Page 107 - South Mississippi Living - December, 2016

GIVING BACK remedy
St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy story by Lynn Lofton
The St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy was founded in 1998 in response to a need. Although sponsored by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul,
it’s an independent pharmacy that does not ask applicants’ religious affiliation and has worked to be inclusive in its staffing and board membership.
“A community-wide problem requires a community-wide response,” said Executive Director Samuel J. Burke. “The Pharmacy is a nonprofit agency with an innovative approach to filling a gap in health care services.”
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul most often provides help in the form of housing assistance, food, clothing and transportation to people in need. In the early 1990s, there was a growing need to help with prescription medications as medicine costs rose sharply.
“Volunteer Vincentians were seeing more and more individuals who were forced to choose between food, shelter or the medicine they
needed,” Burke said. “As a response to this need, the Biloxi Council of St. Vincent de Paul, under the leadership of Dr. Peter Pavlov, formed a ‘special works’ of the Council in the form of the community pharmacy.”
The pharmacy primarily serves Harrison, Jackson, and Hancock counties and requires applicants
to provide documentation proving the applicant
is unable to secure needed prescription medicine without assistance. The pharmacy also serves
as a referral network connecting people to other supportive resources such as Patient Assistance Programs through the pharmaceutical companies and the Supplemental Assistance program for Medicare Part D.
Because the pharmacy is largely staffed by volunteers (including pharmacists) it’s able to focus 93 percent of its total budget on medicines. Last year, 22,599 prescriptions were filled with a value of $1,126,264.00.
715-B Division St., Biloxi | 228.374.9097 | www.svdprx.org
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