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Community Care Resources of Florida is a multi-location STD clinic led by an extraordinarily committed and mission-driven CEO, Victoria Barnhart. CCR is dedicated to its community, providing high quality, compassionate care to individuals affected by HIV, Hepatitis C, STDs and Substance Use Disorder.
When the Alchemy team met Victoria in November 2023, it became clear that CCR’s contract pharmacy setup was unsustainable. The cash flow challenges were relentless, leaving the clinic constantly in debt or defaulting on payments to drug wholesalers. To survive, CCR had cut staff to the bare minimum, which made it nearly impossible to serve their community and expand their patient outreach. This caused a downward spiral with the clinic losing patients and further business despite the high demand and needs of the community across CCR’s three locations in Altamonte, Hallandale and Haines City.
Once we understood the lay of the land, we got to work crunching the numbers to assess if an in-house pharmacy could help turn things around. Together we concluded that an in-house pharmacy supported by Alchemy’s business model was the right solution. Alchemy manages upfront build expenses and extends DFLA funding (Delayed Financial Liability Agreement) to businesses until the pharmacy is operational and sufficient cash reserves are accumulated to keep the lights on. This allowed Victoria to move forward without the financial strain typically associated with launching an in-house pharmacy. The Alchemy team did a walkthrough at one of CCR’s clinics and chose to convert an exam room into an in-house pharmacy.
By February 2024, Community Care Resources Pharmacy had its Board of Pharmacy permit, and by late July, had filled its first prescription. In less than 65 days the pharmacy went from an Operating Loss to an Operating Profit P&L, even as prescription volume continues to ramp. With the pharmacy up and running, Victoria’s focus has shifted to expanding CCR’s reach through community outreach, partnerships, testing and treatment.
“I thank Alchemy for stepping up at a time when I had no solution. It feels like we’re all a family, working together to problem solve and get solutions, and our ultimate goal is to take care of patients” said Victoria about the partnership.
The speed of launch and impressive financial turnaround are a testament to Victoria’s involvement and dedication to the in-house pharmacy project. An in-house pharmacy isn’t just a strategic move—it requires strong leadership and buy-in from the top. While Alchemy manages the entire end-to-end process, having the CEO and management deeply involved drives organizational support and smooths the Change Management process critical in the final stages as we transition scripts from contract pharmacies in-house, and hand hold patients through the transition.
We’re grateful to Victoria and the CCR team for their partnership and long standing commitment to serving the population of central and southern Florida.
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