The Bowdoin Street Health Center now has an on-site pharmacy, operated by Beth Israel Lahey Health, that will provide medication to approximately 11,000 existing patients and other members of the Bowdoin-Geneva community. 

The facility, which opened on Feb. 22, is an “absolutely fabulous opportunity for our patient population,” said the center’s executive director, Samantha Taylor.

“If you look across this community, a number of pharmacies have closed, so this is truly coming full circle for us as a health center, in terms of being able to pour back into the community,” Taylor said. “Many of our patients have had to travel into Boston to receive their medication. We are officially providing a one-stop-shop to our patients who are coming here to receive their medical or behavioral health services.”

In addition to offering multilingual pharmaceutical care, Taylor said, the new pharmacy offers a “patient assistance plan for patients who are struggling to afford their medications.” While Bowdoin Street is unable to waive copays, Taylor said that there are “ways for us to assist patients in the affordability of their medication.”

The new facility also offers patients blister packs for their medication, a perk that Taylor said will “make it much easier” for people to understand how to take their doses. “It’s a much more user-friendly ap proach to medication and prescription compliance that other pharmacies may not offer,” she said.

Jess de Jesus, chief pharmacy officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health, said the process to open the pharmacy was a lengthy one. “It involves a lot of things, especially on the regulatory side, because we have to have the Board of Pharmacy and the Department of Health weigh in on things. That took over a year.”

Through the pharmacy, pharmacists will have access to patients’ online medical records. “That really improves medication adherence,” de Jesus said. They also have a “dedicated team” that works on providing prior approval. “For a lot of drugs, you need prior authorization to get it approved by the insurance companies because of the expense,” de Jesus said. “We have that right in the pharmacy.”

The facility also provides “more affordable access” to higher tier drugs. “The pharmacy staff works very closely with the provider staff in the clinic, so they’re able to expedite requests and triage and the kind of prescription problem that happens,” he said.

De Jesus added that many employees of the Bowdoin Street pharmacy, including manager Minh Le, grew up in the Bowdoin-Geneva area, or live there now, and that “they’re very familiar with the community. The initial community response to the pharmacy has been overwhelmingly positive, he said. “We’re getting a lot more patients in and the patients are happier, from what I’m hearing from the pharmacy manager. We need to get the word out. It’s really a value to the community, and we’re here to serve the community. That’s our main function.”