2021 Alabama – Jessica Hung

Jessica Hung
Clinical Services Manager
Semmes Pharmacy
JH Clinical, LLC
Semmes, AL

www.semmespharmacy.com
https://www.facebook.com/SemmesPharmacy/

Jessica originally became interested in the pharmacy profession because she had a strong desire to provide assistance and education to patients who had the potential to misuse or abuse prescription medications. Her attention to that crisis has been temporarily eclipsed by a different, wider-scale one, that of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the independent pharmacy she works for, Semmes Pharmacy, was chosen as one of three pharmacies by the state of Alabama to administer COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, she and her staff quickly went to work developing a process to safely and efficiently vaccinate as many people as possible in the southern part of the state. (Later, the number of pharmacies involved was expanded to include five other pharmacies that Jessica partners with through her self-owned pharmacy business, JH Clinical, LLC.) They started out confronting many challenges—such as limited physical space and a lack of adequate scheduling technology—and encountering many unknowns—such as how reimbursement would take place, if at all. But they labored on, solving all of these problems on their own, never hesitating if they didn’t have clarity of answers. As of July 2021, they have administered 10,000 vaccines, about 150 per day. Jessica reports a high level of patient satisfaction, which she attributes to teamwork and open communication between her and her staff to determine what’s working and what can be improved, based on their own observations as well as patient feedback. They also figured out the reimbursement question, though Jessica says they were perfectly content not ever getting reimbursed, if it meant the greater good was served. In May of 2021, Jessica and her team were recognized by the City of Semmes for their dedication to helping the community. “This was a huge privilege,” says Jessica, “to prove that independent pharmacies could successfully assist in such a large rollout.” Jessica also gives credit and thanks to the owners of Semmes Pharmacy—Danny Cottrell, Alan Browning and Lancer Smith. “Their support is essential in our success. They truly give me the freedom to grow our clinical service offerings and, more importantly, they believe in me.”

Contact: jessicalhung@gmail.com