Q&A: Discovering the Powerful Impact of Community Pharmacy

Before taking ownership and becoming chief patient advocate of an independent pharmacy, Mayank Amin, PharmD, RPh, MBA, had never set foot inside one. Yet, he quickly discovered the profound impact such a store can have on its patrons.

Close-up of a brown paper pharmacy bag / MP Studio - stock.adobe.com

And from creating a sensory-friendly space for individuals with disabilities to becoming The Superman Pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic, Amin's work exemplifies the powerful impact a pharmacy can have on its community, in turn.

In part 3 of his conversation with Drug Topics on Over the Counter, Amin continues his inspiring story of reopening Skippack Pharmacy and details the beginnings of The Superman Pharmacist. Check out part 2 here.

Drug Topics: So post-grad, you went from being a film double, to having breakfast with the CEO of Pfizer, to being a wedding planner, to reopening Skippack? That's amazing. You said that before Skippack, you had never been inside an independent pharmacy. So, I wanted to ask, why does community matter so much in pharmacy, specifically?

Mayank Amin, PharmD, RPh, MBA: The most important part of community pharmacy is community, and that's why that word community is in there. Because for me to reopen this pharmacy, it wouldn't have happened without the community. With the 30 or 40 people that were in our parking lot during our grand opening to the 1000 plus people that were at our grand 5-year anniversary party 5 years later—that all happened because of the community.

Like, the things that our community has done for us, there's no way that I can repay them back. The only thing I can do is offer them the best service [and] give them comfort and reassurance that no matter what, Dr. Mak is going to keep fighting for them. When there's issues where they can't afford their medications, we're going to try to find solutions for them. And we actually have this thing for the community called our Superheroes Fund. So, we have a donation bin in our pharmacy where people can contribute money to, and someone that needs money to pay for their medications can also use the pot of money that's in that bin, or if they're seniors that we're delivering medications to that can't afford the meds.

Our goal as a community pharmacy is to find gaps in care, because there's a lot of that that happens, whether it's our own grandparents, individuals with disabilities, even with the Autism Society of America. So, we're 1 of their national partners. We realized that there weren't specific providers during COVID giving vaccines to children and families with disabilities. So, we partnered with the Autism Society of America, and we focused on that. We created an entire sensory friendly room so [that] any individual, irrespective of disability or not, would come in and have a fantastic experience. And for us, all of these things that we've tried to help out in our community with, it wouldn't have happened without the community. So, we're a community pharmacy because of the community [and] for the community. And the only way we'll be able to move forward is with the community's help.

Drug Topics: Yeah, definitely. Speaking of vaccinations, I know you touched on this, but you administered more than 100,000 COVID-19 vaccines and tests during the pandemic as part of one of the largest COVID-19 vaccine clinic and testing programs in Pennsylvania. Beyond vaccinations, how has Skippack Pharmacy impacted the health and well-being of the community, and how have you been able to see these positive health outcomes manifest among residents?

Amin: So along with the aspect of us giving vaccines to patients, I think our biggest benefit to the community is that we serve people with love. Because regardless of whether someone believes in the vaccine or not—you would think that somebody—if a place is going to be in the news every single day on NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN speaking about vaccines, if you don't believe in vaccines, you're not going to come to that pharmacy anymore, because all you're seeing is Superman and everything related to vaccines. But the way that our pharmacy operated throughout COVID is that no matter what your beliefs are, we're going to treat you with love and dignity. So even some of our own staff members, if they didn't want the vaccine, that [was] fine. But you're not going to discourage someone from getting the vaccine. When the senior or veteran walks in, we're going to treat them with the utmost respect. If they don't have access to a computer, you're going to be their grandchild and figure out how to get that person signed up. If somebody is at home and has no one that can come out to their home, we're going to go out to that person's house and make sure they're taken care of.

And a lot of these things happened because of the word spreading about us giving emergency services, you could say, whether it's the vaccines, tests, or any other item in shortage.

I still remember, it was Christmas time, and there was an Advil and Tylenol shortage for children. There's been a lot of pretty crazy shortages in the last few years. But there was a Tylenol shortage for infants during 1 of the holiday seasons and Christmas and New Years time. And once again, we started trying to figure out what [we could do that’s] possible to make sure that our community's children have Tylenol that they need. And it was 1 of the nights where we were about to close, and the next day we wouldn't be open because we're not open on Christmas Day or New Year's Day. But I realized that we might be closed, and other pharmacies might be closed in their area, but what if that mom still has a child that has a fever, and this is an item that's in shortage and they haven't been able to find it anywhere? They can't get it. What are they going to do?

So, we left the box outside of our pharmacy saying this a charity box. If someone has an emergency, come by and feel free to take it. You don't have to leave any money. Just come by and feel free to take, you know, a Tylenol or Advil. Likewise, we did that during COVID with COVID tests. We've become a place [that] the community can rely on for any kind of emergency. And right now, it's weight loss injections. Going from the toilet paper and sanitizer days to vaccines and tests, to now weight loss injections. There's a national shortage of weight loss injections and there's a lot of people that have had benefit, including some of my own family members [and] employees. So, we decided that okay, we're going to try to find a solution. And that was using compounded weight loss injectables, and not just serving our immediate community in Montgomery County, but being able to serve anyone that needs help.

So, our scope started off small, just in our local community. But, you know, the 100,000 plus vaccines that we gave—there were people driving from New Jersey. Even 4 months ago—we're 1 of the only providers in Pennsylvania that provides baby Pfizer vaccine—there was a group at Rutgers, [a] Rutgers moms’ group, and I came to know about this because some of the moms drove from Rutgers in New Brunswick, New Jersey to Skippack. And they were saying that “Oh, we heard about you guys through a local moms’ group in New Jersey, that you guys were giving out baby or pediatric Pfizer vaccine.” And I was like, I can't believe there's people driving 2 hours—we had people from Manhattan, Baltimore—3 hours away, coming to get vaccines from our pharmacy. And once again, we were filling a gap because there weren't many providers providing vaccines to babies. This was as little as 6 months ago.

So, although the pandemic seems like it's very far away, there's still many problems that exist in our communities post pandemic that we're still trying to resolve, and right now for us, it's finding those areas that people need help, and then being able to help them. It started off with vaccines, and it continues, but no matter what we do, it's serving our patients with love, and remembering that we are servants. While the “S” in Superman doesn't represent an egotistical Superman that's just flying above everybody, [it represents] the Superman that's on the ground level with everybody that's going to someone's house at midnight because they need help; that's going to change the light bulb of a grandmother because she doesn't have any grandkids. And that's what we're trying to be as the superheroes, locally, that can serve as servants and wherever there's a need helping possible.

Drug Topics: Absolutely. It's amazing how through all the years, the 5 years, Skippack and the community have been able to lean on each other. That's amazing. And I know you mentioned Superman. So, during your COVID-19 vaccine and testing initiative, you took up an alter ego as The Superman Pharmacist. How did that come about in the first place? And what does it mean to you to put on the Superman suit to provide care?

Amin: It was the most valuable $20 purchase that I've made in my life. Post Halloween [at] Party City, everything's on sale, [I] decided to get a Superman costume for the next year in case I go to someone's party, I would dress up as Superman.

And that, in turn—it was New Year's Eve that same year that I bought the costume. This was 1 year after opening the pharmacy, right before the pandemic. A mom calls because her child needed a compounded suspension and the pharmacy she goes to doesn't do compounds. We don't really do compounds either, but I was able to figure out how to do it, it was an easy suspension for the child. [It was] New Year’s Eve, so I told the mom, I was like, “Listen, we're closing in like 30 minutes, you can get here to the pharmacy—[it’s] New Year's Eve, so we're all going to be leaving on time, we all have things to do—or we're going to be closed on January 1, so you can come January 2.” And then the mom said, “You know, I won't be able to make it.” But at that time, I was like, you know what, this child actually really needs this. What if I just dropped it off to their home and just surprised them? Like, it would be a nice surprise for the mom, she would think that her child's not getting this medicine that he needs until [January 2].

And then I happened to have the Superman costume in the back of my pharmacy at the time. I was like, [dressing up as Superman] would be so different, because everything we've tried to do is something different with this pharmacy. I was like, it'd be odd for me to not wear this costume and go to this person's house. So, I'll just dress up as Superman and make this delivery. And I knocked on the door dressed up as Superman with the kid’s medication in hand. And I see the little child run up to the door—and the mom did not have any idea that I was coming dressed up as Superman, nor did she know that I was even coming. But she actually got her phone out and recorded it happening because it was a magical moment for her, and her little child literally thought Superman came to his house.

But the reaction that I saw [from] the child and the family, it just gave me an idea. I was like, if there's ever a crisis situation, if someone dresses up in something, it literally makes everyone feel happy around them. And that costume, I wore it once to drop off that medication for that child, but then came time of COVID and I was like alright, people are walking in here [and] they're scared to death. Everyone's scared to death. What can I do to lighten up the environment, make people a little bit happier?

Check out part 4 of our conversation with Amin here.

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