Two Harbors gains a pharmacy in latest health-care shuffle

Two Harbors residents will have new pharmacy options starting in July. The Essentia Health Pharmacy located in the Lake View Clinic will be moving to Two Harbors’ Super One Foods. A new pharmacy managed by Lake View will take its place.

Essentia was notified in December that its lease would not be renewed as First Solutions (now known as First Community Health Foundation), which used to own the clinic building, was selling it to Lake View owner St. Luke’s. Essentia considered the options and decided to move the pharmacy to the grocery store.

“We’re committed to the patients in this market,” Tim Cernohous, operations manager for pharmacy services at Essentia Health. “Our patients have a strong rapport with the staff at the pharmacy in Two Harbors and we wanted to continue that.”

All the staff from the current pharmacy in the clinic will be moving to the store location.

“It’ll allow us to expand services,” Cernohous said of the new space. The pharmacy will have extended hours, 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

They’re also building a drive-through on the south side of the Super One building.

“They’ll be notification of all these changes sent out to our patients soon,” Cernohous said.

Lake View Memorial Hospital, owned by St. Luke’s hospital in Duluth, will be opening its own pharmacy. It is finalizing the purchase of the clinic building, which has been a department of the hospital since July 2008.

Essentia and St. Luke’s are competitors and Lake View president Brian Carlson said that was the primary reason they won’t be leasing the pharmacy space to Essentia after the First Solutions sale.

“It didn’t make sense to continue that lease,” Carlson said.

The hours will be the same as the clinic’s hours, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. Hiring is underway.

Essentia’s pharmacy at Lake View will remain open until the end of the day on July 27. Both pharmacies will be open the following Monday.

“From a patient standpoint, it’ll be business as usual,” Carlson said. “It should be a seamless transition.”

Tags: two harbors, news, business, health, essentia