HSV pharmacy recognized for role in pandemic response

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Pharmacists Association recently recognized a Hot Springs Village pharmacy for its role in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Village Healthmart served as an Arkansas COVID-19 Strike Team Pharmacy in the weeks after the Pfizer vaccine began arriving in Arkansas, laying the foundation for an unprecedented statewide vaccination drive.

“For the past several months, Arkansas pharmacists have been moving with speed, agility, and great passion to get as many Arkansans vaccinated as possible, allowing the state’s vaccine plan to rapidly accelerate over the past two months,” APA CEO John Vinson said in a news release.

“With the state’s vaccine efforts now in full swing, it’s important to recognize the initial Strike Team Pharmacies who led the fight in the first few weeks of vaccination and set the state up for success.”

The Pfizer vaccine’s initial requirement to be transported and stored using ultracold freezers, along with the large volume of doses that were in each shipment, 975 doses per tray, “dictated the need for a team of pharmacies with ultracold storage capabilities that could split the full trays into smaller quantities and deliver vaccines to small and mid-size acute care hospitals across the state,” the release said.

The Arkansas Pharmacists Association and the Arkansas Department of Health entered into a public-private partnership to organize and mobilize eight Strike Team Pharmacies to travel across the state, delivering and administering the vaccines as soon as the first shipments arrived in December 2020.

“The success of the Strike Team mission culminated in more than 228 deliveries and

2100 vials of vaccine (approximately 12,000 doses) distributed to health care workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in the first weeks of vaccine availability.

Since then, Arkansas pharmacists have administered more than 1.6 million doses, representing more than one million Arkansans who are fully or partially immunized,” the release said.

Submitted photo ■ Arkansas Pharmacists Association Director of Professional Affairs Nicki Hilliard, center, presents a Strike Team Pharmacy Certificate of Recognition to Village Healthmart staff members Lori Saveall and Michael Butler, doctors of pharmacy, and Todd Beagle. Not pictured is Cody Turner, doctor of pharmacy.