News & Events

Mr. Chris Sayre, Rev. Levon Manzie and Mr. Jimmy Lyons have joined the Board of Directors of Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy.  The new board members will provide experience and expertise to support Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy’s mission to provide medications at no cost to low income, homeless and indigent patients in Mobile, Baldwin and Escambia counties. 

Mr. Sayre is the owner of The Computer Doctor and an active community volunteers, long time supporter and volunteer of Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy and past President for Habit for Humanities.  Rev. Manzie is the City of Mobile District 2 City Councilman and also co-pastor of St. Joseph Baptist Church.  Mr. Lyons is President and CEO of SSI Group, Inc. 

The new board members join the Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy 2018-19 Board of Directors which includes:  Wiley Christian, Lanny Russell, Linda Grayson, Dr. Stephen A. Kahalley, Dr. Allison Chung, Mary Stone, Susan Stiegler, Julie McGee, Al Tenhundfeld, Mike Molyneux, Casey Grant, Christine Cumbie, Pat Hall, Tuerk  Schlesinger, Danny Cottrell, Sr. Marilyn Graf and Martha Allegri.  Each Board Member volunteers their time to assist in guiding the operations of Ozanam Pharmacy to ensure community needs are met in the most cost effective way possible.

Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy is a fully functioning licensed pharmacy that provides life-sustaining prescription medications to uninsured and underinsured individuals who cannot afford to pay for medication.  Ozanam Pharmacy’s services are free of charge to individuals who qualify based on household income.  In 2017, Ozanam dispensed over 28,000 prescriptions with a retail value of over $2 million to 1670 patients who reside in Mobile, Baldwin and Escambia Counties. 

Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy, Inc. is funded, in part, by the Mobile County Commission, Baldwin County Commission, HUD, Catholic Charities, United Way of Southwest Alabama, the City of Mobile, the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission, foundations and individuals.  

By Ashley Turk, Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy

Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy is excited to announce that we have launched a National Institutes of Health study at our pharmacy named: The Impact of Pharmacist Led Care Coordination on Diabetes Self-Management Patient Reported Outcomes. Our study was launched May 19, 2017 and is off to a great start. Unfortunately, Alabama is the only state currently in the United States that does not have collaborative practice. Collaborative practice is defined by the American Pharmacist Association as: “a formal relationship between pharmacists and physicians or other providers that allow for expanded services the pharmacist can provide to patients and the healthcare team.’’ In order to gain this privilege, it is important to have studies such as this one to prove that patients truly do have better outcomes when their pharmacist and physician are in direct communication with one another.  

             Every five weeks, we get a new fourth-year pharmacy student from Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy here at Ozanam. Each student will play a key role in different phases of the study. Currently, Ashley Turk is helping us launch the study and is enrolling patients as they come in and out of the pharmacy. Enrollment involves screening patients via a quick survey. In order to qualify for the study, a patient must meet two specific criteria. They must be diagnosed with Pre-diabetes or Diabetes and secondly they must be a patient at the Mobile County Health Department. An incentive for patients to participate is that they will receive a fifteen-dollar Visa gift card at their first visit, and could be eligible for future gift cards depending on what treatment group they are randomly assigned to.        

            The study is well fit for our pharmacy. Ozanam already had a Medication Therapy Management (MTM) program in place, and this was our fourth year pharmacy student’s responsibility prior to initiating the study. We also often see a lot of patients with diabetes, due to the population we see here at Ozanam. In the study, there will be three treatment groups, and patients will be randomly assigned to each group. Patients in group one will receive a blood glucose meter, strips, and lancets in order to monitor their blood glucose levels. Group two patients will receive these supplies, but they will also meet with the pharmacy student or pharmacist every 4 weeks to learn more about managing their diabetes. Each of these sessions will have a different focus. Lastly, patients in group 3 will receive the supplies, the education every 4 weeks, and the student pharmacist and/or pharmacist will be communicating with the patient’s provider at the Mobile Health Department. Group three is where we will be focusing in on collaborative practice. Outcomes will be measured by having our patients take an additional survey prior to the first visit, and then that same survey will be given after their last visit. This survey will ask questions about their current health, how confident they feel about their current health, and their opinion about their providers.

            We are excited to have this study up and running, but this study would not be possible without the help of many individuals. We want to thank those who have helped build the back bone for the study and those who are helping day in and day out make this a success. This is a step towards helping our state can gain collaborative practice, while also allowing our patients to receive the care they deserve which goes hand in hand with better patient outcomes.

Thank you to:

Alethea Hill, PhD, ACNP-BC, ANP-BC

Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling, PhD

Heather Finnegan, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow

Matt Allison

Donald Ponquinette, Pharm D.

Shearie Archer

Marlena Kelley, Pharm D.

Yoko Allen, MPH

Our Fourth Year Students

Our Volunteers

 

In 2011, Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy’s board of directors established an award in honor of Jonathan Gardberg and presented it to him at the organization’s holiday luncheon. Each year the board has continued to recognize a member of the community who is instrumental in supporting and promoting the mission of the pharmacy and embodies the caring and generous spirit of Jonathan Gardberg.

Jonathan Prince Gardberg was born in Mobile, Alabama.  He was educated in the public schools of Mobile County and graduated from Murphy High School in 1966. He attended Emory University where he was a Dean’s list student, a varsity wrestler, and served on the Publications Council.  He graduated from Emory University in 1970 with a degree in Economics. Jonathan attended the University of Alabama Law School where he was a member of the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society and graduated in 1973.

He began practicing law in Mobile, Alabama in 1973 and was a partner in the firm of Simon, Wood and Gardberg where he practiced personal injury, disability, municipal and labor law. In 1986 he founded the law firm Gardberg & Kemmerly, P.C. The firm has been a longstanding supporter of Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy.  Mr. Gardberg retired in 2015 and he and his wife Joy moved to Texas.  They continue to support the work of Ozanam Pharmacy.

The Jonathan Gardberg Leadership Award is named after Jonathan Gardberg because of his constant support of the mission of Ozanam Pharmacy in the spirit of the pharmacy’s namesake, Frederic Ozanam. Like Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent De Paul Society, Gardberg is an attorney who focused his work on helping the sick and disabled with his social security and veteran’s disability practice. Besides helping with fundraising for the pharmacy, Gardberg helped to establish the agency’s first newsletter and the law firm he founded continues his support of those who are in need of prescription assistance.

Gardberg Leadership Award Winners

2012

Thomas J Rodi-Archbishop of Mobile

Catholic Social Services of the Archdiocese

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Mobile

2013

Chris and Marti Burgess-Heritage Compounding Pharmacy

2014

Pleasant Valley Opportunity Club

St. Francis Episcopal Church Women

2015

Mr. Steven Cumbie-CEO of Lanier Construction

2016

The Hargrove Foundation

2017

14 Founding Board Members of Ozanam Charitable Pharmacy