Most of the time you can come in to see this view of owner and lead pharmacist Bruce Dickerson. He has been a hands-on business owner and is a stickler for quality. His knowledge of the drugs and prescriptions he dispenses is refreshing.

Most of the time you can come in to see this view of owner and lead pharmacist Bruce Dickerson. He has been a hands-on business owner and is a stickler for quality. His knowledge of the drugs and prescriptions he dispenses is refreshing.

A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS

<p>Coming into Dickerson’s Pharmacy is experiencing the goodness of home and caring. A business is only as good as its leader and the dedicated people who treat patients like something other than a number, an address or a date of birth.</p>

Coming into Dickerson’s Pharmacy is experiencing the goodness of home and caring. A business is only as good as its leader and the dedicated people who treat patients like something other than a number, an address or a date of birth.

<p>Bruce Dickerson has been been associated with all things pharmacy since 1976. He brings a lifetime of experience, caring and wisdom to his patients and epitomizes the country pharmacist that takes the time to make a difference in Elizabethtown.</p>

Bruce Dickerson has been been associated with all things pharmacy since 1976. He brings a lifetime of experience, caring and wisdom to his patients and epitomizes the country pharmacist that takes the time to make a difference in Elizabethtown.

<p>Bruce Dickerson grew up on a farm in Roxboro, North Carolina where his parents farmed in addition to owning a TV, appliance and furniture store. He learned customer service at an early age and his genuine nature and vast knowledge of the pharmacy industry keeps a strong repeat customer base.</p>

Bruce Dickerson grew up on a farm in Roxboro, North Carolina where his parents farmed in addition to owning a TV, appliance and furniture store. He learned customer service at an early age and his genuine nature and vast knowledge of the pharmacy industry keeps a strong repeat customer base.

ELIZABETHTOWN – According to the Dickerson’s Pharmacy mission, they are “Saving patients time and money and cherishing friendships in Bladen County for over 30 years.”

“The pharmacy itself started as Smith’s Drugstore downtown,” Dickerson said. “It was where Joseph D’s Salon is now. That went back into the 50s at least.”

In the current location at 503 Doctors Drive in Elizabethtown there are items on display that once were a part of that downtown pharmacy. Things like the vintage milkshake machine and the juicer give glimpses of where this pharmacy had its roots.

In the old pharmacy there was an iconic soda fountain where many times the pharmacist doubled in scooping ice cream sundaes, malts and shakes.

“Usually we didn’t,” Dickerson said. “But there were times.”

According to the pharmacytimes.com, “The soda fountain was ‘born’ in the 1850s, when people would seek fountain drinks from their local drugstore to cure physical ailments. At the time, many fountain drinks were concoctions or extracts of flavored, effervesced drugs. Cocaine and caffeine were among such popular drugs found in pharmacy drinks—this combination was used for headache treatment. As patients began to suffer rebound headaches, they would return again and again for more drinks to treat their pain. Patients enjoyed visiting the soda fountain to get some ‘pep—at the time, it was widely believed that stimulants were safe and effective. Many pharmacists (called druggists at the time) even made and marketed their own secret formulas.

“Pharmacies also began to offer milkshakes (the original recipe was carbonated water, sweetened flavored milk and a raw egg) and ice cream sodas (flavored soda water with a scoop of vanilla ice cream) at their fountains. Selling cocaine-derived drinks was completely legal, as every drug was over the counter. However, in 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act became law under President Woodrow Wilson, and it banned the use of cocaine and opiates in OTC products. Almost every drugstore had a soda fountain by the early 1920s. Due to prohibition, which began in 1919, bars were closing and people needed a place to socialize. At the time, ice cream parlors were usually standalone businesses and not part of a soda fountain.”

Dickerson grew up on a farm 5 miles out of Roxboro, North Carolina, and after graduating from Person High School in 1976, he enrolled at the University of North Carolina that fall where he was deciding a course of study that would prepare him for his career.

He also met his wife and life-long helper, Toni while attending college who just recently retired from social work in mental health. He tears up when he tries to explain what she means to him and explains how important it has been to be in love and to have the same faith. They have been married since August 1981 and here into their 45th year, and he makes a profound statement as he says, “Everyday’s not our best day, but it’s the best life.”

The couple have three children, Jennifer, Jonathon and Philip.

“We were introduced on a blind date,” he said. “Toni’s a year younger than I am and someone that I knew from high school. We went out and talked some and it was a very quick connection.”

As for school – he had choices.

“I had narrowed it down to dental school or pharmacy school,” he said. “There was only one dental school in the state and one pharmacy school. I knew early on that pharmacy was what I liked. I enjoyed the interaction with the public.”

Although Dickerson grew up on a farm, he had parents that also did more than farming.

“Daddy started with a small radio and TV service,” he said. “Before they retired, they built it into a TV, appliance and furniture store. So, I was used to interacting with the public. That was instilled in us when we were young that you looked after people.”

A pharmacist is a challenging profession in this day and age with so many new illnesses that have come on the scene and thousands of new medications that are produced as both improvements to old remedies and also as new discoveries for sicknesses that were not diagnosed years ago.

As for pharmacy school, Dickerson said that there were “trying days.”

“I graduated in 1980 from pharmacy school in 1980 and there just weren’t as many drugs to know back then,” he said with a laugh. “Interestingly enough, there was then and thought of as an outdated course ‘pharmacognosy.’”

According to Sciencedirect.com, it is “the study of the chemical, physical and biological properties of natural products and their potential for medicinal/health benefits.”

“Nobody used pharmacognosy,” Dickerson said. “That was basically the old, but has turned back to something that is used a lot now because of over-the-counter supplements, natural supplements and herbal supplements. More and more things are synthetic now and back then when we were initially out of school we didn’t use all that much. You use it now because there’s a false assumption that when someone buys something over the counter that it will be safe. Well, there can be interactions with medical conditions and actually what the drugs and the side effects do that they weren’t aware of.”

In the 49 years of education and working as a pharmacist, Dickerson has seen his industry change and evolve. Sometimes there are conflicts between the treatments today versus the applications of yesterday.

“You know, back then, there were a lot of doctors that had been practicing a long time,” he said. “They would stick with some of those old remedies. We weren’t that far removed from federal legislation in the ‘60s that said you had to put the drug label on the prescription bottle. I can remember that people would bring in bottles without drug labels because it wasn’t required.”

One of the biggest challenges that faces the smaller community pharmacies are the monopolization of some of the bigger pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which is essentially the drug middleman industry.

According to a report by the Federal Trade Commission’s second interim staff report just released this month, “the staff’s latest report found that the ‘Big 3 PBMs’ – Caremark Rx, LLC (CVS), Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI) and OptumRx, Inc. (OptumRx) – marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent and many others by hundreds of percent. Such significant markups allowed the Big 3 PBMs and their affiliated specialty pharmacies to generate more than $7.3 billion in revenue from dispensing drugs in excess of the drugs’ estimated acquisition costs from 2017-2022. The Big 3 PBMs netted such significant revenues all while patient, employer and other health care plan sponsor payments for drugs steadily increased annually, according to the staff report.”

Treatment for illnesses such as heart disease and cancer, according to the Federal Trade Commission found “hiked costs.”

“The Federal Trade Commission should keep using its tools to investigate practices that may inflate drug costs, squeeze independent pharmacies and deprive Americans of affordable, accessible health care – and should act swiftly to stop any illegal conduct,” said Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan.

Some of the key findings of this report that could severely affect not only the American public, but also the community pharmacies such as Dickerson’s Pharmacy. These key findings were: significant price markups, dispensing the most profitable drugs, over $7.3 billion of dispensing revenue in excess of NADAC, generating additional income via spread pricing, specialty generic drugs help drive parent health care conglomerates’ operating income and plan sponsor and patient drug spending increased significantly.

One of new giants to enter the drug industry is Amazon who is looking to set up an online pharmacy and delivery service of drugs. Dickerson finds this a bit shaky.

“It can be dangerous in a lot of ways,” he said. “For instance, the wrong people pick it up. One of the ways to prevent fraud, waste and abuse, the companies are required to have signatures of the drug delivery. The problem will be if delivery drivers just leave the package on the doorstep and fail to get a signature. Our contingent is, how does that not conflict with the federal fraud, waste and abuse act? Also, there are strict guidelines from the Federal Food and Drug Administration. How drugs are being stored and transported.”

Dickerson does agree that in everything from drug companies pandering their drugs directly to the public with the instruction to “ask your doctor about…” to drugs that are being delivered without any pharmacist or doctor explanation, with the internet, massive amounts of information are readily available.

“I think that running a business for so many years, the biggest challenge would be the lack of fairness in competition,” he said. “If everybody plays by the same rules it’s good, but there are basically some unfair trade practices. Most state legislatures have bipartisan committees and nothing seems to happen. Everybody’s in favor of it, but nothing gets done. My answer is that you have to adapt and do the very best you can.”

A laid-back business owner who has seen so many changes and has had to evolve to survive. Dickerson’s gone through industry change, governmental change and no-change, pandemic, a complete business relocation along with just the normal challenges of life. A man of faith, he stands on a rock that knows how to withstand the test of time.

“We’ve been so blessed for so long,” he said. “Bladen County has been a wonderful place for us. And to be successful is not a secret. It’s in the Bible. ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ As for our pharmacy, we surround ourselves with good people, we are able to purchase on the best levels, we have three full time pharmacists, four techs. With the exception of Saturdays there are three pharmacists here. We always take the time to be efficient and use what modern technology we can which includes an automatic dispensing system for most of our prescription drugs. We try to stay well-staffed enough that we have the time to do what we need to do.”

He is a quiet, unassuming and humble man of faith that stands behind his counter with just shy of 50-years of experience and expertise in his field. He may no longer dispense milkshakes, but he comes with a genuine work ethic and customer caring that he learned as a child – and has grown with his wisdom.

As for the future, Dickerson said, “I am fortunate that my health is good and I love what I do. I do try to find time now to do other things and I don’t play enough golf anymore. People ask me how I know which road to take. You don’t always. You just travel whichever road you take the best that you can.”

He does know that he holds the health of Bladen patients close to his heart as he’s done for so many years, he’s done his best on the road he’s chosen and his creed to care… it’s real.

Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com