MU Health Care will be delivering prescriptions to patients for free on MU’s campus beginning Feb. 1. Offered to all MU students and employees, patients will need to call either Smiley Lane Pharmacy or Green Meadows Pharmacy to have their prescriptions filled and request to have it delivered.
“MU Health Care wants to provide a service to MU employees and students that will help them save time getting the prescriptions they need,” MU Health System spokesman Jeff Hoelscher said.
Hoelscher said this service will only involve existing staff and resources, but additional resources will be determined accordingly as the service grows. Although this service has not begun, a positive response from the MU community is anticipated.
“We have not started the service yet, however, there has been much interest in this new service and we hope it to be an excellent resource for MU employees and students,” Hoelscher said.
This service will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday each week. The delivery time will be arranged between the pharmacy and the patient. Depending on prescription availability, prescriptions will be delivered the next day if the requests were made prior to 3:30 p.m. the previous evening.
Although deliveries can be made anywhere on campus, including residence halls, the Quarterdeck Building, Woodrail Family Medicine Clinic and the sports complex, patients will need to be present to receive them. Patients also have the option of paying for their medications using a credit card, payroll deduction for employees or student charge for students.
MU employee and part-time student Candace West is happy such a service will be offered.
“This would make my life a lot easier because working full time, going to school and taking care of two young children leaves little time to pick up prescription, and having a benefit like that would be a great help,” West said.
Junior Cassady Shoaff said she is not as enthusiastic about the service.
“I am not really comfortable relying on somebody else to deliver my prescription to me because instead of waiting for a day or so, I think it would be faster if I went to pick it up myself, and also, sometimes I may have questions or there could be a mix up with my prescription, and it would just be easier if I was at the health center myself,” Shoaff said.
Junior Sarini Hewage said she doubts she would use the service, worrying deliveries may run late and cause more inconvenience, but she will wait to see the effectiveness of the service.
“This is great because it would make it so much more convenient for students, especially in the cold weather since nobody likes to walk in the cold,” Hewage said.