Making friends with pharmacy in the heart of Kinney Country

GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. — When you get north of Syracuse, N.Y., you enter a special part of Retail Pharmacy America known as “Kinney Country,” where people know their neighbors and everybody knows their neighborhood drug store.


Kinney Drugs, an employee-owned company with 92 stores in northern New York and Vermont that marked its 107th anniversary this year, sponsored a series of promotional programs throughout October to mark American Pharmacists Month, including an advertising and public relations campaign, free gifts for customers, a “Vote For Your Favorite Pharmacist” contest, the introduction of such new pharmacy programs as automatic refills and the promotion of such services as flu immunizations, free consultations, generic drug prescription discounts and electronic prescribing.


The whole effort was aimed at encouraging patients to develop close relationships with their pharmacists and see them as healthcare providers rather than mere clerks, with the ultimate goal of promoting medication adherence. According to healthcare research firm IMS Health, only 25% to 30% of new prescriptions in the United States are taken properly, and poor medication adherence wastes $290 billion in emergency room visits.