Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy’s new director

Pam Scheetz to continue clinic’s goal of providing affordable healthcare

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SILER CITY — Pam Scheetz and her husband have worked in Siler City for the last three decades. Scheetz spent most of her time at the E. 11th St. CVS as a pharmacists, but in January, she took on a new role as the pharmacy manager and executive director at Chatham County’s only free clinic and pharmacy, Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy. 

“We’re there to help people that are without insurance … people that are falling in and through the gaps,” Scheetz told the News + Record. “They can’t afford their diabetes or blood pressure medications, and those are the people that we are there to serve.”

Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy, located at 127 E. Raleigh St., is a nonprofit clinic designed to address health disparities throughout the Chatham County. The pharmacy uses donations and grants to fund itself and serves around 350 clients per year. 

The clinic is Chatham County’s only 100% free healthcare provider, with the goal of serving low-income patients with chronic health conditions that require maintenance medications. Conditions treated by Chatham Cares include high blood pressure, diabetes and mental health disorders.

Scheetz was familiar with the pharmacy before being named director because she knew the previous executive director, Lynn Glasser, from her time as a pharmacist in Siler City. Scheetz said she was already retired when Glasser contacted her to take over the pharmacy. 

“I was very aware of how the store got started and that sort of thing, and Lynn (Glasser) told me that he was ready to retire back in the summer and had asked me if I would consider taking it over,” she said. “So, I came on staff in January.”

Scheetz’s role at the pharmacy is different from her previous jobs as a pharmacist. Instead of exclusively focusing on counting and bottling monthly supplies of medications and seeing patients, Scheetz now has to handle grant applications and handle inventory. 

“The pharmacy is just one aspect,” she said. “I came from a retail setting and then went into writing grants and interviewing for money … that’s outside of my comfort zone at this point, but I’m getting used to it.”

Most Chatham Cares patients don’t have access to Medicaid or Medicare because their income will be slightly above the threshold to qualify. At the same time, however, they don’t earn a high enough income to purchase health insurance or their job doesn’t provide a wide range of benefits. 

Scheetz said the pharmacy is dedicated to helping patients connect to resources beyond what the pharmacy can provide. 

“We have all the information to direct them to the food pantry, and we have some clothes in case there is somebody who needs a coat or needs a sweater,” she said. “We can also help people with the paperwork to apply for disability and work them in the right direction to get that going.”

All Chatham Cares pharmacists are volunteers, meaning no one at the pharmacy works for a paycheck. Scheetz said they’re always looking for volunteers at the pharmacy, and if they were to find more, they could extend service hours. 

“Several of our pharmacists are aging out and are wanting to retire,” Scheetz said. “We did put out the call that we do need additional pharmacists … it’s just getting the word out and letting people know there’s a need.”

Scheetz said one of her main goals for the pharmacy is to share information about the clinic’s services to other parts of the county. Currently, most Chatham Cares clients come from Siler City and surrounding communities. Scheetz wants to extend the pharmacy’s service to be accessible by those low income individuals in the eastern half of the county, as well.

“Something like 26.2% of our population in Siler City falls below the poverty level, but we aren’t the only side of the county with a need for this,” she said. “So, rather than clogging up the emergency rooms and hospitals with people that get terribly sick because they can’t afford their medicine, we’re there to bridge that gap and to try to keep them healthy enough to keep them out of the hospital.”

Chatham Cares Community Pharmacy is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays. People interested in seeking out services from Chatham Cares should contact the pharmacy at 919-663-0177.

Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com.