Where the work started
I grew up with a question I could not put down. How do you actually fix healthcare for the people who need it most. Not the patients with the best insurance and the most informed advocates. The ones who walk in confused, tired, sometimes skeptical, and often without the time or the bandwidth to navigate a system that was not designed for them.
I went to Emory University in Atlanta to start working on that question. The Master of Public Health program in Health Policy and Management taught me how healthcare systems actually function, where they fail, and who pays the price when they do. Public health gave me the lens. Then I needed the practice.
I went to Xavier University of Louisiana for my Doctor of Pharmacy. Xavier is one of the most respected pharmacy schools in the country and a place that takes seriously the responsibility of training pharmacists for the communities that need them most. I graduated in 2012 with my PharmD.
What people do not always know is that I had already spent three years working in pharmacy before I graduated. I was in pharmacy through school, not just at school. By the time I had the doctorate, I had thousands of hours behind the counter already, in real pharmacies, working with real patients.
The corporate years
I started my licensed career at Walmart Pharmacy in Houma, Louisiana, as an Assistant Pharmacy Manager. I built patient counseling programs there that actually moved the needle on medication adherence. I learned high volume workflow. I learned how to make a busy pharmacy run.
Then I moved to CVS in Greenville, Mississippi, as a Pharmacy Manager. In May 2013 I moved to Hattiesburg to manage the CVS there, the last 24 hour CVS in Mississippi to discontinue overnight service, and the highest prescription volume location in our district. I also became the pharmacist the district sent in to turn around stores that had fallen behind on their metrics and prescription backlogs. For two consecutive years, the store I managed administered more vaccinations than any other in the district. By every metric the corporate system measured, I was succeeding at the highest level.
I was also, increasingly, not doing the job I went to pharmacy school to do.
The decision
The decision to leave was not sudden. It was a slow accumulation of small ones. Patients I never had time to actually know. Pharmacy technicians I trained who asked me, near the end of long shifts, why we were measuring things that had nothing to do with whether our patients were healthier. I did not always have a good answer.
In February 2016, the opportunity came to acquire Fairview Pharmacy, a Hattiesburg institution founded in 1978 by Dr. Kate Winborne and her husband Larry Winborne, with pharmacist Gladys Barnett behind the counter. The community knew the pharmacy. The pharmacy knew the community. The question was whether somebody would carry that standard forward, or whether another chain would absorb the location.
I took the acquisition loan. I left the corporate salary. I bet on Hattiesburg, on the Winbornes’ legacy, and on the belief that a pharmacy built on real human care could not only survive but grow into something larger.
What ten years of ownership has taught me
I have learned, more than anything, that the patients I serve are smarter than the system assumes they are. They notice things. They know when the pharmacist is rushed and when the pharmacist is present. They know when the conversation is real and when it is a script. They are loyal beyond what most businesses deserve, when you give them a reason.
I have also learned how brutal the financial pressures on independent pharmacy can be. Pharmacy benefit manager reimbursement squeezes have closed hundreds of independents across the country in the years I have owned Fairview. We are still here because the community kept showing up, because the team I have built is excellent, and because the original standard the Winbornes set is worth fighting to keep.
What I tell my patients about the work
When I am behind the counter, I am not trying to be impressive. I am trying to be useful. I am trying to give you the information you need in the way you need it, so the decision you walk out with is one you actually understand and can live with.
That means short answers when short answers are right. Long answers when the question is complicated. Honesty when the honest answer is not the one you wanted to hear. A recommendation for something simpler and cheaper when that is the right call. A recommendation to skip the supplement altogether when that is the right call. A referral to your physician when the question is beyond what a pharmacist should answer.
I do not always get it right. When I do not, I tell you, I fix it, and I tell you what I changed so it does not happen to the next patient.
Why I write
The blog you are reading exists because the consultation room is not big enough to hold every conversation we need to have. Patients in Hattiesburg, Petal, Sumrall, Purvis, and across the Pine Belt are searching the internet for answers to questions I would happily answer at the counter. The internet is mostly serving them with marketing copy and content farms. I want to do better than that.
Everything I publish here is written or reviewed by me personally, with the same standard I bring to a counter conversation. Plain English. Honest answers. No selling. Serving Hattiesburg, the Pine Belt, Central Mississippi, and South Mississippi.
If you want to meet me
I am behind the counter most days at Fairview. 500 Katie Ave, Hattiesburg, MS. You can call me at 601 544 4871 during pharmacy hours. If I am with another patient, you can leave a message and I will return the call myself. The standard for that has not changed in ten years and is not going to.
This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for personalized medical advice. Before starting or changing any medication, including over the counter products and supplements, talk with your pharmacist or physician about your specific situation.