The St. Vincent de Paul charitable pharmacy in Cincinnati has filled more than a million prescriptions – free of charge.
Still, the need hasn’t subsided over the pharmacy’s last two decades of service. Community members are facing difficult financial choices, said vice president of pharmacy Rusty Curington.
“‘Should I buy my grandma's medicine for her or pay my kids’ tuition?’’” he said. “These are devastating choices.”
Six in 10 U.S. adults say they are worried about being able to afford their prescription drug costs, according to surveys by the nonpartisan health policy group KFF. The rising cost of prescription drugs can mean skipping doses or going without medication altogether.
Curington’s pharmacy provides medication for free to those who can’t afford their prescriptions.
Now, that work is expanding statewide. Ohio’s Charitable Healthcare Network will redirect drugs that would otherwise go to landfills to free clinics across the state.
‘Too much waste’ and ‘too much need’
Billions of dollars worth of medications are wasted every year. Many times, Curington said, long-term care facilities see patients improve or pass away – leaving blister packs of unexpired medication to be incinerated.
“There is a problem on both sides: There's too much waste, and there's too much need,” Curington said.
He’s said they’ve found a solution to both: behind the pharmacy’s walk-up counter, inside a former thrift store, rows of clothing racks have been replaced with shelves of medicine.
The building has been transformed into a repository for around $9 million worth of medication – donated from nursing homes and individuals.
Jenelle Hoseus, CEO of the Charitable Healthcare Network, said what began as a pilot to improve medication access in Cincinnati has grown to free clinics across the state.
Instead of just supplying southwest Ohio, the warehouse has become a sharing system for the state’s healthcare safety nets in Dayton, Canton and Toledo, among others.
“Different organizations across the state can go online and once a month see what is available at St. Vincent and then order as needed for the clients that they're seeing,” Hoseus explained.
How it works
Donations are inspected by pharmacists, who ensure medications haven’t been tampered with or exposed to moisture. Then, technicians sort the pills by expiration date.
The majority of what’s distributed helps manage chronic conditions. In some cases, they’re filling an urgent need: providing blood thinners, inhalers and insulin.
When people have access to the blood pressure pills or antibiotics they need, it cuts down on expensive emergency room visits or hospital stays, Hoseus said.
So far, only around a fifth of the nearly 60 free clinics in the network are participating.
Barriers to participation include workforce capacity, as the network relies on volunteers to complete much of the work. Hoseus said they’re looking for grants to help pay more pharmacists to participate.
“As we grow out into other parts of the state, we're going to need pharmacists at the other facilities that are going to be the distribution sites,” she said.
Curington hopes they can provide more sites in the network with medication, especially as changes to Medicaid threaten to leave more Ohioans uninsured.
A lack of medication access has a domino effect on a community, he said.
“People can't work if they're sick. People will work less or retire earlier because they just truly can't. People will die younger if they don't have access to the medications and have untreated health conditions,” Curington said.
Staying healthy
Dayton nurse Nicole Lowe knows how devastating it can be for patients to go without.
It’s a choice she had to make herself. She couldn’t juggle being both a full-time registered nurse and her aging mother’s only caretaker
“I get one mom, but there are a multitude of jobs,” she said.
She took a job with more flexibility, but no health insurance. She could no longer afford the $700 monthly cost for her diabetes management medication.
Through the resource-sharing program, her local free clinic now provides that medication to her at no cost.
“That means that some of the comorbidities that come along with diabetes — the heart disease, the cholesterol, the kidney disease, you know, things like that — having that oral medication, that specialty drug, cuts that risk down for me,” Lowe said.
Having access to medication helps Lowe stay healthy – for herself, her family and the patients that depend on her.
