Sav-Mor to celebrate 60th anniversary

Sav-Mor, shown here in its earlier years, has changed locations and looks over the years.

After 60 years, the Sav-Mor pharmacy in Mountain Home has seen the medical profession evolve. Besides treating common ailments, the trade places greater focus on helping people live longer with a better quality of life.

Jim Alexander, who has owned the local pharmacy since 1978, saw most of this transformation firsthand. With the store preparing to celebrate its 60th anniversary next week, he paused to reflect on how the business came to Mountain Home and how it adapted to all the changes in medicine.

Arden Drake opened the store here March 15, 1954, just three years after completing his pharmacy training. An Idaho native, he came from a family of pharmacists who opened similar pharmacies across southern Idaho, each one bearing the Sav-Mor name.

Jim Alexander and members of his pharmacy staff pose for a photo. The local Sav-Mor pharmacy will celebrate its 60th anniversary on Saturday.

Drake located the family business in a small storefront on North Main Street, which had previously served as a corner store pharmacy. At the time it opened, it was one of two pharmacies in town.

In addition to filling prescriptions, it also served as a corner store where people could pick up their medications as well as some candy for their children or small gifts and greeting cards.

When the store first opened, everything was done by hand, from creating the actual medications to filling the bottles. The only technology at their disposal was a manual typewriter, which they used to fill out the labels for each prescription bottle.

On any given day, the pharmacy could fill 30 to 40 prescriptions, which at the time was considered fairly quick, according to Alexander.

Back then, pharmacists received in-depth training on techniques such as compounding -- using a mortar and pestle to mix medications, Alexander said. He recalled that doctors had their own favorite "recipes" when it came to writing prescriptions.

In return, pharmacists had to know the order of what products to mix and what they would need to warm up or refrigerate. At the same time, everything they created by hand needed to be pleasing to the patient's palate, he said.

When Drake opened his family owned business here, doctors had were fewer selections of medications available. The goal at the time was treating patients for various ailments or symptoms.

According to Alexander, the idea of being able to control a person's cholesterol and other prevention treatments were "novelty" ideas.

Modern-day medications treat conditions that a half century ago required surgery. In the 1950s, a diagnosis of cataracts in a person's eye meant permanent blindness. Today, that same diagnosis is treated as an outpatient procedure over someone's lunch hour with medications helping prevent other types of vision loss.

At the same time, prescriptions issued by doctors to help their patients control high blood pressure or excess stomach acid are now available over the counter and found in households around the world, he said.

In less than a half century, technology has played a key role in helping the pharmacy profession evolve, according to Alexander. Advanced in robotics have taken a significant amount of the "human equation" out of the prescription process.

An oversized cabinet machine in the center of the pharmacy handles a lion's share of the work that was done by hand. With an inventory of 200 of the most frequently filled medications in its inventory, the machine not only counts the medications and dispenses them into the appropriate bottles, it even fills out and attaches the labels.

The machinery is extremely fast and can fill more than 150 medications in just an hour, according to Alexander. On a given day, the pharmacy staff will fill anywhere between 280 to 300 prescriptions.

But technology hasn't replaced the need for trained pharmacists. The staff at Sav-Mor continue to count out about 40 percent of the prescriptions they receive each day, although they normally involve patients needing small quantities of certain drugs.

Despite all the advances in technology, some things haven't changed. Pharmacists are still required to know the science of compounding, although those techniques are done on a very limited basis.

"It's becoming a lost art," he said.

Alexander estimates that his pharmacy carries 600 different types of medications. This doesn't include the different strengths of some of these drugs.

As the store adapted to all the changes in medicine, it also grew over time, prompting the store to move twice over the last 60 years. The first happened in the late 1970s when Drake moved his pharmacy a short distance to North 2nd East Street where it remained for the next 30 years. With another 5,000 square feet of space available, the pharmacy gained the room it needed to expand.

Sav-Mor moved once again a few blocks down the road to its current location at the corner of East 5th North Street in 2007. This move nearly doubled the size of the store's pharmacy.

Looking ahead to the next 60 years, he expects the pharmacy profession will continue to evolve with more emphasis on clinical issues and prevention versus treating people's ailments. Alexander expects pharmacists will play a greater role in consulting directly with doctors to "ensure patients have the best regimen" to keep them healthy, he said.

"It's a different world," he added. "It's not a matter of helping to make people more comfortable when they're sick. It's about attacking a patient's health problems in a constructive manner."

Sav-Mor will mark its 60th anniversary with a celebration that starts at 11 a.m. March 14. The store will serve free hot dogs and cake throughout the afternoon while supplies last.

"It's our way of saying thanks," Alexander said.