A dose of relief: Craigsville celebrates opening of community pharmacy
CRAIGSVILLE — For years, Craigsville residents have struggled with obtaining prescription medications. The closest pharmacies to the town were 20 miles away in Staunton, and even some simple over-the-counter medications weren’t available for residents at local stores.
So it was no surprise that a sizable crowd turned out Thursday afternoon for the opening of a Rite Aid community pharmacy in town, the first in a pilot program by the national pharmacy corporation to address communities that lack access to pharmacy services.
According to Craigsville Mayor Richard Fox, it’s been about six months since he first met with Rite Aid officials while looking at property, and the process has moved quickly since then to get the pharmacy set up to serve the local residents.
“There’s a lot of elderly people in the community that has to either pay somebody to take them, or someone to take them in to get their prescriptions, and it makes it hard for them,” Fox said, “Right here, it’s going to be local and easy to get to.”
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The pharmacy will be staffed with a full-time pharmacist and a full-time pharmacy technician, with more part-time technicians floating between other locations in the area.
Craigsville’s pharmacist, Ryan Minnich, is no stranger to the struggles of smaller communities when it comes to addressing their health needs. Minnich grew up in central Pennsylvania in a small town, and currently lives in Swoope.
“I’ve seen how healthcare is really hard to get in these small town communities, and with having Rite Aid coming and me being from that background, I had to jump on it,” Minnich said.
Minnich, whose official title is the community pharmacy leader, also recognizes that on top of providing access to prescription medication, he has an opportunity to be a source of health information in a community that doesn’t have easy access to the information.
“Health literacy in this country, unfortunately, is very low, especially in small towns like this that don’t have the opportunities that other bigger cities get,” Minnich said. He wants to help residents of Craigsville understand the medicine they’re taking and keep them on their prescription plans to help them lead to healthier lives.
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For the residents of Craigsville, there was a clear buzz in the air Thursday at the store, which is located on Craig Street right by the library and town hall. Minnich said that he'd already spent the morning filling prescriptions for the town, and a line began to form shortly after the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the location.
For Brad and April Ingram, the presence of Rite Aid is a welcome sight, not just from a prescription perspective but also to address their over-the-counter medicinal needs. April recounted having multiple instances of going to Craigsville’s Dollar General to try and find medication, only to come up empty-handed and instead having to make the trip to the Walmart in Staunton.
“It’s a wonderful thing, you know, for them to consider coming to this small town. It helps out a lot, especially now with the price of everything. You know, you don’t have to go as far,” Brad said.
The corporation also has plans to open another location in Augusta County in Greenville in December, and another location in Scottsville early next year.
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—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Craigsville celebrates opening of Rite Aid pharmacy
