Pharmacy takes a step back to the past

Running a small pharmacy in a world of big chain-store competitors is tough.

Jeff Hill, owner of Valley Prescription and Compounding Pharmacy in Merced, knows just how tough it is.

"It's certainly not easy," Hill said. "You have to differentiate yourself by offering services such as home delivery and filling niches no one else wants to pursue."

Hill, who has been a pharmacist since 1972, bought the little 13th Street pharmacy in June 2009. He and his partner, Andy Keenan, immediately started trying to make the shop better.

One way the partners decided to upgrade the pharmacy was to start compounding drugs.

Compounding drugs is the mixing of drugs to fit the needs of the patient.

"This is the way pharmacies worked a long time ago," Hill said. "They would fill the prescription specifically for the patient, do what will work for that patient."

One of the ways compounding is done is to change the form of a medication from a pill to a liquid or to make the drug less potent. It can also be done to add flavors to a medication.

"When pills started being manufactured, the choices became limited to the strength the manufacturer makes, Hill said. "Some patients don't need the high doses, or the side effects of those doses."

Hill said there is definitely a need for compounding pharmacies. "We're going back to pharmacy roots were," he said.

The pharmacy, which is near the site of the old Mercy Medical Center Merced, is going through a remodeling to accommodate the addition of compounding.

"We are taking our waiting area, which had two opposite end doors, and making about a third of it into the back pharmacy," Hill said. "We will have a big window so people can see what we're doing." The extra space was needed for the equipment used in compounding, he said.

Although the hospital on 13th Street is closed, Hill said the closure has actually helped the pharmacy.

"The clinics are still here, and the doctors are still here," he said. "It actually gives us more parking."

Hill said the remodeling should be done by Friday.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com