JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Brooke Army Medical Center leaders participated in a Facebook Live ribbon-cutting ceremony March 3 for the Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston Community Pharmacy, which relocated to the new Army and Air Force Exchange Service (Exchange) in February.
“More than just being a beautiful space, this move will improve the overall experience for our beneficiaries picking up their prescriptions,” said BAMC Commanding General Brig. Gen. Shan Bagby.
In addition to all the amenities the new Exchange offers, patrons will experience shorter waiting times to get their prescriptions filled, the general said.
The new pharmacy is located at 2500 Funston Road at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. Hours of operation are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The contact number remains the same at 210-295-9965.
“The relocation of the Community Pharmacy into this new facility will provide customers with a one-stop shopping experience for both their prescriptions and other shopping needs,” said Army Col. Stacey Causey, BAMC pharmacy chief. “It will also allow us to provide the best pharmacy experience for the JBSA community.”
The new pharmacy is about 1,600 square feet larger than the old location and is designed to allow a better overall operational flow and more work space for the pharmacy team to safely work.
“The pharmacy has eight prescription windows, which is a vast improvement over our old location,” Causey said. “Additionally, the pharmacy now has a dedicated patient counseling space to allow for private one-on-one counseling. The location of the pharmacy also provides a safer and larger parking experience for patrons as the previous parking lot became heavily congested with patient traffic.”
The Community Pharmacy fills an average of 330 new prescriptions and 1,440 refills daily.
“That’s more than 417,600 new and refilled prescriptions a year,” Causey said. “Those are some impressive numbers and with this new space I’m sure we will be able to do even more.”
Currently, people are required to call all the BAMC pharmacies in advance to have new electronic prescriptions processed for pick-up which is being done to assist with COVID-19 social distancing requirements. New and renewal electronic prescriptions will be processed and ready for pick up within one hour. However, prescriptions received within one hour of the pharmacy closing will be ready for pick up the next business day after 9 a.m.
On average, new prescriptions take about 30 minutes to fill. For prescription refills, customers generally wait about two minutes for pick up.
“In mid-March, people will have another option when picking up their prescriptions at the Main and JBSA-Fort Sam Houston PX pharmacies,” Causey said. “They will be able to pick up their prescription by using the ScriptCenter Express Prescription Pickup kiosk.”
Pharmacy personnel will load the patient’s prescription into ScriptCenter kiosk and the patient will simply log in to retrieve them.
“We are proud of our pharmacy staff,” Causey said. “They work very hard to serve our patients and we want our patients to have the best experience possible when they visit any of our pharmacies.”