Letters to the editor: April 2, 2007

Marty Gibbons
Cincinnati

The pharmacy where I used to work was cited by authorities for repeated failure to provide the safety training legally required because our pharmacy was open during late night hours. Employees need to be informed of their legal right for this training. Perhaps Drug Topics could research this and provide an article to spread the word.

Patients wouldn't consider shooting a physician for a two-hour wait in an ER but will go ballistic in a pharmacy. Perhaps the policies of certain pharmacies with their 15-minute wait time are responsible for the mindset of these individuals.

Bob Gladden
Indianapolis

These pharmacies are fixtures

In response to a reader's letter in your Feb. 5 issue asking, "What is the oldest pharmacy?" our pharmacy in South Texas was established in October 1845 and is still the longest continually operating pharmacy in the state of Texas.

German immigrant Dr. Joseph M. Reuss came to Texas in the fall of 1845 and established a medical practice and pharmacy at the old seaport of Indianola, Texas. After a couple of devastating hurricanes in the late 1800s, he moved his practice and pharmacy to the town of Cuero, 60 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. It operated in the same family for five generations until 1991, when two long-time employees bought the business from Dr. Reuss' great-great-grandson, Joe B. Reuss, R.Ph.

The business is still alive and well, in only its third location in 161 years. More information is available at http://www.reusspharmacy.com/.

I am not sure how we stack up with other pharmacies in the country, but I feel confident we are the oldest in Texas.

Gerald Zengerle, CPhT
Reuss Pharmacy
Cuero, Texas

Regarding the oldest pharmacy in the country, take a look at McNeill's Pharmacy in Whiteville, N.C. It has been owned and run by the same family since 1875. I think it is probably one of the oldest family-owned drugstores that has been run by the same family. The fifth generation is in pharmacy school now!

George G. Floyd gfloyd@crhealthcare.org

The oldest drugstore in Indiana is Wells Yeager Best Pharmacy in Lafayette, established in 1829 by Canada Fink. The store moved in 1841 and has remained at that same location through a succession of owners. The present name was established in 1983, when A. A. Wells, owner, went into partnership with two of his associates, Frank M. Best and Emory L. Yeager.

Herm Albright
Indianapolis

Rebates are kickbacks

With all the concern and conversation about rising drug costs, how is it that our industry is allowed the practice of "rebates" to pharmacy benefit managers? In other industries, this practice is called "kickbacks" and is decidedly illegal. This practice lines the pockets of the manufacturer and the PBM, while squeezing the patient, employer or plan sponsor, and pharmacist provider. "Rebates" should be reviewed and properly identified as the illegal kickbacks they are and treated as such.

Wilson Nix, B.S.Pharm.
Pharmacy Manager
Wal-Mart
Red Oak, Iowa
wilsonnix@yahoo.com