Open for over 75 years, Waldinger’s Pharmacy has learned to go with the flow in order to keep up with the ever-changing economy.
Michael Panfel purchased the pharmacy from the Waldinger family back in 1980. His current partner, Frank DeRosa, RPh. joined the company in 1997, and has been Mike’s partner since February, 2003. Together, they are a fabulous team.Besides filling prescriptions and selling greeting cards and toiletries, Waldinger’s also carries surgical supplies, including wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, and ankle and wrist supports.In addition, you can also find medical scrubs and uniforms at Waldinger’s.The scrub lines are doing very well, DeRosa said, adding that brick-and-mortar shops that exclusively sold scrubs and uniforms have all closed down, except for some of the ones in the malls. We can do it because it’s a small portion of what we do.They also have a full line of diabetic supplies and a huge selection of sugar-free products, like cookies, jams and jellies, pancake syrup, candies and chocolates. Catering to and counseling the diabetic population has become an integral part of what Waldinger’s does. It is extremely important that diabetics understand their disease and its treatment. Asthma and COPD patients are another population they have tremendous expertise in treating and counseling.Most of the time though, Waldinger’s does what neighborhood pharmacies do best: serving and informing the community.It is difficult for seniors to navigate the private and Medicare Part D insurance programs. It can be very confusing, sometimes even for us, DeRosa said. How the program works has never been fully explained to them, so that job was thrown in our laps. Since patients were directing questions at us, we quickly learned to counsel them. It has become a big part of our job.DeRosa said that with dramatic changes in the healthcare system, the last few years have been a challenging time for neighborhood pharmacies. New York State law has made it possible for many insurance plans to utilize mandatory mail-order for their patients maintenance medication supplies.Many unions in New York City have such plans, resulting in fewer prescriptions, and less daily foot traffic, from neighborhood firefighters, police officers, teachers, sanitation men and healthcare workers, to name a few.Most city unions have mandatory mail-order. So if someone uses something on an ongoing basis, they have to mail it away after a couple of refills, DeRosa said. It’s an unfair advantage that insurance companies have and we find it difficult to compete. It takes away a great portion of our business. Not only that, but patients don’t come in month after month like they did before.DeRosa added that life becomes more interesting when considering that there are so many more new treatments and medications available now than there were even just a few years ago.There are new drugs coming out at a rapid pace. It used to be a dozen or so a year but now it’s like 50 to 60, he explained, and they are used for common diseases like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and heart failure, infection,and even pain relief. It’s a very time-consuming thing to keep up with. There is a lot of erroneous information out there, so we try to sift and sort through it alland give our patients correct information.But with a knowledgeable and helpful staff, Waldinger’s remains one of the best in the business.We have a dedicated staff of good people, DeRosa said, We like what we do. Mike and I have been here for all these years – community pharmacy is what we do. This type of profession is very rewarding. We get to help people every day.Unforeseeable circumstances happen all the time, we never know what is going to happen in a day. he went on. The elderly population deserves our attention and we are here to help them. That is why we do what we do. You cant get that kind of feeling just working for someone else.Waldinger’s Pharmacy is located at 8318 Fifth Avenue. They can be reached at 718-745-2100.
