This spring the city of Madras will have a third pharmacy that will help fill a provider gap for prescription drugs.

St. Charles Health System is opening a stand-alone pharmacy in the former Hometown Drug location near downtown Madras that features drive-thru service. The drug store will open because of a partnership between the Central Oregon Health Council and St. Charles Health System, which will run the pharmacy.

For a while now, the community was served by two pharmacies that have been working overtime to fill patient prescriptions. Some patients, unable to wait, have to drive to other towns seeking other pharmacy options, said Michael Powell, St. Charles Health System chief pharmacy officer.

“It is a pharmacy desert in Jefferson County that is getting worse,” Powell said. “It’s critical in this community.”

Mosaic Community Health center approached St. Charles last year to ask about a possible pharmacy to take the pressure off its Monday through Friday pharmacy operations. The health center runs a pharmacy inside its clinic at the Madras Health Center, a building it shares with the county health department adjacent to St. Charles Madras.

“We heard from the community that it was overwhelmed,” Powell said. “Over the past several years the gap in our community has gotten so severe and we tried to fix that. The opening of this stand alone pharmacy keeps the community from becoming a pharmacy desert.”

Mosaic Community Health and Safeway are the pharmacies that fill prescriptions in Madras, after Bi-Mart and Hometown Drugs closed. Todd Shields, St. Charles Madras and Prineville hospital administrator, said when Hometown Drugs store was open, it had filled about 10,000 prescriptions a month.

“We appreciate being part of a caring community where we can work together to bring much needed healthcare resources, such as this pharmacy, to benefit the people of Jefferson County,” said Megan Haase, Mosaic Community Health CEO. “Our Mosaic pharmacy in Madras currently operates at capacity and we fully support this partnership to bring much needed additional pharmacy services to the community.”

The new pharmacy is the result of $460,000 in funding from the Central Oregon Health Council. The result is a collaboration to support the community, said Arianne Powell, council executive director.

“I am excited for our community that St. Charles is opening up this pharmacy,” said Madras Mayor Mike Lepin. “The loss of Hometown Drugs and Bi-Mart’s pharmacy has added a strain on Safeway’s pharmacy and the new Mosaic pharmacy. This service will improve the health of our citizens and overall well-being.”

The health system is not expecting the pharmacy to be immediately profitable, Shields said. The goal of the health system is to raise the health standards of the community, he said. The pharmacy will not only fill prescriptions, but offer immunizations, medication management, medical equipment and sell over-the-counter medications, according to the health system.

“We have other grants we requested, as well,” Shields said. “There’s not a single meeting that I go to where I don’t hear from patients that they don’t have the ability to get a prescription filled in time or refilled. It’s impacting the health of this community.”