Stafford Pharmacy & Home Healthcare

Alternatively, it may not be that the commercial product is not available but often it may contain a non-active component that a patient has developed an intolerance or even an allergy to that particular substance. It could be as simple as an ingredient such as “lactose”, a milk sugar which many people find they cannot tolerate because they lack the necessary enzyme, lactase to properly break down into its mono-saccharide components, fructose and glucose. As a result, after ingesting a capsule formulation that contains lactose as a filler, these patients may experience gastrointestinal discomfort due to bloating, lower abdominal cramping, and/or diarrhea. All these symptoms a result of the lactose ingredient, commonly used by many manufacturers in their tablet or capsule formulations. The possibilities are limited only by our ability to be innovative and creative which are challenged daily.

Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy are not usually associated but at Stafford Pharmacy & Home Healthcare they represent a great professional partnership. Unlike physicians who have always worked closely with the pharmacist, Veterinarians do not. At Stafford, we have changed that and introduced Veterinarians, as well as their clients and patients to what pharmacy has to offer and in particular, customized compounding. Veterinarians are caring for a wide variety of species and breeds, each with their own specific health related problems and species specific diseases. Therefore, for the professional staff at Stafford Pharmacy & Home Healthcare, it has been an adventure of continuous discovery, which has forged a great partnership between pharmacy and the veterinarians. We have become the veterinarian’s “therapeutic problem solver” with our ability to formulate preparations that meet the specific needs of the particular animal. It may be as simple as preparing a liquid dosage form, not previously available to veterinarians or it may be a more complex solution such as a transdermal delivery system for a drug that is difficult to dose for the owners of companion animals.

A good example of that is the formulation of a transdermal methimazole for the treatment of hyperthyroidism in cats. The dosage is in the form of a very small amount of the transdermal gel, usually no more than 0.1ml, which is applied to the inside of the cat’s ear. This represents a very vascular area that is ideal for the delivery of many drug molecules into the local capillary bed after which the dose is then distributed throughout the animals circulation which then finds that dose having its desired effect on the cat’s thyroid. Most cat owners will admit that rubbing a little gel into their cat’s ear is much less traumatic for both cat and cat owner – a welcome introduction to the veterinary medicine cabinet.

Home Healthcare The need for better care in the community became even more important with the changes to healthcare in our province. More acute care cases coming into the community from hospital required that pharmacists offer products and services of a type and sophistication that would meet the needs of these patients. These were the elements that motivated the growth of our Home Healthcare focus. We are proud that a substantial portion of our business resources has gone into providing a large selection of products for patient care in the home. Everything from wound care to ostomy; ambulatory aids to compression therapy; as well as post mastectomy prostheses, sports medicine, incontinence supplies, diagnostic products, aids to assist daily living and much more. This is our focus and not a sideline. Anyone who walks into our store will see this is very true. We have the wide variety of products needed but more importantly the staff to assist and support the use of the wide array of products. We make certain that the best care does not happen just in the hospital, but in the community and at home too.

The internet offers access to information not previously available to us or to our patients. The pharmacist and/or technician have available powerful search tools and huge databases of drug information. Many pharmaceutical companies make available high quality information about their products, including clinical studies, adverse drug reports, drug interactions and recall information. Where time is most often not on our side, we recognize the value of good information, easily accessed from the comfort and safety of your home. The internet gives you access to us and we hope offers another valuable tool for the purposes of meeting your healthcare requirements, wherever you are.

Our website, we hope will meet some of your information needs and as well, bring us closer to you. We are literally a mouse click away. We recognize that our value to our customers, our patients, the health practitioners we work with, is the pharmacist’s knowledge, our team’s problem solving strategies and ability to improve patient health outcomes. We continue to search for innovative solutions to those therapeutic problems that are presented to us each and every day. Our purpose is to improve the health outcomes of our patients, and to improve the quality of our lives.