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This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Heather Lyons-Burney, a clinical associate professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy. She also heads the board of My Neighbor’s Charitable Pharmacy in Branson, Missouri, which treats uninsured, low-income customers. Lyons-Burney discussed the pharmacy’s origins, its business model, and the most fulfilling part of her job.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What’s My Neighbor’s Charitable Pharmacy?
My Neighbor’s Charitable Pharmacy opened in February 2023, and it was born out of a charitable clinic called Faith Community Health Clinic that I helped open in 2010. I was a founding board member, and we recognized that people who were under-resourced had trouble accessing healthcare. We provided access to medications within our clinic, but we recognized that was really limited to those people that could come to our clinic.
By working with our state legislature and our pharmacy board, we were able to create a special class of pharmacy called a charitable pharmacy class designation. There was never a charitable pharmacy designation in Missouri before, and with it, we are now open to anyone in the community who qualifies.
What qualifications must patients meet?
Patients need to have a household income of less than 300% of the federal poverty level and no prescription insurance. We are strictly a model that’s run by donors, supporters, and grants. Patients pay a $10 monthly membership fee, and with that they gain access to anything that our pharmacy is able to provide, such as pharmacist assistance with disease management and education, and medical supplies like diabetes monitors and blood pressure cuffs.
Who are your donors and supporters?
We’ve had great support from our county and local businesses, so local employers help to fund it, as well as various healthcare-focused foundations.
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We use resources that work specifically with charitable pharmacies and charitable clinics. Our primary resource has always been Dispensary of Hope, which is a distributor based out of Nashville, Tennessee, that specifically works with charitable organizations. Direct Relief is another one, as well as Americares. We are able to re-source prescription medications and some over-the-counter medications and medical supplies through those entities. Sometimes they help us with things like Band-Aids and gloves.
The other thing we utilize is drug manufacturers’ patient assistance programs. Every manufacturer will have a foundation that helps to provide access to medications for patients that qualify. Our technicians work with patients to gain access to those programs and help them with the application part of it.
How many patients do you treat?
Our pharmacy right now serves close to 1,000 patients. We continue to see an increase every month. We’re not in competition with anyone, so for that reason other providers refer people, and other pharmacies even can refer patients over to us when they see a patient that has a need, which is wonderful. At the end of the day, we all just want the patient to be healthy.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
I would say the patient stories are incredible. Our patients are amazing. If you just give people access to resources, education and tools, and you coach them, they will do great.
Secondary to that are my students and future pharmacists. For them to be able to experience the impact of team-based care and the change that you can make in a patient’s life, and in turn the change that you can bring to a community, is huge.