LW pharmacy to close at the end of February

HCC NEWS

Leisure World’s Good Neighbor Pharmacy will close its doors at the end of the month. Optum, who subleased the space to the pharmacy, has indicated it is developing a plan to “assure that there will be continuous on-site support for pharmacy services” until a new pharmacy partner can be placed at the site.

On Feb. 3, the operators of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy informed Optum that the store was abandoning its lease, which ran through September, according to Victoria Batistelli, Optum’s director of group operations. The store owner has reportedly sold the store’s inventory

LW's Good Neighbor Pharmacy is closing its doors. to CVS, a Rhode Islandbased corporation with over 9,600 U.S. locations. The abrupt announcement has forced Optum into both short-term and medium-term decisions to deliver continuing pharmacy services, according to Batistelli.

In the short-term, Batistelli said Optum will install a clinical account manager to provide residents one-on-one help to temporarily transfer their prescriptions to Optum’s mail pharmacy system.

That service offers delivery to the customer’s door.

In the medium term, Bastistelli said Optum will immediately search for a partner to replace the full on-site pharmacy, a process she estimated might take three to four months. The company also hopes to continue to stock grocery items in the space until the new store opens.

Current Good Neighbor prescription customers have other options. Batistelli indicated that Leisure World residents who obtain their prescriptions through Good Neighbor could call each of their prescribing physicians, including those doctors they see within the on-site Optum clinic, and change the pharmacy to which their prescriptions are automatically sent.

Five of those pharmacies are on routes served by City of Seal Beach or Leisure World free shuttles.

The community has had an on-site pharmacy since its opening in 1962. It operated in the Health Care Center until June 1966, when the community opened a free-standing pharmacy. It moved into its present location in 1986. Its only short-term closure was due to the 1995 flood, when it operated temporarily in Clubhouse 3.

Batistelli said Optum would update its plans by next week and inform pharmacy customers through the company’s website and the LW Weekly.

—William Thompson