Unique services lead to pharmacy's accreditation

Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy can spread word to nation's residents

To a lot of people, the word "pharmacist" might simply mean those who dispense medication.

But they actually do a lot more.

That's according to Shawn Needham, owner and pharmacist at the Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy with his wife and fellow pharmacist, Janet.

"We go to school to take care of patients and I would like to think that's what we do here," Needham said. "A lot of people think that pharmacists just give out a bottle of pills, and we like to think we do a lot more than that."

Located at 1555 S. Pilgrim St., the pharmacy recently received accreditation from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists.

"We've had a residency program for about three years now, and this was the official time to get accredited," Needham said.

Needham said that the ASHSP visited the site in June, recommending changes and recommending the pharmacy for accreditation. He said that the pharmacy is one of three accredited pharmacies in the state by the society.

"Basically what they do is look to accredit pharmacies that have unique practices," Needham said. "Rather than just dispensing medication, you're doing unique patient care services, like cholesterol monitoring, hormone therapy evaluations, weight loss programs and also compounding — mixing up customized medications."

In addition to compounding, on-site cholesterol monitoring and weight loss programs, other services uniquely offered by the Moses Lake Professional Pharmacy include immunizations, vaccinations and prostate specific antigen (PSA) screens.

Accreditation spreads the word about the pharmacy to potential residents across the nation, Needham explained, and shows that it reaches the high standards necessary.

"It shows the quality of site that we have and the quality of pharmacists and preceptors that we use, and so we can get residents from all over the country attracted to our site," he said.

Residents have graduated from pharmacy school, but do a one-year residency to specialize in a certain area, Needham explained. The pharmacy has done residencies before, but was not officially accredited.

The pharmacy has been in Moses Lake since October1998, Needham said.

"We figured that there was some room for some unique practice sites in Moses Lake," he said. "A lot of people weren't offering the specialized services that we wanted to offer."

The pharmacy employs eight people. There are no residents at this time.

Needham said he grew up in Moses Lake, and married Janet five years ago. They met when he was a pharmacy intern and she was a pharmacist and his boss, he said. They have two sons, aged four and two.

Janet Needham said that she chose pharmacy because her mother was a nurse, and she did not want to work those kinds of hours.

The unique experience of working directly with patients is what drew him into pharmacy, Shawn Needham said.

"There are so many different venues that the pharmacist can do, whether it be hospital pharmacy or outpatient pharmacy, and you can kind of pick and choose where you live," he said. "You don't have to live in a big metropolis to be a pharmacist."