Community-based Cape Pharmacy acquired by Beebe

November 1, 2024 1

LEWES — Cape Pharmacy in Lewes is under new ownership after Beebe Healthcare announced it acquired the locally-owned business this week.

Internal medicine and infectious disease doctor and Senior Vice President and Chief Health Systems Design Officer Dr. Bill Chasanov oversees the new acquisition and said while Beebe hopes to enhance the community-based offerings at the business, no major changes will take place any time soon.

In fact, “Every employee at the Cape Pharmacy has been offered a position and everyone has accepted,” he told Delaware Business Times proudly. “It will add a level of cross training. . . to our current pharmacy team and also for the Cape Pharmacy team, too. Community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in that [community] space, the skill set is actually different than when you work in a hospital, oncology center, . . . Our team at Beebe is really excited about that, but the Cape Pharmacy team is really excited, too.”

Cape Pharmacy, located in the Villages of Five Points at 17252 N. Village Main Blvd., Unit #3, has been in operation for almost 25 years under the guidance of owners Pat Caroll-Grant and Dr. Joli Martini and became known for community outreach events such as vaccination clinics, personalized customer service, veterinary compounding and pharmaceutical delivery.

“We looked at our mission and vision around the community and realized that there was an alignment factor that we could not ignore,” Chasanov told DBT.

He said the goal, once everyone gets settled with the new transition, will be to “look to see how we can help our community, who is having issues with access to pharmaceuticals now and what do we need to do to help. . . How do we help our patients who are being discharged from the hospital [get their medications] much sooner than waiting for a script from a pharmacy with a more direct connection in order to make that seamless for patients.”

To aid in that goal of seamless care, Beebe Healthcare will be adding Cape Pharmacy to its new electronic records database utilizing healthcare software company Epic.

“That will be huge for patient quality. One of the earlier improvements will be the meds to beds improvement,” he said, adding that leaders hope patients will be able to receive their medications closer to the time they are discharged with the help of this connection to Cape Pharmacy.

Access problems to medications after discharge are compounded with more and more pharmacies closing across the country, like Rite Aid and Walgreens, increasing the need for creative solutions like Beebe’s new acquisition.

“We continue to look at how we can serve our community, how we can identify the needs in our community and how we can attempt to fill those needs as long as it fits in our strategic plan,” Chasanov said. “In a way, this expands just beyond the hospital walls and allows us to provide some of the services we don’t always have control over [like pharmaceuticals]. All of those things lead people to unfortunately need more care or more urgent medical care. This new partnership will allow us to continue serving our community the best we can.”