes.

Between sessions, they gathered in the halls in groups of three or four or a half-dozen, from all four corners of Georgia. Heads nodded, cards were exchanged, jokes told.

In the general sessions, those same people listened to updates

about the association, to awards and accolades for the members (and others) who made such a difference this year.

They came to the President’s Inaugural Gala to say farewell to outgoing president Bobby Moody and welcome his successor, Tommy Whitworth.

And they danced, they golfed, they played tennis and rode bikes and splashed in the pool or the ocean.

In short, it was exactly what we planned and a huge success.

Enough words: Enjoy some pic-tures from our convention.

Scenes from the Georgia Pharmacy Convention 2015



Between education sessions, pharmacists and students visited the Expo Hall to meet with dozens of vendors showcasing their products and services (and maybe win one of the prizes being given away).

As part of his farewell, Thomas Sherrer presented outgoing GPhA president Bobby Moody with a football autographed by the 2014 Georgia Bulldogs football team. Rumor has it Bobby’s a Dawgs fan.

GPhA CEO Scott Brunner (far right) introduces our 2015 Legislative Champions at a general session. These are the folks who made it possible for us to pass two important bills in the state legislature this year.

The first class of GPhA’s elite training program, LeadershipGPhA, graduated at the convention. The fourteen graduates spent the better part of a year learning how to be leaders — in their practices, their communiities, their association, and their profession.


Expo Hall exhibitors ran the gamut from national companies to state agencies to startups.

Education sessions were serious business, and the topics were up to the minute. There were more than 15 hours of CPE available, too.

Many of the sessions filled their spaces... and then some. Here’s one of several panel discussions that drew a packed house.

Conventions mean networking, of course — finding out what others are up to, or just greeting old friends. Here 2015 NCPA President John Sherrer (left) greets Dean Ted Matthews of Mercer University.

We’re moving — and We’d like your help.

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The Georgia Pharmacy Association is growing — in new directions and soon to a new location.

Later this year, GPhA will relocate to a new suite of offices in Sandy Springs. We’ve launched a fundraising campaign to help furnish our new home.

It’s simple: We’d like leaders in the pharmacy profession and industry to demonstrate their support for GPhA. Anyone giving a gift of $1,000 or more will receive permanent recognition on GPhA’s Leader Wall in the foyer of the new office suite.

Send your gift to our current office marked “GPhA Furnishings Fund.” You can also reach out to GPhA CEO Scott Brunner personally at [email protected] and share with him your pledge.

Georgia Pharmacy Association50 Lenox Pointe NEAtlanta, GA 30324

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Dance, dance, dance the night away: After his inauguration, newly installed GPhA president Tommy Whitworth (white shirt, bow tie) dances to... well, we couldn’t tell you what the music was at this moment, because Tommy didn’t stop for most of the evening.

Tommy Whitworth, his wife Susan by his side, takes the oath of office as GPhA’s 2015-2016 president before giving a heartfelt speech... and dancing (see below).

GPhA’s outgoing chair of the board, Pamala Marquess, speaks at the President’s Gala.

President Tommy — yes, you can call him that — holds up the gavel of office, which was passed down to him, literally, by GPhA’s past presidents at his inauguration.

The Bowl of Hygeia (near left) caps the major awards given out at the President’s Gala.


The GPhA board of directors is installed. Front row, left to right: 2nd vice president Tim Short, 1st vice president Liza Chapman (Dawsonville), president-elect Lance Boles (Hartwell). Back row: Board members Chris Thurmond (Athens), Daryl Reynolds (Griffin), David Graves (Macon), Drew Miller (Griffin), Sharon Deason (Newnan; hidden) and John Drew (Fortson).


The 2015 Awards Ceremony

Dr. Lindsey Welch is named the 2015 Distinguished Young Pharmacist.

The Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award is presented to Dr. Ashish Advani of the Mercer College of Pharmacy.

The Cardinal Health Generation Rx Champion Award is given to the Honorable Bruce L. Broadrick, Sr.

Mercer College of Pharmacy Dean Ted Matthews receives the Larry Braden Meritorious Service Award.

Pharmacist and state representative the Honorable Ron Stephens of Savannah receives the Bowl of Hygeia.

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InvestInG In PharmPaC Is InvestInG In your PraCtICe.

2015 PharmPaC InvestorsThe following pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, students,

and others have joined GPhA’s PharmPAC. The contribution levels are based on investment for the calendar year as of July 31, 2015.

Fred SharpeAlbany

David Graves, Macon, PharmPAC chairman

Scott MeekSDouglas

ralph BalchinFayetteville

GreG hickManMonroe

t.M. BridGeSHazlehurst

JeFF SikeSValdosta

Brandall lovvornBremen

danny SMithMcRae

Diamond Investors ($4,800 or more)

Titanium Investors ($2,400)

ChArles BArnesValdosta

thoMaS lindSeyOmega

ted hUntKennesaw

david GraveSMacon

dean StoneMetter


Get invested today.Visit GPhA.org/PharmPAC or call (404) 419-8118

thomas Bryan, Jr. William CaGlehuGh ChanCyKeith Chapmandale CoKeral dixonJaCK dunnmartin GrizzardroBert hattonira KatzJeff lureyJonathan marquesspamala marquessivey mCCurdy

dreW millerlaird millermarK parrishouston roGersdaniel royalWade sCottterry shaWtim shortChris thurmonddanny tothalex tuCKertommy WhitWorth

larry BradenWilliam BreWsterBruCe BroadriCKliza ChapmanBlaKe danielmahlon davidsonsharon deasonroBert diCKinsonBenJamin dupreeKevin florenCeKerry GriffinmiCheal iteoGumiKe mCGee BoBBy moody

sherri moodyBrian riCKardandy roGersBill sCroGinsteresa smithmiChael tarrantChuCK WilsonCarey vauGhanWilliam Wolfe

2015 PharmPaC Investors (ContInued)

Silver Investors ($300)Renee AdamsonNelson AnglinChandler ConnerMandy DavenportGregory DrakeBill DunawayEric DurhamAmanda GaddyAmy GallowayCarson GleatonJohnathan HamrickWillie LatchKalen ManascoBill McLeerSusan McLeerDonald Peila, Jr.Daryl ReynoldsAshley Rickard

Sharon SherrerRichard SmithArchie ThompsonAustin TullFlynn Warren Bronze Investors ($150)Robert BentleyPhil BarfieldElaine BivinsNicholas BlandJames CarpenterMark CooperJean B. CoxMichael CrooksMelanie DeFuscoRabun DekleChristina FutchJohn Gleaton

Fred GurleyAnn HansfordJohn HansfordLarry HarkleroadHannah HeadPhillip JamesHenry JoseySusan KaneJosh KinseyBrenton LakeMicheal LewisEddie MaddenSusan McCleerMary MeredithC PerryHouston RogersLaurence RyanJim SandersKimmy SandersKrista Stone

Sonny ThurmondErica VeasleyAngela WamplerAmanda WestbrooksSteve WilsonGeorge Wu

Member InvestorsMarla BanksKen CouchJames GravesWilliam HuangStephanie KirklandMax MasonRoy McLendonDebbie NowlinLeonard TempletonLindsey WelchAnonymous Donor

Platinum Investors ($1,200)

Gold Investors ($600)

our Goal Is your GoalPharmPAC funds help elect legislators

who are friendly to pharmacy. As of July 31, 2015, we still had a long way

to go to meet our goal for the year.

visit Gpha.org/pharmpaC to find out more. $0 $10,000 $20,000 $30,000 $40,000 $50,000 $60,000 $70,000 $80,000 $90,000 $100,000

$58,720.00 GOAL


Reach out to us

contact

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For questions about our events, or about CPE creditsSarah Bigorowski Director of Events (404) 419-8126 [email protected]

For questions about our magazine, Web sites, or social mediaAndrew Kantor Director of Communication [email protected]

For questions about engagement with the Georgia pharmacy communityPhillip Ratliff Vice President of Communication and Engagement [email protected]

For membership questions Tei Muhammad Director of Membership Operations (404) 419-8115 [email protected]

For questions about any of our insurance productsDenis Mucha Manager of Insurance Services (404) 419-8120 [email protected]

For questions about governmental affairsScott [email protected]

For questions about the Board of Directors or for scheduling the Executive Committee or EVPRuth Ann McGehee Executive Assistant and Governance Manager (404) 419-8173 [email protected]

For operational or accounting questions:Dianne Jones Vice President of Finance & Administration (404) 419-8129 [email protected]

Patricia Aguliar Accounting Coordinator [email protected](404) 419-8124

Our phOne number is 404.231.5074Our Website is GPhA.orGOur blOg is GPhABuzz.com

GPhA LeAdeRshiP

President & Chair of the BoardTommy WhiTWorTh [email protected]

President-Elect LanCE [email protected]

First Vice President Liza [email protected]

second Vice PresidentTim [email protected]

Chief Executive officersCoTT BrunnEr, CaE [email protected]

For assistance with independent-pharmacy issuesJeff Lurey, R.Ph. Vice President of Independent Pharmacy & Director of AIP (404) 419-8103 [email protected]

For questions about your aiP membershipVerouschka “V” Betancourt-Whigham Manager of AIP Member Services (404) 419-8102 [email protected]

aiP member service representativesRhonda Bonner (229) 854-2797 [email protected]

Charles Boone (478) 955-7789 [email protected]

Melissa Metheny (404) 227-2219 [email protected]

Gene Smith (423) 667-7949 [email protected]


WorkinG for MeMbers:

postscript

Life is full of contrasts, and its blessings take different forms, don’t they?

Just a few weeks ago, I was at Amelia Island with many of you for the Geor-gia Pharmacy Convention, where I was honored to be installed as your new GPhA president. The Omni

resort there is a place of breathtaking beauty, our meetings were productive, and the conven-tion was one of the best in recent memory. We all came home better for the experience. It was a blessing!

It’s now a month later, and I find myself in a very different place. I’m embedded as a pharmacist on a medical mission team in a remote part of Honduras, attending to some of the poorest people in the western hemi-sphere. The beauty here is a different kind of

beauty. The rewards are different, too. I see souls ministering to souls, people helping and healing one another. And I’m not only talking about the medical attention we’re giving to the Hondurans, either. Those of us on the mission team feel just as ministered to and loved by the people here. We’ll all come home better for the experience. It’s a blessing!

The point is, blessings do come in different forms. In blessing others, we find ourselves blessed. That’s what pharmacists do everyday, in all sorts of circumstances, not only in caring directly for our patients, but also in helping move our communities forward.

I hope in the year ahead you’ll feel ministered to and cared for and valued by your association as we move pharmacy forward. I feel blessed to be a Georgia pharmacist and to represent you.

Tommy Whitworth of LaGrange is GPhA’s 2015-2016 president.

tommy whitworth

blessings

The GeorGia PharMacy associaTion’s four Goals

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Ensure that public policy and legislation are

favorable to the interests of pharmacists and the pharmacy profession.

Pharmacists should actively engage in legislative and regulatory advocacy, including participating in (and funding) PharmPAC, while legislators and regulators should seek out and value GPhA perspective prior to enacting legislation or public policy.

Provide GPhA members with the knowledge and resources necessary for

professional success.

The association should provide education, timely information, networking and mentoring opportunities, and a chance for members to develop leadership skills benefiting the pharmacy industry and their communities.

Help pharmacists be recognized and valued

for their role in improving health outcomes.

The public, other healthcare providers, policy makers, and payors should all understand and value the role of pharmacists in healthcare delivery.

Give GPhA members exclusive discounts and

benefits.

Members should receive exclusive discounts on all GPhA products, programs, and services, as well as benefitting from group buying program discounts.

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FLAT COLOR

OPENBLACK & WHITE

GLOSS/GRADIENT


50 Lenox Pointe NE, Atlanta, GA 30324

PharmPAC is GPhA’s political action committee. It works to elect candidates who think like you do, and who understand the challenges you face in serving your patients and running a business.

PharmPAC helps make sure pharmacists have a seat at the table. And it works.

50 Lenox Pointe, NE, Atlanta, GA 30324 | tf: 888.871.5590 ph: 404.231.5074 | f: 404.237.8435 | www.gpha.org

In 2015 GPhA scored two mAjor vIctorIes: expanded immunizations and mAc transparency.

crucial to those wins: friendly legislators, elected with the help of PharmPAc.

we won!

But it won’t keep working without you.By investing in PharmPAC, you help protect your practice, your patients and the pharmacy profession from bad law and policy, and you join with hundreds of other investors in growing your profession’s political influence.Invest today — in PharmPAC and in your practice — at GPhA.org/pharmpac.

2015-08 georgia pharmacy magazine

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