Perspectives

TopRx Responding to COVID-19, Strengthening the Community

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of almost every American. Businesses have closed, families have been forced apart temporarily and community events across the country have been put on hold. While the crisis has impacted each one of us differently, it has become clear that by joining together with our communities and families, we can all do our part to support each other through this crisis.

Distributors have been working around-the-clock with the broader healthcare community to ensure that providers, pharmacies and patients have access to vital medicines and supplies. But getting through a public health crisis on a scale greater than many of us have ever faced requires more than just that. For distributors, that means protecting our employees and their families, supporting other local businesses and giving back to the community any way we can.

When it comes to supporting one another and giving back to the community, TopRx is a pharmaceutical distributor truly practicing what it preaches. As a distributor headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, and working with more than 7,000 independent local pharmacies across the U.S., TopRx helps support local communities throughout the country.

In February, as news about the virus started to spread, TopRx developed a company-wide emergency response team, which began meeting to ensure that they were doing everything possible to keep employees safe and continue getting prescription medicines where they needed to go. As cities started announcing shelter-in-place mandates, the company transitioned all sales and support staff that could work from home and provided laptops and other equipment to all affected employees.

To ensure the health of the distribution staff needed on site to organize and ship vital healthcare products, TopRx instituted numerous protocols recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including installing hand sanitizer stations, sanitizing public surfaces multiple times a day and testing employee temperatures before they entered the workplace.

Taking care of their own is just the first part of the equation for TopRx.

As the company experienced increased demand and needed to bring on additional staff at their distribution centers to fulfill orders, they turned to their local community. TopRx reached out to local businesses who were hit hard by the economic consequences of COVID-19 to make part-time opportunities available to furloughed employees.

The company also is supporting local restaurants who have been forced to reduce operations during the national stay-at-home orders through “Free Food Fridays,” an initiative where all employees who work on Friday get a free meal from local restaurants around TopRx facilities. This initiative has the dual benefit of allowing them to show appreciation for hardworking employees while also supporting small businesses in their community.

TopRx is just one example of the men and women of the distribution industry going above and beyond to support each other and their local communities during uncertain times. While COVID-19 has put a strain on all of us, we will get through this crisis by remembering what is important, coming together and supporting each other.

For additional HDA materials and emergency preparedness information, click here.