Fiber And Pharmacies

Fiber And Pharmacies

Jones Drugs celebrating 100 years in Ardmore

by Lisa Savage

When Billy Holt started at Jones Drugs, he had just finished pharmacy school, and dial-up internet was the newest technology. More than 20 years later, dial-up is a thing of the past, and the pharmacy operations depend on fast and reliable high-speed internet.

“When we first started using dial-up internet, we had to file each insurance claim one at a time,” Holt says. “If you had 20 prescriptions, you had to do them one at a time. It took forever.”

Now, Jones Drugs has an advanced pharmacy computer system, and the staff accesses data through Ardmore Telephone’s fast, reliable fiber internet. Just about every facet of pharmacy operations requires high-speed internet. “We couldn’t operate without it,” he says.

TIMES HAVE CHANGED

These days, pharmacies use the internet for just about everything. The system tracks automatic refills and accepts prescriptions online. Insurance companies authorize prescriptions immediately, and pharmacists can stay up to date on changing drugs. “Now we can file dozens of claims at once,” Holt says. “It’s simultaneous.”

The fast internet reduces the time it takes to transmit claims to insurance companies. The system will automatically send a notification if an insurance company doesn’t cover a particular drug. Many doctors now send e-prescriptions to the pharmacy. This practice saves a lot of time for the patient and the pharmacy.

“It’s much more efficient now,” Holt says. “We can fill the prescription, and by the time the patient gets here, it is usually ready to pick up.”

Before, the customer had to take a prescription to the pharmacy and then wait while the staff filled it. That meant the pharmacist also had to read the paper prescription and make sure the drug was in stock before filling the prescription. The online system reduces the risk of an error because pharmacists don’t have to decipher handwriting. With existing patients, the system can also automatically detect when a prescribed drug might interact with a drug the patient already takes.

Pharmacist Billy Holt, owner at Jones Drugs, works on a customer’s prescription.

TRACKING PRESCRIPTIONS

The pharmacy can access the Alabama and Tennessee controlled substance monitoring databases online. “We’re required to upload information to the database about any controlled substance we fill,” Holt says.

All pharmacies send in the information daily, and the database allows doctors and pharmacists to review the report. In light of the opioid addiction crisis, it’s an important tool to make sure people are safe. The database helps to detect a practice known as doctor shopping, which is when someone seeks an opiate prescription from a doctor and then pursues the same prescription from a different provider within a certain time frame. The system also alerts pharmacists if a particular prescription has been filled at multiple pharmacies. This can be a sign the prescription is forged. The system sends an alert, and the second pharmacist will know not to fill a prescription.

“Before, we had no way to track it,” Holt says. This lessens the chance of abuse. Someone might try to pay cash for a prescription at one pharmacy and run it through insurance at another. Secondary measures also make prescribing drugs safer. For instance, at Jones Drugs, a robot counts the pills.

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS

There have been big changes since the pharmacy opened as Ardmore Drugs 100 years ago. Lude Currin and Dr. Bernard Hatcher Woodard started the pharmacy in 1918. The ownership has changed four times, but it has operated in the same building on Ardmore Avenue.

It became known as Jones Drugs when Thoran Jones — a real estate developer, owner of the Ardmore Creamery and president of the Bank of Ardmore — bought the drug store with his wife, Merle Jones, in 1925. They owned the business, complete with an old-fashioned soda fountain, for 42 years. They sold the store to Doug Maund in 1967, and a year later, Nick Holland, just out of pharmacy school at Auburn University, became a partner.

Holt, whose grandparents were friends with the Holland family, grew up in Pulaski, Tennessee. He graduated from Giles County High School in 1990 and then from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in 1997.

“I graduated on Friday, moved here on Saturday and started as an intern in the summer,” Holt says. After graduation, he went to work as a full-time pharmacist. He worked with Holland and Maund and bought Holland out in 2012. He’s still partners with Maund.

The pharmacy is locally owned and part of the Health Mart network. Holt says they fill about 300 prescriptions each day, and most of the customers have been coming to the pharmacy for years.

Holt and his wife, Natasha, hosted a community celebration last year in honor of the 100th anniversary. “We love being part of this community,” he says. “Our customers are our neighbors, and I like helping them and taking care of their wellbeing.” �

About Jones Drugs

The pharmacy is at 30508 Ardmore Ave., Ardmore, Alabama

Hours: 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday