October 2019


   What's Happening this month:

October 24th - Double Loyalty Point Day

October 31st - Halloween

New Ownership

This past month, Hopkins Center Drug was acquired by Jim Stage, PharmD who also owns Lloyd's Pharmacy and Compounding Center in St. Paul and Setzer Pharmacy in Roseville.  

With this ownership change, you will notice very little change in the day to day operations of Hopkins Center Drug. Chris will remain the Pharmacist-In-Charge of the pharmacy, and manage the store on a day to day basis, but she has chosen to eliminate the responsibilities that come with pharmacy ownership to focus on her family. 

The other staff will also remain, and we will be here to help you with all of your needs and questions as we have been in the past. 

Over the next few months, you will see a new pharmacist face a few days a week as Joe will be helping us out while Kate is on maternity leave.

Jim, his wife Cally, and their five children live in Roseville. They are excited to expand their pharmacy family to Hopkins Center Drug in the west metro area. 

Please welcome Jim when you see him in the store.   
Please Help Us

Lately, we have been flooded with phone calls from customers who have been asking to speak with a Pharmacist. Please know that most of your questions can be handled by our clerk and technician staff if you are calling for a refill, an order for delivery, store hours, flu or shingle shot questions, or anything not specifically related to questions about your drug therapy or any drug interactions or recommendations. 

If you use our automated refill system on our phone, and you are told that you need to speak with a pharmacist before we can fill your medication--that usually means that you have a new prescription on file for that medication with a new RX number, especially if you have seen your Doctor recently. If this happens to you, please just either leave a message with the name of the med, or the prescription number on the phone saying that the IVR requested that you speak with a pharmacist, or talk with a clerk or technician about it if you feel you need to speak with someone. 

We always will look to see if you have a new prescription on file before we call for refills from your Doctor. If you are out of refills, we will always call your doctor for a new prescription, or if there is another issue with the prescription, we will call you.  If we need to call your doctor for refills, please allow 24-72 hours for the office to respond to us.

We are always happy to talk with you about anything; however, we are extremely busy in the afternoons from about 2pm to 6pm when we are hearing back from Doctor offices on refills, clarifications we have requested, and new prescriptions for the day. So, if you are calling between these times and need to speak with a Pharmacist, just know that your wait time might be a little bit longer than usual. Please feel free to leave your name and a call back number with a member of our pharmacy team, and one of our pharmacists will gladly give you a call back as soon as we are able to if you don't have an urgent question. 
Medicare Open Enrollment

October 15 marks the start of Medicare Part D open enrollment for 2020 . Open enrollment runs from October 15 to December 7, 2019.

We will not have the 2020 plan information available much before October 15th; but, shortly after that date we will have a list available at the pharmacy for you to pick up that will show what plans we are preferred in, and not preferred in for 2020.  

If you would like to see what your costs would be for a certain plan, or for comparing plans against each other, we will be able to run those figures for you for either Medicare Part D plans, or for Medicare Advantage plans. You can either stop by the pharmacy and fill out a request sheet, or call the Pharmacy and talk to Stephany about your requests, and we can run those illustrations for you. Please allow us at least a week to get the information together for you. We can either print the illustrations, or email them to you. Please request this information before December. Last year we had many people wait to the last minute to request information and that puts a strain on our staff to turn the information around to you so quickly. If you would like to sit down and speak with a pharmacist about your options, we will gladly make an appointment for you to do that.
It is time to start thinking about Flu Shots

We hope to start giving flu shots mid-October. The flu vaccine is a bit slower coming in this year from the manufacturers as they are trying to match the flu virus that mutated at the end of last year in hopes of getting better coverage for this year.  We will be available for flu shots most days of the week--no appointment is necessary; however, please call the store at 952-938-2719 if you are looking for a shot either in the evening, or on a weekend to make sure we have a certified Pharmacist available for your flu shot.

We recommend that you plan to have your flu shot before the end of November since it does take about 2 weeks for your body to develop immunity to the flu virus.
Seasonal Spotlight:

Cough and Cold Season

It is time to start thinking about cough and cold, and flu prevention as we head into the fall and winter seasons. Make sure you get a flu shot--preferably before the end of November so you are protected when the flu usually starts to spread in late December. If you are sick--stay home to avoid infecting others. If you have a cold--make sure to cover your cough, wash your hands thoroughly and frequently, and don't touch your nose or face without washing your hands. Consider going through your medicine cabinet before cough and cold season starts and replenish it with a cough suppressant, a decongestant an antihistamine, and some cough drops. If you do this now, you will have at home what you need to treat your cold if you would come down with one. The last thing you want to do when you are sick is go to the pharmacy to pick up medications. Also, now is the time to stock up on Kleenex, hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes! No one plans on getting sick, but being prepared can make your life easier when you don't feel well!
Upcoming Double Point Days:
(Be sure to mark your calendars)

Thursday, October 24th

Saturday, November 30th
(Triple Points for Small Business Saturday)

Sunday, December 22nd

Join us on social media

Are we friends on Facebook yet? Do you get our updates on twitter? If not, please follow, like and share soon.

It's the best way to keep up to date on all the great things happening around the store! If we are friends on Facebook would you please review us? A couple minutes of your time means the world to us! It's increasingly how new people find out about us.

Thank you and we'll see you soon on Facebook and twitter!

Check out our app! If you use a smartphone or tablet and would like another way to refill your prescriptions, then please download it today.
Gift Gab
It’s October.

Time for ghost and goblins to arrive!

Make your house hauntingly festive and frightening with some of our freakishly fun Halloween decor. We have all you need to make your home spooktacular for your family, friends and freaks!

Need a little ghostly gift for someone special? We have lots of fun and bootiful gift ideas for everyone. From cute witch and warlock gnomes to wine glasses for your ghoul friends to light up hats and grow a zombie for your little monsters.

These items won't last long so s top in and be spellbound! Hope to see you soon!

-- Kelsey