PHOENICIA – Pharmacy For the Public Good, Inc. (DBA Wellness Rx) is America’s first not-for-profit community pharmacy dedicated to redefining healthcare for rural and underserved populations. The unique model has been developed over a ten-year period with its flagship Wellness Center now in Phoenicia.
Wellness Rx operates as a Wellness Center for Tomorrow’s Kids, integrating traditional pharmacy services with natural medicine, mental health support, nutritional counseling, public health initiatives, treatment of minor emergencies and student training under one roof. This comprehensive approach ensures equitable, patient centered care that addresses not only physical health but also emotional and social well-being.
Our Vision: To create sustainable, community-driven not-for-profit Wellness Centers that foster healthier, more connected communities across the nation.
Our Mission: To be of service to others. To treat all patients equally regardless of income, race, religion, or sex.
What We Do
At Wellness Rx, we believe healthcare should be local, holistic, and accessible to all. Our services include:
• Traditional & Natural Medicine: Offering both FDA-approved medications and a curated selection of natural remedies which includes our own branded products.
• Mental Health & Nutritional Counseling: Providing support for emotional and physical well-being. Wellness Rx estimates that it has served over one hundred patients over the years with direct counseling and enhanced case management activities.
• Public Health Initiatives: Addressing local health challenges through education, outreach, and vaccination programs. Wellness Rx has provided over 4,000 vaccinations to our patients including close to 3,000 COVID shots, distributes numerous educational handouts to patients, produces videos on timely public health issues, had a weekly radio show on WRIP throughout COVID (Wellness Wednesday’s) and has partnered with the Mountain Top Cares Coalition (MCC) to help address community substance abuse challenges. Here are some examples of our public health initiatives.
• Community Training & R&D: Partnering with schools and colleges to train future healthcare leaders and conduct innovative studies. Wellness Rx has mentored eighteen (18) students over the past decade including one student from Austria. Here’s some pictures of some of our interns, the former and current Presidents of Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences who have visited our Wellness Centers and an example of a Research Paper completed on CBD.
• Free Consultations and Minor Emergency Care: We estimated that we have provided over 12,000 free consultations over the years and treated over 2,500 patients with minor emergencies such as bee bites, sprained ankles, burns and minor wounds.
● Expanded case management: To help with patient inpatient discharges,
coordination of referral services, chronic health conditions and at-home care.
● Creation of a Patient Assistance Fund (PAF): This program is funded by community donations to help those in need with dignity. Over the past 3 years we provided $10,200 in direct assistance through 312 individual transactions. This unique blend of services ensures that every patient’s journey to wellness is personal, compassionate, and comprehensive.
TODAY’S AMERICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
Coming out of COVID, our nation continues to struggle with the efficient, effective, and equitable delivery of healthcare services to its citizens despite spending 17% of our wealth on health care. This is almost twice as much as any other industrial society and our outcomes are often disappointing.
Rapid consolidation of our healthcare system into the management by large corporations has only resulted in a specialty driven system, higher costs, lower reimbursement to health care providers for the provision of services, less innovation and low morale. The most shocking and dangerous situation has been the 25% of health care retiring early annually (40% of all practicing physicians are over age 65) or quitting out of burnout especially on the primary care side of medicine.
Further, health care providers are cutting their weekly clinical hours, spending 30% of their time on administrative tasks such as prior authorizations, shifting to Telemedicine & Concierge Medicine and struggling with their mental health. More than three hundred doctors die each year from suicide, a rate twice that of the general population. To many doctors, Corporate America has taken over medicine.
The end result is that experts are predicting a need for over 45,000 primary care providers, 50,000 specialists, and a dire need for nurses and mental health professionals. The need will only intensify as our senior population will grow by 40% in the next ten years, we live longer, and patient demand increases for the treatment of chronic conditions such as obesity and diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and COPD. Compounding the problem, we also lead the world with mental health challenges, obesity, suicides, homicides, and drug overdoses.
Today, the United States has the lowest number of physicians per capita than any other industrialized nation. That is a cold fact. We spend a lot of money on health care but, in
reality, we do not have a high physician population. We average
2.5 physicians per one thousand persons versus Sweden with 5.0.
Under normal economics, this shortage or demand would be met
by an increase in supply. The good news is that the younger
generation of Americans are showing strong interest in becoming
health care providers to meet this challenge. Unfortunately, the number of residency and teaching positions available for this needed training remains flat.
On the retail pharmacy side, years of rapid consolidation by chain drug stores, generic manufacturers, etc., public advertising of prescription medications, control of reimbursement for the filling of prescriptions by unregulated Pharmacy Benefits. Managers (PBMs) that results in retail pharmacies losing money filling 30- 50% of prescriptions, a rapid increase in mail-order pharmacies, an increase in labor costs coming out of COVID and the administrative cost for regulatory
compliance has taken a toll on the industry. Pharmacy
closings, especially in rural and medically underserved
communities, have been dramatic throughout the country
and there are now more closings than openings. In the next
2 years, it is estimated that another 3,000 retail stores will
close led by the chain drug stores. In NYS, the number of
pharmacists licensed in 2024 was down by 12% and
applicants to pharmacy schools are down by 30%.
In the end, the romantic history of community pharmacy in America has been replaced by an institutional model of metal shelves, drive thru windows, impersonal service and limited clinical services. Today, independent/community pharmacies only account for 35% of all retail pharmacies in America. In contrast, Germany passed national legislation that prohibits any pharmacist or company from owning more than six (6) pharmacies. Result: most communities throughout Germany still have their own local trusted pharmacy.
So, in the near term, Americans must brace themselves for a healthcare system that will provide more complicated access, more consolidation, less choice, unpredictable service, and more cost-sharing.
THE KEY INGREDIENTS TO OUR SUCCESS
✓ The mission statement of being of service to others and treating all patients equally is the heart of Wellness Rx. In the end, this is what builds culture which leads to high patient satisfaction and a motivated staff.
✓ The environment of the Wellness Rx Centers is critical to healing and success. Each Center must radiate wellness with its beauty, smells, art & floor displays. Each staff member must work within an environment that allows them to do their best work.
Wellness Rx Centers are flexible and larger Centers allow for direct clinical care, enhanced student training, Telemedicine, mental health counseling, expanded primary care services such as laboratory testing & minor emergencies and central billing/administration.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE KIDS
Wellness Rx has especially placed a high interest in bonding with our kids. Throughout our Wellness Centers we have fish tanks (any kid that says “hi” to the fish receives a honey stick), we place their pictures on our community wall, we use art to help educate and each kid is asked to sign at the register for their medication. Here’s a couple of snapshots of our kids in action.
BLENDING TRADITIONAL PHARMACY WITH NATURAL MEDICINE
With over 10 years of experience perfecting this blending, we have found that natural medicine is supported by the majority of the community, is critical when dealing with minor emergencies and helping a patient stay healthy. The unit also becomes the most profitable section of the Wellness Center.
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
It is critical for success to be supported by community donations, volunteers, local businesses, public officials, local government, schools, churches, and most important individual acts of kindness. Here are some examples of our community in action.
Local patient with a handmade quilt for us to auction for the patient assistance fund.
Local wood craftsman who made this handmade sign to thank Wellness Rx for always being there.
Local International Healing Center (Peace Village) invites Wellness Rx to be part of their family.
The Wellness Rx story is a bright light for small business, the profession of pharmacy, our aging health care system, rural America, and underserved communities.
The PPG model sets the stage for community ownership of Wellness Centers and the ability of a community to create their own primary care systems for tomorrow’s kids.
PHARMACY FOR THE PUBLIC GOOD IS RIGHT FOR THE TIMES
➢ Locally-based
➢ Flexible and easily replicable
➢ Flexible For Expansion of Services, Products or Clinical Needs
➢ Sustainable
➢ Fun/Joyful/Making a Difference
JOIN US IN SHAPING THE FUTURE OF HEALTH
Wellness Rx invites individuals and organizations to partner with us in creating a new standard for community healthcare. Through your tax-exempt donation, you are helping “PPG” achieve its goals.
Together, we can build a healthier, more equitable future!
In Gratitude, Ed
To help us reach our goal through your donation, please click the following link:
https://www.wellnessrxllc.com/support-our-mission
Additional information about us can be found by visiting our website at:
https://www.wellnessrxllc.com/about-us or by electronic transmission to wellnessrxceo@gmail.com
Pharmacy for the Public Good – d/b/a Wellness Rx LLC.
53 Main St., Phoenicia, NY, 12464 / Phone: 845-688-0188
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