Sam Burke, executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy, tells us all about the nonprofit and its efforts to provide free pharmacy services for thousands of people, who would otherwise go without.
WHAT DOES YOUR ORGANIZATION DO, AND WHAT IS ITS MISSION?
The St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy’s Mission is to provide prescription medication and wellness education to those in need. The pharmacy fills a void in the healthcare process, ensuring underinsured and uninsured patients receive the much-needed medication they need. The organization has two permitted pharmacies in Biloxi and Hattiesburg, as well as extension sites in Bay St. Louis and Moss Point. The pharmacy does not dispense any controlled drugs.
WHEN AND WHY WAS IT FOUNDED?
The organization was founded in 1998 as a special works mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. The SVDP is a volunteer organization within the Catholic Church that works with the poor of the community.
In the mid to late 90s, local churches were experiencing a substantial increase in requests for prescription medicine assistance. It was decided at that point to create a central pharmacy location to serve residents in South Mississippi. The pharmacy continues to operate with primarily volunteer labor, including licensed pharmacists, technicians, eligibility screeners and front office staff. The organization has three paid staff and over 100 volunteers. There really is no other program like St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy in Mississippi.
WHAT IMPACT HAS THE ORGANIZATION MADE IN THE COMMUNITY?
Since opening in 1998, the St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy has filled over 275,000 prescriptions for 4,336 clients in South Mississippi. The value of the medicine that has been dispensed is nearly $15.4 million. The organization has positioned itself to be as accessible as possible by providing multiple pharmacy locations, as well as extension sites for eligibility screenings. Even during the past 12 months of COVID-19, the pharmacy has remained open. We filled nearly 28,000 prescriptions in 2020. Not a single client went without his or her medicine being filled. We are quite proud of this fact, especially given that volunteers do the work.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE GREATEST THING YOU HAVE LEARNED OR GAINED BY BEING INVOLVED IN THIS ORGANIZATION?
There are some truly selfless and amazing people in the world. Being an organization so dependent on volunteers, I continue to be amazed by the people that live in and around us who are willing to share their time, talent and treasure for the sake of their fellow man. The individuals we serve aren’t that different from us; one or two factors in life have led them to our door. The professionalism and empathy our volunteers show have long set the tone for our operations. It is the most dedicated “personnel” I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. Another great thing is the true appreciation our clients have for the services they receive. Many of them would not have a very high quality of life if not for the medicine they receive from us.
WHAT’S NEW WITH THE PHARMACY?
Like the rest of the world, St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy has had to adapt to the changing world around us. At the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, we had to scale down our operations. We minimized the number of people in the building by spreading the workload across multiple days per week. In doing so, we now have a pharmacist available on multiple days each week, whereas before, we only had one once a week.
In the coming weeks, we will be reopening our lobby to conduct the eligibility screening process. This has been on hold for the past year, as it involves a 45-minute interview process in close proximity. Once the lobby is safely reopened, we will then look to reopen our extension sites. These steps will bring us closer to resuming full operation.