Four students from Auburn's Harrison School of Pharmacy placed in the top three of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy National Community Pharmacists Association's (NCPA) Pruitt Schutte Business Plan Competition.
The NCPA is an organization that works to promote independent community pharmacy across the country. According to its website, the competition serves to generate interest for independent community pharmacy ownership, which accounts for a substantial part of the United States health care delivery system.
Teams were required to create a proposal for either buying an existing independent pharmacy or for creating a new pharmacy.
The Auburn team, Garrett Aikens, Brittney Shippee, Lauren Sofy and Denise Sutter, created a plan to purchase the existing Medical Arts Pharmacy in Opelika.
Aikens said the team decided to investigate the Medical Arts Pharmacy because they saw potential to increase profit and expand patient care.
"We got the blueprints for the pharmacy and evaluated everything the pharmacy was doing well and not doing well and saw what we could improve on," Aikens said.
The next round of competition, where the top three teams will compete for first place, will be this October in Philadelphia at NCPA's annual convention. Aikens said team members attended last year's national convention in New Orleans, where they watched that year's finalists present their proposals.
"That's where we sparked our interest," Aikens said. "We figured out we could put together a pretty competitive proposal and compete nationally."
Sutter said she and other team members worked for about six months on the plan, which focuses specifically on helping patients with HIV/AIDS.
"We started brainstorming ideas as soon as we got back from the convention," Sutter said. "After we chose HIV patients, we worked on it throughout the rest of the school year, focusing on the demographics of Lee County - seeing how many patients we would be able to reach out to, what kind of competition we were looking at from the other pharmacies in town, and what we needed to provide to help those patients."
Jared Johnson, faculty adviser for the competition, said the team planned to create new services that would improve HIV patient care.
"The major new service created by the team involves counseling HIV patients regarding the disease itself and the complex medication regimens they are generally prescribed," Johnson said.
Aikens said throughout Lee County the HIV/AIDS population is growing every year.
"HIV/AIDS is a disease where it is critical that you monitor and treat it very strictly and very closely," Aikens said. "There's a growing population in the area that really needs care."
Besides the Unity Wellness Center, which hosts a once-a-week HIV clinic, Aikens said there is no other place in the area specializing in HIV/AIDS care.
"We collaborated with the clinic to provide that service," Aikens said.
Sutter added that when researching Lee County, the team found numbers were high enough to make an impact with a pharmacy for HIV.
"HIV is a serious disease state, and we thought patients would benefit from special consultation about the disease, how to prevent spreading of the disease and ways they help manage their disease, such as through their diet and adherence to their medication," Sutter said.
Johnson said he thinks what made the plan successful was it involved a pharmacy that could be purchased for a fair price, is in a good location and could increase profit.
"They researched the patient needs in the area, found that the Auburn-Opelika area has one of the fastest-growing HIV populations in the state and that no pharmacies were taking advantage of that, and created a plan to serve those patients, which would in turn increase the pharmacy's bottom line," Johnson said.
In addition to the HIV counseling services, the plan also included renovations to the pharmacy to allow space for a new immunization service, a private patient counseling room and an expansion to cut down on unused storage space.
"It is as if they were truly going to purchase the pharmacy, so they cannot leave any stone unturned," Johnson said.
Johnson said he helped the students contact the pharmacy owner and staff, decide what services to offer and meet with a business loan officer to review the finances of the proposal.
"Then I got out of the way, and they did a phenomenal amount of work at a very high degree of quality," Johnson said. "Now I am telling everyone I can find how proud I am of them and what this means for our school."
The Auburn team competed against 35 other schools and colleges of pharmacy, including the University of Arkansas, the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina. Aikens said the team's goal was to place in the top 10.
"That was our realistic hope," Aikens said. "Then we found out that we had placed in the top three. It was very gratifying knowing all the work we put in hadn't gone unnoticed."
Johnson said the experience of the competition will be an asset to the students, who all aspire to own a pharmacy one day.
"This experience has put them light years ahead of other students who wish to do the same thing," Johnson said. "This is not some kind of training exercise. It is the real thing, and some business plan winners in past years have actually graduated and then purchased the pharmacies that were used in their plans."
Aikens agreed that involvement in the competition will ultimately benefit him in the future.
"I didn't have a very good grasp of what went into developing services and developing a business in general," Aikens said. "Now I have a much better understanding of what it takes."
Sutter said she and her team members are confident in their abilities, but even if they don't win, the skills she has acquired have been invaluable.
"I know that no matter what happens, this has been a great experience and exposure to what independent pharmacy is all about, and it has already influenced my career," Sutter said. "It has further instilled my passion to finding ways to reach out to the community, but it also opened my eyes to the business aspects of a pharmacy and has made community pharmacy a career I wish to pursue."
The team will compete against Drake University and Washington State University at the national convention.
"We have no time to celebrate," Johnson said. "Drake University and Washington State will have great plans as well, so winning the competition will not be easy."
The winning team will receive $3,000 to its NCPA student chapter, and $3,000 in the dean's name to promote independent pharmacy at its school.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
