They say that when it comes to politics in Washinton D.C., if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu. While this old adage may draw some laughs, it illustrates just how important it is to be politically active, especially when it comes to your healthcare. With this in mind, Tim and I recently traveled to the National Community Pharmacy Legislative Conference in Washington D.C. to ensure that when it comes to your rights as a pharmacy patient, your interests are at the table.

Overall it was a great trip and truly opened my eyes to the importance of educating our legislators and government officials about the important role that community pharmacy plays in the lives of our patients each and every day. As arguably the most accessible healthcare professionals (just stop in anytime and we’ll always be here to answer your health related questions!), pharmacists play a vital role in the healthcare industry. Yet many people see pharmacists simply as purveyors of a commodity who dispense prescriptions and do little else. As our patients know, we strive every day to do so much more than just hand them their prescriptions on the way out the door. We check drug interactions, counsel, reduce prescription costs for our patients through the use of generics, provide customized medications when taking standard medications is not possible, and so much more!

Over the course of the conference we heard from various legislators and, among other things, learned about how the recently passed national healthcare legislation will affect our patients, how current legislation has been introduced to protect patients from abuses by pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s) such as CVS Caremark and how the Federal Trade Commission is investigating the practices of drug manufacturers when they ‘bribe’ generic drug companies not to produce a generic of their drug (so they can keep drug prices high).

We were also able to talk directly to our U.S. Congressman Bill Foster (see above picture) and a staff member of Senator Dick Durbin about these issues and help to ensure that they are not only aware of the pertinent legislative bills but also will support them when voting.

What this trip also illustrated is that we ALL need to become involved when it comes to healthcare related issues in Washington, especially ones that affect your right to use community pharmacies. We encourage all of our patients to visits www.Fight4Rx.org  to stay updated on important healthcare issues and to find out how to contact your legislators to voice your opinions. This is a great way to make sure you are at the table…and not on the menu.

Lehan Drugs on 1360 WLBK Radio – Listen Now

In response to news about the presence of pharmaceuticals contaminating the water supply and teenage abuse of prescription drugs, Lehan Drugs is now offering a new drug take back program to help the community safely dispose of medicines that may be dangerous to others and to the environment.

As members of the community, pharmacists are in a prime position to ensure the safe and proper handling of medications, from dispensing to disposal.  Unused or expired medications pose risks to our families, communities, and the environment. We welcome all in the community to come and talk to our pharmacists about their prescriptions and how to store, use and dispose of them properly.

Tim, Ann and Jon Lehan are members of the National Community Pharmacists Association which in April launched a new Protect Your Pharmacy Now! Prescription Drug Disposal to help its members create consumer drug disposal programs for medicines that may be dangerous to others and to the environment.

Patients of any pharmacy are invited to safely dispose of unused and expired medications at Lehan Drugs in DeKalb and Lehan Drugs @ the DeKalb Clinic in Sycamore, free of charge by bringing in the drugs in their original stock containers. The pharmacies will work to dispose of the drugs using the Sharps TakeAway™ Environmental Return System, a safe, easy method to dispose of unused patient medications in an environmentally friendly way.

The Office of National Drug Control has found that prescription drugs are the drug of choice among 12- and 13-year olds, while a third of all new abusers of prescription drugs were between the ages of 12 and 17. Though it may be argued that the presence of drugs in drinking water is negligible, more and more consumers are disposing of unused medicines by flushing them down the drain, adding pharmaceutical pollution to our waters. In addition, medicines thrown in the trash can end up in landfills if not first picked up by children, pets, sanitation employees, or anyone who rummages through trash.

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA®) represents America’s community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 23,000 community pharmacies, pharmacy franchises, and chains. Together they represent an $84 billion health-care marketplace, employ over 300,000 full-time employees, and dispense nearly half of the nation’s retail prescription medicines.

For more information on the medication disposal program, contact a Lehan’s pharmacist or visit Dispose My Meds.

This article ran in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle on Saturday, February 6th.  Hope you can take a look!

Lehan family mixes up a recipe for healthcare…

Once a staple of every corner drugstore, pharmacy compounding is once again gaining popularity in the healthcare world. When Jim and Emory Lehan opened their drugstore in downtown DeKalb in 1946, compounding was considered an essential skill. “In the early days of the pharmacy, almost all of our drugs were compounded,” says Jim Lehan, whose father, Jim Sr. opened that first location. For Tim Lehan, current owner of Lehan Drugs, the return of interest in compounding comes as no surprise.

“Simply put, prescription compounding is when a pharmacist is able to work with a patient’s physician to provide customized medication solutions to ensure the patient is getting the best possible care he or she needs. Rather than using a one-size fits all medication, the compounding pharmacist has the potential to help so many people by working with patients’ physicians to customize a medication to the patients’ specific needs. We see many patients with a wide array of needs benefit from compounding; children with autism, hormone therapy for women, veterinarian compounding, chronic pain patients, dental problems such as canker sores and the list just continues. We really felt the need in our community for a strong voice advocating great medication solutions for patients.”

Tim Lehan had been looking into compounding for a long time. However, it was never something he and his wife Ann, also a pharmacist, had time to work into their very busy practice. In 2008, their son, Dr. Jon Lehan came to work at the pharmacy after earning a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Iowa and a 3 ½ year stint in the Air Force. With Jon back, Tim and Ann felt it was time to reevaluate, and decided to send Jon to complete an advanced training course in compounding. The family, however, was in for a little surprise.

“Grandpa Jim heard us talking about it, and asked if he could get trained as well”, Tim noted. “Considering his experience over the years as a pharmacist, we really thought this was a perfect fit.”

“I only really retired because my hearing had been deteriorating. I still loved that part of pharmacy.” Jim noted. “In the early days of the pharmacy, almost all of our drugs were compounded. There weren’t so many products available in tablet form. We even made something called artificial earwax.”

In July, Jim and Jon traveled to Houston to the Professional Compounding Centers of America to complete the hands-on training. PCCA is the country’s leading organization supporting the art of compounding in the country. PCCA was surprised to have their first-ever grandfather-grandson tandem as students since its inception in the early 1980s.

Jon said the folks at PCCA were quite impressed. “This was very intense training, and Grandpa really hung in there. He was making a lot of these younger pharmacists just stand there scratching their heads that this 82 year old guy could put in 5 hours of lecture and 5 hours of hands on compounding practice a day. He is just so amazing. PCCA even featured him in their monthly newsletter, going to to a few thousand compounding pharmacies internationally.”

“I just think it’s great how we’re really returning to the roots of pharmacy.” Jon said.  “Pharmacies were centerpieces of communities, where the pharmacists knew their patients. I think so often medication is treated like a commodity, like a gallon of milk or pair of socks. Compounding is a great way to connect with patients. The compounding pharmacist helps to evaluate what they need from their medication and works with the physician to ensure the best treatment .”

“Today we are able to ensure the products we make are of highest quality, with great technology and equipment, and we have ability to test what we do for potency and stability.”

“What my grandpa really helped instill in us was a commitment to our patients as members of our community. Every patient is unique, and being able to spend time with our patients, and customize their medicines when necessary truly allows us to affect patients’ health and achieve positive health solutions.”

“We want to be there for our community and our area’s physicians. I feel like we know our patients so well, almost like they are part of our family. The better we know people the more we can help by providing custom medication solutions.”

Jim also points out that compounding can be, well…fun.

“I really enjoyed making different flavored animal treats that are used to mask flavors of medications for pets. I also enjoyed learning to make medicated lollipops. I decided to combine the two, and make a fish-flavored lollipop.” Jon had a good laugh from that. “We had to trade our lollipops with other students. I feel bad for the one who got Grandpa’s fish-pop.” Grandpa Jim is now back in the business. “I’m really proud how our family business has been able to continue to evolve, providing care to the community through the pharmacy, immunizations, home medical equipment, and compounding. They’re really at forefront of community pharmacy in Illinois.”

And the rest of the family is very proud of Grandpa.

The founders of Lehan Drugs, brothers Jim Lehan, Sr. and Emory Lehan are both set to be inducted as inaugural members of the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame.  As the great grandson of James and the great-great nephew of Emory, it is amazing to hear the stories and see the pictures of the business they created in Lehan Drugs more than 60 years ago (http://www.lehandrugs.com/about/history.html).  They laid the foundation for what Lehan Drugs has been able to accomplish over that time and all of us here are honored to see them inducted.

Jim Sr. served the DeKalb Community for over 30 years and throughout his professional life, he was always very active in helping to promote the downtown DeKalb area.  Under his leadership, during the 1950’s and 60’s Lehan Drugs was the meeting place of the community with daily customer counts over 1000 people. With a food counter and soda fountain, Lehan Drugs was one of the most popular eating destinations in DeKalb, not to mention a busy pharmacy. His customers loved him and his commitment to customer service is still our trademark today.

Emory also served the DeKalb Community for the majority of his adult life.  After serving his country in the United States Army he joined his brother in opening Lehan Drugs in downtown DeKalb. Emory was a consummate businessman and entrepreneur and was extremely active in the running of Lehan Drugs. He could often be found in the store office going over figures and handing out notes to employees for projects he wanted accomplished. Emory was also instrumental in opening Kampus Korner on the campus of NIU, a state of the art 2 floor business that catered to the NIU students. He was also on the Chamber of Commerce Board of directors and served as its president.

Although they are no longer with us, we hope that both of them would be proud of the business that we run today.

-Jim

Jon and Grandpa Compounding in Houston

Back in July, my grandpa Jim and I went to a compounding training course for a week in Houston, Texas at PCCA (Professional Compounding Centers of America). We received intensive training in a variety of compounding techniques. PCCA is the country’s premier pharmacy compounding organization. They provide training, equipment, chemicals, and expertise to make sure their members are able to compound effectively for their patients. On top of that, we invested in some brand new, state of the art equipment and ongoing education.

We’re Up and Running!

We are EXTREMELY excited to have our new website up and running.  We hope you’ll find it informational, interesting, and easy to navigate.  I have to thank my wife, Briana, for spearheading the effort to get us a better presence on the web.  I’d also like to thank MorningStar Media Group, another local business, for doing our marketing and web design.  I’ve looked at a lot of other independent community pharmacy websites, and I really am proud of what we’ve created.

Lehan’s has been in DeKalb since 1946, and we’ve lasted that long because of the relationship we have with our community.  I’m now part of a fourth generation of Lehan’s, committed to continuing our family’s long tradition of caring for our patients, who are also our friends, family, and neighbors.

Over the years, Lehan’s has adapted, changed, moved (many times), and had our ups and downs.  This year we’ve added on a new location in the DeKalb Clinic, rolled out a new logo, a new website, and a new slogan.

Sometimes slogans are just slogans…something to catch your ear or your eye.  When we decided on “We’re more than medicine,” it was more than just a catchy expression.  It is a phrase our entire team really believes in.  For us, it has never just been about how many prescriptions we can pump out, or how much ibuprofen we can sell.  Lehan’s offers unique services and customer care that goes above and beyond what your average pharmacy does.  We truly are more than the medicine: we’re a unique healthcare experience.

We plan on using this blog as an informational resource. It is an easy way to pass along information to our patients on a variety of topics.  I also envision it as a place for us to throw in our “two cents,” when we feel like we need to.  I hope you’ll check back from time to time, and all of us here look forward to continuing to be able to provide the DeKalb and Sycamore area with the care you’ve all come to expect from us.

Jon Lehan, Pharm.D