Pharmacy opens at Family HealthCare Center

Amidst numerous Porterville Chamber of Commerce ambassadors and Family HealthCare Network health professionals, the center’s first pharmacy opened Monday morning following a short red-ribbon cutting celebration at Family HealthCare Network Porterville off of Highway 190.

“This is a huge milestone for us,” said Harry Foster, president and chief executive officer of Family HealthCare Network which has 13 locations throughout Kings and Tulare counties — 11 of them as clinical sites. “This is our first site to have a pharmacy. With Dr. Mahal, it gives us the opportunity to eventually roll out a full pharmacy program at all our sites.”

Pargat Mahal has worked in the Porterville community for more than 14 years as a pharmacist in a local retail pharmacy. He joined the HealthCare Network in September and has been appointed as the pharmacist.

Services will initially be available only to patients of Family HealthCare Network and expanded to the community in the future.

“We decided on this location for a couple of reasons — one, our roots are here, and because of the location of this facility,” Foster said. “We don’t want patients to have to go elsewhere. We’ll take off and expand as the demographic dictates.”

It was one of the reasons patient Josefina Moreno of Strathmore said, she was happy to see the pharmacy open.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t drive. They come here using public transportation vans,” Moreno said. “It’s very difficult to have to leave here and go elsewhere for their medicines and then go home. Here, they can get everything in one place and then go home.”
It was a sentiment, Isabel Olmos, community outreach manager of Porterville Family HealthCare, said she agreed with.

“It is a lot better for our patients, the elderly and those who are in wheelchairs, and for mothers who are pushing strollers with little children,” Olmos said. “It’s just more convenient and they can do everything while they are still here.”

The pharmacy will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, said Mahal.
“We’re very excited. This can help a greater number of patients,” Mahal said. “We’re offering medications at discounted prices — starting with cash customers. Right now we don’t have approval for Medical or Medicare yet but we plan to in the near future. But any in-house patients will be able to get medicines here.”

The new pharmacy, approximately 900 square feet in size, sits to the left side of the entrance to the Porterville site.

“This is great,” said Dolores Ramirez — the first patient to use the pharmacy following the ribbon cutting. “I expect everything will be better and faster now.”