Appalachian Regional Healthcare recently opened a retail pharmacy on the campus of its Summers County Hospital in Hinton, W.Va., which pharmacy director Leann Umberger said is "the last piece of the puzzle for healthcare."
The pharmacy will allow the hospital and the adjacent Summers County ARH Rural Health Clinic — which are both part of the Lexington, Ky.-based 14-hospital system — to deliver prescriptions to patients at their bedside before discharging them, according to a Nov. 7 news release.
"Patients who come to the clinic, ER patients and inpatient persons admitted to the hospital, can get their medications here, so, when it's time to go home, they don't have to make an additional stop," Summers County ARH CEO Wes Dangerfield said in a statement. "We've got everything here in one place."
Community members and the system's employees can also use the pharmacy, which Mr. Dangerfield said would boost "a greater sense of pride" among workers to grab their "medicine and everything you need right where you work."