essential service
FITCHBURG Family Pharmacy GOING THE EXTRA MILE BY KRYSTLE ENGH NAAB Uncertainty related to COVID-19 and its effects on our health and everyday life lead us to seek small comforts and expertise. On the health front, the collaboration of the physician and pharmacist helps to ensure patient medications are taken as needed and prescribed while also reducing potential harmful side effects. Community pharmacies do the preparation and dispensing of the medications, and their pharmacists provide frontline medical advice. Thad Schumacher, pharmacist and owner of Fitchburg Family Pharmacy, says his biggest influence to go into healthcare was the pharmacist in his hometown. There, the pharmacist seemed to know everyone and have the answers to every problem. Thad wanted the same for his pharmacy. “My wife is a professor at UW–Madison in the School of Pharmacy. We met in pharmacy school, and when she changed careers, I was the trailing 22 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
spouse.” In 2008, they moved to the Madison area, where Thad felt there was a disparity in pharmacy care. “Right away I could tell by driving around that in some areas there wasn’t an equal share of [pharmaceutical] services.” When an independent pharmacy closed in Fitchburg, Thad found his opportunity to open a store in 2013. “I knew from a business model that if I was going to survive, I’d need to expand my services to Greater Madison. The local area was not going to be enough to survive, which started my idea of offering free delivery. People could access [our] pharmacy services wherever they lived, and it seems to have worked and paid off.” In the beginning, bicycle deliveries were Thad’s way of reaching customers and decompressing. “I don’t do it as much anymore because we do 30 delivery stops a day, but from time to time I do it,” says Thad. “It’s not uncommon that someone will need something over the
