Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 11:14am EDT | Modified: Tuesday, September 14, 2010, 3:56pm Walgreens opens pharmacy in Schenectady health care clinic The Business Review (Albany) - by Barbara Pinckney
Walgreens has put a pharmacy inside the Hometown Health Centers clinic in Schenectady.
The pharmacy, which opened Sept. 14, is located in the patient waiting area of Hometown Health, a federally qualified health center that serves the poor and uninsured of Schenectady. It is taking over for a Medcare, which had run the clinic’s pharmacy operation for five years but filed for bankruptcy about a year ago.
“Walgreens took over last week, closed over the weekend and reopened today,” said Joseph Gambino, CEO of Hometown Health. “To have a company that size, a Fortune 500 company, come to an underserved area is just phenomenal.”
Gambino said he reached out to Walgreens when it became apparent that the clinic needed a new pharmacy provider. Although there was no interruption in service with Medcare’s bankruptcy, Hometown wanted a more stable partner.
“They looked at the business, they looked at the area, they ran the demographics and they decided it was a good fit for them,” he said.
Randy Lambert, operations manager of on-site pharmacies for Walgreens, said the Deerfield, Ill.-based company has 117 on-site locations across the country, including several in federally qualified health centers. Hometown is the first health center it has partnered with in New York, although it has had a location in the Community Care Physicians’ office in the Capital Region Health Park in Latham for more than three years.................>>>>...............>>>>................http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2010/09/13/daily14.html?surround=lfn
Big deal. They've wanted to open a store across the street for 2 years. But SOS prefers a dirt parking lot to a taxpaying business. Every store design is rejected due to pedestrian issues. Like there's a huge walk in in that dangerous neighborhood.