Partnerships for communities to live well
Bluestem Communities is dedicated to important work in providing homes for people making life transitions and personalized care for people
as they progress through the aging process. Fortunately for Bluestem Communities and the residents and participants who benefit from services, it’s not work that Bluestem must do alone. Community partners also make commitments to working alongside Bluestem Communities leadership and staff to provide top quality services. One important partnership Bluestem Communities’ maintains to ensure residents and participants are being met with the best care is with local pharmacies, particularly with Hesston Pharmacy and Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy.
Both Hesston Pharmacy and Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy can serve residents and participants at all Bluestem Communities locations, but Hesston Pharmacy is particularly contracted to supply Schowalter Villa in Hesston with medication needs, and Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy plays the same role for Kidron Bethel Village in North Newton and Bluestem PACE’s locations in McPherson and Hutchinson.
Pharmacist Sandie Kueker, who owns Hesston Pharmacy along with her husband and pharmacist Adam Kueker, says the story that was passed down to them is that in 1986, Schowalter Villa helped start the Hesston Pharmacy that exists today. The town had a pharmacy prior to that point, but it closed. Having an obvious need for local pharmacy services, Schowalter Villa helped recruit the pharmacist that would start a new pharmacy, and which continues more than 35 years later. The Kuekers also own and operate Harvey Drug in Newton, and the two stores work closely with one another to provide services across their communities and other local communities.
“When we took over the pharmacy in 2016, this wonderful partnership with Schowalter Villa already existed,” said Kueker. “It’s continued to grow and develop even since then, and we are so grateful for it. We want to make sure we do things that help make our patients lives easier and keeps them healthy. Schowalter Villa is amazing in terms of the care and services they provide. We’ve worked with a lot of nursing facilities over the years, and Schowalter Villa is truly exceptional. It’s not just a rating on a piece of paper. We’re glad to help with that success and we want to set them up for success.”
Hesston Pharmacy provides medications for most of the Schowalter Villa residents in the health care and assisted living neighborhoods, and also serves independent living residents who choose to use the pharmacy located just a few blocks down the street from campus.
“We love when independent living residents who are new to the Hesston community choose to use us as their pharmacy,” said Kueker. “I think it gives people and families extra peace of mind when you personally know your pharmacist and can see them face-to- face.”
Aside from being able to stop into the pharmacy when needed, Hesston Pharmacy and Harvey Drug both offer a refill reminder program, two levels of medication packaging programs and delivery services for independent living residents and other people living locally.
In addition to medications, Hesston Pharmacy and Harvey Drug provide flu shots and COVID boosters, can special order specific medications or other items that might not be in the store with delivery within a day, do blood pressure checks and provide diabetes education for those looking for help managing insulin injections, nutrition tips and more. The stores also sell hearing aides for people with mild to moderate hearing loss with the ability to go home with hearing aides the same day. Both stores also operate as gift shops with items that are meant to provide help or comfort to people.
“We keep a lot in our gift shops, and the idea is to keep people healthy and living well with those items,” said Kueker. “For example, we carry a lot of puzzles because puzzles are good for brain health. We have different sizes of puzzles to help with handling, and some even have special, easy-grip edges for people with arthritic hands. We try to keep gifts in our store that are thoughtful and make it feel more homey when you come in.”
Located about 25 minutes from both North Newton and McPherson, Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy provides similar services for residents at Kidron Bethel Village and participants at Bluestem PACE. The partnership has been in place with Kidron Bethel Village since about 2015, and since the beginning of Bluestem PACE in 2016.
“We began these partnerships because of the service level we provide,” said pharmacist Eric Driggers, owner of Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy. “Larger pharmacies just aren’t able to provide the personalized services we are able to.” As the medication provider and pharmacist consultant for health care and assisted living at Kidron Bethel Village, Hillsboro Hometown Pharmacy makes at least once daily trips to campus so they are able to provide delivery services to independent living residents there who would choose to use them as well.
The pharmacy offers three packaging options for Kidron Bethel Village residents, and are working on adding a fourth. For PACE participants, options vary and are more customized for unique participant needs.
Relationship is the most important part of these partnerships,” said Driggers. “Any pharmacy can pack medicine, but having good, open communication lines and be able to quickly solve problems is so valuable. When something comes up, Bluestem Communities knows we will do whatever necessary to take care of iit, and I’m grateful that we have that shared level of trust.”