It’s competitive dance season, and Kenneth Epting, a Houston-based dance coach and artistic director, is a very busy man. But he was happy to take time from his “full-out” schedule to chat about his decade-plus experience as a patient of Avita Pharmacy.
That’s because to him, the pharmacy team at Avita’s Bellaire, Texas, location, which is onsite at covered entity partner St. Hope Healthcare, is more than just people filling his prescriptions. “I feel like I’m part of the family,” he says. “They’re human, and they respect me as human.”
Read on to learn Kenneth’s take on why Avita Pharmacy is different, and how the healthcare partnership between Avita and St. Hope Healthcare has changed his life.
At Avita, I feel like I’m part of the family. They’re human, and they respect me as human.
"This is my life, and my pharmacist respects my life.”
When Kenneth first became an Avita patient more than 10 years ago, he was “overwhelmed with their knowledge and friendliness,” he says. As a former patient of a major retail pharmacy chain, he was used to having a very impersonal relationship with his pharmacist. That all changed when he switched over to Avita and met Pharmacist-in-Charge Shane Goulas.
“Shane is such a wonderful person and a great leader,” Kenneth says. “I have many underlying and overlapping illnesses, and I know that every time he receives one of my prescriptions, he’s making sure it’s going to work for the whole me. He’s checking whether it will cause any interactions and if it will help achieve my healthcare goals. He’s talking to my primary care doctor and my specialist, asking questions, and making them aware of any issues.
“Health is very unique because no matter what our illnesses are, we’re always worried,” Kenneth continues. “We’re asking ourselves, ‘Is the medicine right? Is it working?’ But Shane and his team give me confidence.”
Offering personalized, compassionate care is central to how he and his team operate, Shane explains. “Each patient is a human being and deserves to be treated compassionately and empathetically,” he says. “We strive to take a burden off them and let them know we’re along for the whole ride.”
“Shane tells me, ‘Look, we’re all in this together,’ and I feel it,” Kenneth says. “I feel it from their phone calls. I feel it during a visit to the pharmacy. I feel it when the delivery person drops off my medications. Their care makes me feel like I’m important, that I’m worth this level of service. This is my life, and my pharmacist respects my life.”
Each patient is a human being and deserves to be treated compassionately and empathetically. We strive to take a burden off them and let them know we’re along for the whole ride.
"They look at my health and see the whole picture.”
As an example of the personalized care he receives from the Avita Pharmacy team, Kenneth offers up this story: As someone who is living with blood-clotting issues and has faced deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) in the past, Kenneth often travels by car instead of airplane. On a road trip home to Chicago to visit his family, he stayed overnight in a hotel before continuing his journey. The next day, he realized he had left his injectable medication in the hotel refrigerator. But when he called the hotel, they could not find the prescription.
“I called Shane in a panic,” Kenneth recalls. “And, this always makes me tear up, but he just said, ‘Don’t worry about his, we got it.’ The very next day, it was overnighted to me.”
Kenneth also appreciates Shane and his team’s commitment to making sure prescriptions are affordable. “One of the hardest things for anyone in our society today is health insurance,” he says. “The cost of care is going up, and the quality of care is going down. But with Avita, I know I’m going to be okay. Sometimes I don’t even initiate the conversations about prescription costs; they do. Shane or a member of his team will tell me, ‘I think there’s a national assistance program for the medication your doctor just prescribed you.’
“That tells me I’ve got someone on my side. They look at my health and see the whole picture — how I’m doing physically, financially, and mentally.”
It’s a common theme, Kenneth says: when it comes to the covered entity partnership between Avita Pharmacy and St. Hope Healthcare, “they’re working with each other to stay on the same page for what’s best for the patient. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have all those people who cared about me.”
One of the hardest things for anyone in our society today is health insurance. The cost of care is going up, and the quality of care is going down. But with Avita, I know I’m going to be okay.
