HEALTH & FITNESS FOCUS- Daughter joins family pharmacy – at least for now

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JERRY ENGLER
Lisa Buchholz, 25, is back as a recently licensed pharmacist to work with her parents, Marlin and Debbie, this summer at their store, Marion Pharmacy Health Mart, 217 E. Main-but only on a temporary basis until the day comes when she may be back for good.

Lisa said she will be back again temporarily, probably several times over the next couple of years. It not only expands the store staff, but gives Marlin welcome time off as the store’s main pharmacist, and gives Debbie, the store’s bookkeeper, vacation chances.

“It lets my folks have opportunities for relief time,” Lisa said. “It’s a high work load here. I’m the middle child in the family, and neither of my two brothers (Chad, 26, and Joey, 22, who live in Colorado Springs) wanted to go into pharmacy. Mom and Dad are probably lucky to get one child who wanted to be in pharmacy.

“Ultimately I’d like to own my own store. It would need to be in a town and a store that I really liked. That could be here. I love Marion.”

But before working in her own store or her family’s store permanently, Lisa has some things to do. She enjoys working in her more permanent position as a relief pharmacist in the Kansas City area. It gives her a chance to experience stores in many settings.

“We have friends and family there too,” she said.

Buchholtz also will leave for the second year in a row, in September, as part of a 60- to 70-person medical team, to Botosani, Romania. There she’ll work for two weeks, most of the time in a children’s hospital with some time also in a women’s facility.

The medical team works under the Medical Mission Foundation in Kansas City, founded in 1976.

“It was an opportunity presented in school,” she said. “Last year there was a lot of flooding in Romania. We take a long train ride from Bucharest to Botosani, normally six or seven hours, and last year it took us 12 hours.

“We work closely with the Romanian staff so they can continue to do the same work without us.”

Buchholtz said the American staff brings new equipment with them, like a skin graft machine last year, and trains the Romanians to use it.

The children’s hospital is largely a clinic situation with families bringing their children in, but the staff also works with orphans.

“I love doing it, and helping them,” Buchholtz said. “I would choose to go every year I could.”

A 1999 graduate of Marion High School, Buchholtz did her pre-pharmacy college work at Emporia State University and Colorado State University. Her pharmacy education was at the University of Kansas.

Her father began in a similar path coming to Marion as a relatively new pharmacist in 1978.

“I love retail pharmacy the best,” Lisa said. “It gives you the constant chance to make a difference in people’s lives, to improve their quality of life. You can speak to people on their own level in a way they understand.

“The pharmacist is often viewed as the most acceptable professional to explain a person’s situation.

“I want to help people with their personal needs.”

Buchholtz said members of the public do themselves a service when they return to the same pharmacist and the same store for all of their needs. It gives a professional knowledge of the combination of pharmaceuticals they may be taking.

This gives the client a knowledgeable insider to catch needed corrections, she said.

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