Maggie McKay (Host): Welcome to Wise & Well, presented by Community Memorial Healthcare. Today, we're exploring how Community Memorial is redefining care and convenience for all of Ventura County. Most people know Community Memorial Healthcare is a huge resource for the community, comprised of two hospitals, a skilled nursing facility, a dedicated cancer center, and a vast network of primary and specialty health centers.

But there is one vital piece of that puzzle that often surprises people, our very own pharmacy, located right here on the same campus as our Ventura Hospital. Joining us today is Keegan Bachelor, Operations Manager at the Outpatient Pharmacy. Welcome. Thank you for being here.

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Awesome. Thank you for having me.

Host: Keegan, your team isn't just a place to pick up a prescription. You are a health partner that actually comes to the patient, whether that's through same-day delivery across Ventura County, the Meds to Beds Program at the hospital, or sitting down for a one-on-one consultation with no appointment needed. So, let's jump into how you and your team are making quick and convenient a reality for our patients. It sounds ideal.

So for those watching who have heard the term but aren't sure, what exactly is a specialty pharmacy, and why can't these medications just be picked up at any corner drugstore or national chain?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah, that's an excellent question. There's a normal retail pharmacy, and then there's a specialty pharmacy. So, a specialty pharmacy, you have to have a certification, a specialty certification. So, it's required in order to fill these specialty medications. You might be asking yourself why.

So, with specialty drugs, for instance, cancer medications, there's a lot of extra steps to make sure that the patient is taking it correctly and because these are really expensive medications. And also, we want to make sure the quality of service is much higher than a typical medication. And so, that's what's required from the specialty realm. So, you can't just pick up a chemotherapy drug treating cancer at a normal retail chain for that very reason.

Host: And Community Memorial offers walk-in consultations with no appointment needed, which sounds so great. Why is that face-to-face time so important to you?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah. I mean, the open door. So just to compare our pharmacy to other specialty pharmacies, ours is what we call an open door pharmacy, meaning patients can come in, they can speak to a pharmacist in person, pick up their medications, really establish that, that relationship, you know, that trust.

Compared to another specialty pharmacy where they're going to just send it to your house, you may just talk to them on the phone once a month, which is fine. But here in Ventura with our community, they love that we're available, right, like in person if they have questions. It really establishes that trust and, you know, make sure they're taking it correctly.

Host: Absolutely. I am totally like that. I mean, I don't read every word, but I want to know I'm taking it right, and sometimes the directions are, you know, it's just too much information. So, you want to talk to a real person. For patients on medications that require injections, how do you provide that one-on-one training right in the pharmacy?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah. So, injections. And a lot of our specialty medications right now are injectable. So, it can be intimidating. You know? Let's say you just got diagnosed with a new disease. And now, your doctor's telling you, "Hey, you got to inject this yourself, or you have to come to the doctor's office every month, pay a co-pay, and we'll inject it for you." But it can be kind of scary. You know, injecting something yourself, it's not natural.

So, our staff is trained. So when we have a new patient, they come in, we do a training. So, They don't have to get trained more than once if they don't want to, but we do suggest, you know, if it's your first time injecting a medication yourself, it's a little scary. And so, we'll walk them through not just how to inject it. And there's certain things that we can teach them. So, it's less painful and certain areas that are less painful. We can also go over the medication, what kind of outcomes, right? When they start this new medication, what do we expect? And then, what do we do if we don't meet those expectations? Which also does happen. But also, how to store it. You know, here you're going to purchase this really expensive medication, we want to make sure you're storing it correctly. We want to make sure you're prepared, you feel like you're getting the support that you need so that you're taking it correctly again, right? And you're not alone. We don't want to just ship it to your house and then, hopefully, you take the medication and we don't want that to happen, so...

Host: Absolutely. Let's talk about the Meds to Beds program at Community Memorial Hospital Ventura. How does this eliminate the stressful, quote unquote, "extra stop" at a pharmacy after discharge?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Our Meds to Beds service is amazing. This is one of those things that I wish every hospital had. The feedback that I get from a lot of patients is that it feels like a VIP service, and it truly is. So, what Meds to Beds is, for those that maybe have never heard of this, let's say a patient's being discharged from the hospital, and they're still iin their room, in their bed waiting to go home. So, their doctor will send our pharmacy all of their discharge medications. Some of them might be new. So, they don't know how to take them, and they don't know what it's for. And so, they'll send them to our pharmacy. We simply call the patient, collect the copay if there is a copay, and then we walk it to their bedside. So, it's truly Meds to Beds. It gives us the opportunity to not just save them a trip to their pharmacy, but also go over the medication, counsel them, again, make sure they know how to use the medication, right? There might be certain things that you can't do on this medication, or maybe you have to have it with food, or maybe you have to wait thirty minutes after you take it, you know.

So, there's a lot of little things just to make sure they feel comfortable when they go home. And statistically, 40% of people don't pick up their medications, right? Maybe they don't feel well. It's really high. It's shocking. They might go home, they might say, "Oh no, I'm fine. I don't need that." And then, they might get readmitted to the hospital, because now they're having something more serious happen, or it's not being controlled. So, we take down all of those barriers. If it's copay, if it's, you know, a ride to the pharmacy to pick it up, whatever it might be, we take down all those barriers, and we make sure that the patients go home with their medication.

And the prescribers honestly love it because they know for a fact the patient knows how to, how to use it and that they're going to go home with it, right? So it's awesome.

Host: You're so right. I mean, 40% of people? I can't get over that. Community Memorial Pharmacy offers same-day delivery throughout Ventura County. How do you maintain that speed for someone in the Ojai Valley versus a big box retailer?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah, that's a great point. So, one thing we pride ourselves in is that we have same-day delivery, which you mentioned. We have a courier that specializes in healthcare. So, they're very high quality. We deliver between 2:00 and 6:00 PM the same day. You don't have to get it delivered. You could get it delivered the next day, whatever you prefer. But with this courier, they do an awesome job. So, anywhere within 30-mile radius, if you want it same day, we can get it to you.

Host: That's amazing. So, they're specifically for medical reasons. It's all medicine, what they deliver?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: If there's a medication that needs special handling, they are trained staff and they know how to deliver it safely.

Host: Wow. That's amazing. Boy, you guys have thought of everything. For patients at our health centers in Ojai or the Ojai Hospital, how simple is it to get medications delivered directly to their home?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Oh, it's very easy. So, patients will simply call us once they have their prescriber send us a medication. They can call us and just simply tell us over the phone, "Hey, I would like this delivered," and we'll collect some information, and it's easy. Or the other option is some prescribers will put a little note on the prescription stating that this patient wants home delivery. So, my staff is trained to identify that, and then we go through the certain steps to make sure it's set up for delivery. So, it's very easy.

Host: Dr. Bachelor, is there a specific patient story that stays with you or top of mind where having access to this level of specialty care at Community Memorial truly changed their health journey?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of stories. One of the more recent stories that kind of stands out with specialty specifically is that we had a patient that's been taking medication for this chronic disease that they've had. It wasn't very successful with the medication that they were on at the time, and they were going to the doctor's office every month to get this injected because they simply did not feel comfortable.

They were a new patient to us, and so we quickly identified that during the—there are certain steps in specialty where we have to ask, you know, "How is your quality of life? How is the medication working?" Things like that, just, you know, kind of background information. And we identified that the patient wasn't really being treated well. So, we contacted the prescriber and we said, "Hey, this other medication might be a better option," right? Like, "Let's give it a shot." The patient was okay with that, and not only did we help them in their disease treatment.. But also, we were able to train them how to self-inject. And since then, they inject themselves. They don't have to go to the doctor's office anymore. They're being treated and their chronic disease is under control. So, it was a win-win and very happy to hear that story from them.

Host: That's amazing. I mean, just think how many people you've helped through all these different options, because it's not just one option, it's like we've been talking about, all the ways you serve. Is there anything in closing that you would like to add that you'd like people to know?

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Yeah. I mean, we're here, we're available. I think that's the one thing is people in this community don't know that we're here, and we're slowly, you know, telling people and we're happy to have more Ventura and local people just find out about our wonderful service, and we're here to provide.

Host: Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. This was so informative and encouraging. So, we really appreciate your time.

Keegan Bachelor, Pharm.D: Awesome. Thank you again for having me. It's been wonderful.

Host: Of course. Again, that's Dr. Keegan Bachelor. To find out more, please visit mycmh.org/pharmacy. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. Thank you for listening to Wise & Well from Community Memorial Healthcare.