Keycentrix Case Study: Evans Drugs

Ask anyone in independent retail pharmacy these days, and they’ll tell you fast and friendly service by itself simply doesn’t cut it anymore if you want to stay in business. To remain viable against big-box chains with extended reach and deep pockets, retail pharmacies must continually look for ways to up their dispensing game.

Let's Get This Pharmacy Started

This present-day truth is something Evans Drugs owner, Kevin McCullough, would come to embrace, but it wasn’t on his mind when he initially stepped into the pharmacy business.

 [My wife] Brandi and I met at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy … In 2006, the owner [of Evans Drugs] invited us to come down and take a look and we thought,‘Let’s give this a shot.’

It all started with a single location in Eldorado Springs, Missouri, but their business has expanded steadily over time. Now, Kevin and Brandi own 11 pharmacies that provide life-improving and saving medications to a large portion of Western Missouri residents.

Advancing the Pharmacy

Living in rural communities doesn’t mean being cut off from innovation. Evans Drugs is on a constant search for improvement, from their use of robotics and touchscreen monitors to having solar panels on the roof.

It’s an approach that combines latest-and-greatest with tried-and-true. They know that, at the end of the day, best serving their customers takes both.

And it’s paid off. Every month, Evans Drugs dispenses between 5,000 and 15,000 meds per location, to thousands of patients who live nearby or are ready and willing to drive the distance to use a pharmacy they can trust.

  Our automation is something [that is] almost taken for granted … a lot of people don’t recognize that what we have is so unique for our state.

Embracing the Community

The importance of retail pharmacies like Evans Drugs can’t be overstated. Not only do they serve areas far away from large metros, but they preserve a sense of community that patients value. The generosity of spirit demonstrated by staff gives patient support a whole new name.

 We enjoy the opportunity to spend time with our patients, to get to know them and develop relationships with them … It’s exciting [for us] to make a difference in people’s lives within our community.

Partnering for Excellence

At Keycentrix, we’ve been lucky enough to partner with Evans Drugs in their pharmacy management system needs for more than 15 years, creating a mutually beneficial relationship whereby we can help them move forward. Evans is one of our favorite beta customers, entertaining new possibilities and helping us test our latest features and integrations.

Over the course of our partnership, Newleaf, Sendkey, and Flextrax have helped them get an average of 587,146 scripts out the door each month while making their processes more efficient. They’re also big fans of integrations we’ve helped them implement along the way, including their robotics as well as Surescripts’ Real-Time Prescription Benefit.

We truly work together to ensure good ideas can be practically implemented in a busy pharmacy’s day-to-day.

 As a beta-testing store, we’ve been able to share our ideas with them, and they’ve been able to take [those ideas] to the next level … [At the same time] they will come to us and say, ‘Would you be interested in this?’ And I had never thought about it that way before. It’s important to have a software company that gives you that support.

Right back at ya, Kevin. We’re so proud to see how far you’ve come, and we can’t wait to see Evans Drugs continue to grow.

You can learn more about Evans Drugs by visiting evans-drug.com.