A fourth-generation pharmacy in Scotland Neck was named the 2025 Clinical Care Champion.

The honor was bestowed upon McDowell’s Pharmacy at the ThoughtSpot 2025 Good Neighbor Pharmacy’s premier annual conference and trade show which was held in Las Vegas, an event in which more than 4,000 independent pharmacy owners, healthcare leaders, and industry partners attended.

The award presented to McDowell’s, which is now run by Thomas McDowell, was based upon the pharmacy’s “century-long commitment to serving the rural community of Scotland Neck. In addition, the pharmacy’s innovative approach to improving health outcomes in a medically underserved rural community through pharmacist-led clinical services, including a successful remote patient monitoring program, has helped transform chronic disease management for patients with hypertension and diabetes.”

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Two other pharmacies were also honored during the event — an advocacy champion award for a pharmacy in Utah and a storytelling champion award to a pharmacy in Florida.

Of the three honorees, Jenni Zika of Good Neighbor Pharmacy said, they “are true champions of their communities’ health. It is a privilege to stand alongside these independent pharmacies and support them in navigating unique industry challenges, helping them expand their services, strengthen their businesses and continue to provide high-quality care to their patients.  ThoughtSpot honors all we have accomplished as partners and our commitment to building a sustainable future for independent pharmacy together.”

A huge honor

Thomas said Tuesday, “It was definitely a huge honor to win that award. I think that’s a testament to our team for all the things they’re doing.”

He said the award was centered on some of the core clinical services the pharmacy offers and one of them is patient care through remote monitoring. 

While Thomas said, “It’s a way to help patients monitor, track, and manage their hypertension and diabetes, it’s also a testament to our customers for trusting us with these services and with their care and the community as a whole. We couldn’t win the award without their support.”

There was strong competition for the awards. “A lot of pharmacies are doing great things. I really did feel like we had a good chance of winning because I thought we were doing something unique.”

There are more than 200 patients enrolled in the monitoring program, which includes patients at McDowell’s Rocky Mount pharmacy.

A safety net

McDowell’s started the monitoring last year. “We are tracking the data and trying to see the impact. The service centers around patients checking their blood pressure or blood sugar at home. We see readings in real time and can check on them if we see critical highs and lows.”

Thomas sees the service as a safety net for patients who are in an underserved area. “Especially, in particular, we’re a small rural community. There’s not as many healthcare resources in our area. There’s limited access to care. There’s limited transportation. A lot of our patients have transportation issues.”

For Thomas, pharmacies — especially independent community pharmacies — are “the most accessible healthcare providers in their respective communities. We are seeing patients two to three times as frequently as patients are seeing their primary care doctor. We have a high frequency touch point. You can pick up a phone and speak to me instantly. You just can’t get that with other parts of the healthcare system.”

Better ways to care for patients

What sparked McDowell’s to do this, Thomas said, “(Is) we’re always looking for ways to better care for our patients. We’re often limited by some restrictions around us being excluded from a provider designation for Medicare and Medicaid although there’s some new things happening at Medicaid where we can deal as providers.”

For the most, however, pharmacies are not recognized as providers in the medical billing space, he said. “There’s a lot of services that we are capable of and want to do but there’s not necessarily a reimbursement model that’s sustainable for us and affordable for our patients.”

The percentage of diabetes and hypertension in Halifax County is higher than the state average, he said. “I would say it’s pretty prevalent in our area. We saw a need to make it sustainable as far as insurance coverage for patients. We knew that we were accessible and we could do it at a high level and I think we’re looking for new revenue streams.”

In a time of reimbursements being tightened or decreased on the product a reimbursement issue has been created in the country as far as how drugs are paid for, he said. “There’s a lot of vertical integration in healthcare so with that comes decreased reimbursement year after year and take it or leave it contracts.”

That means finding creative ways “to continue to operate and keep the doors open and keep helping patients. I think we’re doing that — we’re continuing to find ways to continue to thrive.”