Ben Gant Innovative Practice Award
Taylor Reitmeier
Pharmacy Manager
Central Drugs Colvile
Nanaimo
When pharmacist Taylor Reitmeier was offered the opportunity to manage his own pharmacy, the first step he took was to reach out to the surrounding health-care practices to ask, how could he help?
“I want to be helpful. I want to be enthusiastic. I want to be motivating. I want to be a facilitator,” he said. “If it seems like there’s something that isn’t as smooth as it could be, or there’s a hiccup or missing piece in care, I ask if there is something I can do to help make the lives of everyone involved easier, for not only the patient but their health providers.”
A 2016 graduate of the University of British Columbia’s pharmacy program, Reitmeier knew immediately that he wanted to work for the Central Drugs Ltd. team on Vancouver Island. He had worked for the company before during his first practicum experience in school, and found himself drawn to the company’s locally owned, independent pharmacy model. After working for a few years at several of Central Drugs’ seven locations, he was given the opportunity to manage the company’s newest store, Central Drugs Colvile.
The Colvile location is on the first-floor of a medical building, just across the street from the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. One of the neighbouring clinics is operated by an obstetrician-gynecologist, Dr. Regina-Maria Renner, and the pair began a working relationship early on, just as pharmacists were being enabled to assess and prescribe for contraception.
“She is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to women’s health and contraception and I thought it was worth seeing if she would be willing to meet with our company, with all our pharmacists, so we could all benefit from her knowledge,” Reitmeier said.
After this introduction, Reitmeier later met Carolyn Patience, the clinical nurse leader for gynecology in the operating room, at the hospital.
“At the Nanaimo hospital, they were looking to solve a logistical issue of having intrauterine devices available in the hospital that they could use on an urgent, or last-minute basis,” Reitmeier said.
“We have delivery drivers and we’re close by, so we’re able to replace their stock and have that always available for their patients. Since B.C. is now covering all contraception through PharmaCare, us being involved takes that barrier off the table in making sure there is enough supply available for patients doing these procedures.”
Around 2023, pharmacist Taylor Reitmeier was given the opportunity to manage the company’s newest store, Central Drugs Colvile.
In the neighbourhood is also an Island Health mental health outpatient psychiatry service, which the pharmacy dispenses medications for. Reitmeier learned that the mental health centre could use some help in administering long-acting anti-psychotic medications for some of their clients. He had previously received training to administer injections not just in the deltoid site, but also the ventrogluteal site, and he offered to help.
“If the patient lives close by, why don’t we see if they would be comfortable coming to the pharmacy and seeing me for the injection?” he said. “I started getting more clients that came to get these injections from me. It’s exciting. I felt I was doing something new and it was another opportunity to develop stronger relationships with these patients, and soon I started seeing positive changes for a lot of them, and they also seemed more comfortable to have these done at the pharmacy.”
Other health providers around his pharmacy include an allergist, an orthopedic surgeons’ office, and a family practice clinic. Reitmeier’s approach is no different for each of these neighbours.
“For our allergist upstairs, I special order allergy serums for their patients, and for the orthopedic surgeons, I keep a lot of cortisone shots in stock, and since we’re so close to the hospital, we do cast boot fittings and have a few other orthopedic related braces,” he said.
As for what’s to come, currently, Reitmeier has been working with his colleagues in women’s health to identify gaps in coverage for First Nations clients.
“This would include some products that are used during medical abortions that are not currently covered. We’re working with the gynecology office to make those products available and dealing with some exceptional coverage, but what we’re hoping to do is have an easier and smoother process that can be used across the province,” he said.
Building relationships, whether with peers or with patients, can result in positive outcomes for Reitmeier's practice and for his patients’ health.
Reitmeier attributes his motivation to help others to his love for conversation, and how nurturing those conversations seems to open up opportunities professionally. Without striking up conversations with those around him, he believes he may have missed some of these chances to help.
And unsurprisingly, it was the act of conversing – specifically, the way pharmacists spoke with their patients, that drew Reitmeier to the profession in the first place.
He first noticed it during a job-shadowing opportunity in high school.
“That’s what struck me, the conversations. They knew the pharmacist by name and trusted him with their health and their children’s health. I’ve always found the most important part of my interactions with patients was developing those relationships, taking the time to sit down, sometimes just giving them someone to talk to, to provide context for what they’re going through, and what their expectation of care might be,” he said.
It's why he takes the extra time to get to know others. Not only do those interactions result in positive outcomes for his practice and for his patients’ health, he also just really enjoys meeting and getting to know people.
“I have seen major successes with patients who I built a relationship with. If I lean into and take that extra time to build that rapport and that relationship with the patient, they're more forthcoming about any issues that they have, and often, they’re more optimistic about their condition,” Reitmeier said.
“I want to engage with patients and empower them to take control of their health care and take advantage of all the opportunities and resources available to them. So that is what I’ve tried to build into my practice, and I continue to look for opportunities to be helpful, to be a facilitator.”