Legacy Pharmacy Attracts Pharmacists Who Prioritize Patient Care

Legacy Pharmacy’s mission-driven approach is what sets it apart. Every service offered is designed to remove obstacles to care, making medication management easier and more accessible. Whether patients require assistance navigating insurance or understanding their treatment plans, the pharmacy team is ready to help.

Director of Pharmacy Operations Kevin Aloysius, Pharm.D.’s explanation for why he was drawn to Legacy Pharmacy illustrates this. After graduating from pharmacy school, “I worked at a grocery store pharmacy for four years. And I always felt like they didn’t really need me. I worked in a fairly affluent area. Nobody really asked my counseling or asked me any questions. I was looking for an opportunity to give back to the community and also help patients. And that’s really how I came across Legacy.”

“Our pharmacists truly help connect [patients] into care,” he adds. “And that’s whether it’s a Primary Care Physician or Dental, or Vision, or just providing access to wraparound services. I think that’s kind of amazing. I don’t think most people see pharmacists as people connecting the community to care. And I think that’s really what we do well here at Legacy.”

Additionally, he notes, “I think that’s really the core message: Do our patients have access to either knowledge, the drug, or healthcare? And I think all of us intuitively work towards making sure the patient has access to that.”

Director of Clinical Pharmacy Services Neha Agrawal, Pharm.D. was similarly drawn to Legacy Pharmacy because of its mission of helping others. She was interested in building upon her extensive prior experience working with vulnerable populations.

“My passion began in undergrad when in the mid-1990s I volunteered at an orphanage for little kids that lost their parents due to [HIV]. I would play with the kids where they would have to stop their playtime and take their antiretrovirals. These are children that were three or four years old.”

“One of the kids actually passed away during my time there while I was volunteering. That really was one of those moments in my life where I saw the impact of medications working and then also not working,” she says. “And so I wanted to spend as much as I could to learn more about this disease.”

Once in pharmacy school, she wanted to “work with patients to help them design their day around their medications and to prevent interactions with other medications, to prevent interactions with food that they eat, and to simplify as much as I could.” Her passion for supporting people living with HIV led her to work within the Texas state prison system, where the prevalence of HIV is higher than in the general population.

Then, when Legacy Pharmacy’s clinical pharmacy program was created seven years ago, she took it as a sign. “I applied to be a clinical pharmacist at Legacy. And then about almost a year later, I was promoted to be Director of Clinical Pharmacy Services to really get the clinical pharmacy services program going. We have now six clinical pharmacy specialists embedded in six of our biggest clinics at Legacy.”

About Legacy Community Health Services, Inc.

Legacy Community Health Services (Legacy) is a full-service network of over 60 community health centers offering primary and specialty care, and pharmacy services in the Texas Gulf Coast region. Legacy has been innovating how comprehensive, quality health care services are provided to underserved communities for over 40 years. As the largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Texas, our services and programs are open to all, regardless of the ability to pay, without judgment or exception. Legacy has been a United Way affiliated agency since 1990. To learn more, visit www.legacycommunityhealth.org.