LAHAINA, Hawaii — Patrick Tacderan’s interest in the pharmacy profession began while he was working as a clerk in a pharmacy during college. The decisive catalyst that moved him to enter the field came from his pharmacy manager, who shared with him how much he had enjoyed his career as a highly trained and trusted health care professional, and how his job brought him pride and satisfaction every day.

Patrick Tacderan, Walgreens, Maui, Hawaii, www.walgreens.com

Since his graduation with a pharmacy degree from Creighton University in 1987, Tacderan has been a practicing pharmacist for 36 years, 22 of which have been with Walgreens. He has been pharmacy manager at four drug stores, and helped open the first Walgreens locations in Hawaii. He currently is a multi-location pharmacist, or MLP, based on the island of Maui but frequently traveling to the main island of Oahu to work at pharmacies there as needed.

Maui, which has long been a magnet for tourists with its great natural beauty and pristine beaches, is larger than Oahu and predominantly rural. Walgreens has three pharmacies on the island, one in Lahaina on the western side of the island and one in Kahului and one in Wailuku, both on the eastern side of the island. Tacderan notes that the main hospital is more than 20 miles away from the Lahaina pharmacy, which can create challenges but also offers opportunities to administer triage and counsel patients as needed.

He adds that among the resident population of Lahaina many patients have diabetes and high cholesterol, probably due to their diet, which includes many delicious items but also a lot of sweets and fatty foods. The numerous tourists present different problems, ranging from bites to sunburn to hiking accidents.

In addition to dispensing prescriptions and providing health counseling, immunization has been one of the most impactful services provided, according to Tacderan. “We just received the new COVID variant vaccine, and we’ve been busy providing this because many of the physicians do not administer vaccines anymore,” he points out. “We fill a big void by being a more accessible and convenient location for health care.”

That void also provides an opportunity for Tacderan and his colleagues to include medication therapy management (MTM) and comprehensive medication reviews among the services they provide. Patient education in general is a crucial part of patient self-care, he believes.

“Of course, I check their prescriptions for possible drug interactions and side effects,” he says. “I also take time to talk with patients, because I really believe in inquiring about their diet, their habits, the amount of sleep they get and how they manage stress, because I think those are vital.”

Many of the patients speak English as a second language, he notes, and the Lahaina pharmacy in particular is fortunate to have several pharmacy technicians who speak several different languages. “These are highly motivated and skilled employees who establish good communication and trust with these patients,” he remarks. “This is important, because it increases their understanding of their health condition and of their role in taking their medications, and it contributes to their overall well-being.”

Dedication to caring for patients has long been characteristic of Tacderan’s approach to pharmacy practice. Years ago, while working at a pharmacy in Arizona that served numerous senior patients, a regular elderly patient whose poor eyesight prevented her from driving at night forgot to pick up her script one day and called Tacderan to ask him if he could deliver it, which he did after closing.

“She thanked me, and several days later she came to the pharmacy with cookies and pastries for us,” he calls. “I told her she didn’t have to do that, because I just wanted her not to miss her medication. I take pride in doing that for patients.”

During his 22 years with Walgreens, Tacderan has benefited from numerous knowledgeable, highly motivated leaders, both in the pharmacy and the front end, as well as in upper tiers of management. When he first started with the company in 2001, he frequently sought advice from Lorri Walmsley, who was then his pharmacy supervisor and is now director of pharmacy affairs for Walgreens.

He also singles out Nancy Huang, who was district pharmacy supervisor when he came to Hawaii to help open the first stores. “Most importantly, I learned from her how to treat our employees,” he says. “To provide supervision with respect, and to motivate them to perform their best. That really stuck with me.”

Most recently, Huang was among the Walgreens volunteers who flew into Maui to help out in the wake of the fire that devastated Lahaina in August. The fire resulted in a staggering death toll and left thousands homeless as the flames, fanned by winds from Hurricane Dora, destroyed approximately 80% of the town. It also created an enormous challenge to health care providers, including community pharmacy.

On the morning of August 8, Tacderan reported to the Lahaina store and immediately helped get managers and employees safely out of the store. The next day, he reported to the pharmacy in Kahului, which was open and in operation.

Tacderan drove through what he describes as a surreal landscape of billowing smoke and lashing winds that felled trees and power lines. Most of the structures along Lahaina’s beloved Front Street, with its colorful shops and restaurants, were ultimately consumed by the flames.

Walgreens’ leadership, he says, responded quickly, arriving on the island and implementing a plan to provide needed services. Like Huang, other Walgreens employees from the main island of Oahu and the mainland quickly volunteered to help.

“We’ve got a lot of dedicated pharmacy technicians and pharmacists and front-end employees who volunteered from Oahu and California and other mainland states to help us handle the increased workload,” Tacderan says. “We appreciate their efforts and their sacrifices to help us here on Maui.”

Although the Lahaina store was not destroyed, it was without water or power in the days following the fire, and prescriptions from that pharmacy were diverted to the Kahului and Wailuku locations. Walgreens also helped patients obtain medications by contacting prescribers for refills, transferring scripts from other pharmacies or providing emergency refills. Delivery was made available at a central pickup location in Lahaina, and patients could obtain a 30-day supply even for those with no refills left (with some exclusions by law).

Tourists, many of whom lost their prescription medications in hotels that were destroyed or isolated by the fire, presented an extra complication, and Tacderan praises the pharmacy techs who were diligent in calling insurance companies on their behalf.

The next day Tacderan was scheduled to be off but, knowing he would be needed, he reported to one of the functioning pharmacy locations. When he pulled into the parking lot, there were numerous cars with entire families in them with nowhere to go. He was greeted by lines of distraught people hoping to obtain medications.

“I looked in the face of every person with whom I interacted that day and saw the shock,” he recalls. “They had missing family members; many no longer had homes or cars; and they all had a story to tell. I normally interact with people, but that day I really had to stop and take the time to talk with these people: They were lost and didn’t know what to do. I was holding back tears. When I saw our patients and our employees that day, I gave them a hug. That was the hardest day I ever had working in the pharmacy.”

Patients were not alone in struggling to deal with the catastrophe. Tacderan believes more than a dozen Walgreens employees lost their homes and loved ones, some of whom remain missing. Not surprisingly, he is credited by his colleagues with being a rock of strength and needed support at that critical time.

As the days passed, the coordinated efforts of Walgreens’ management restored something like a normal level of service. The pharmacy techs from the mainland stores delivered medications to various off-site locations for people displaced by the fire who had no cars and no way to get their ­prescriptions.

In addition, the company has made a $100,000 donation to the Hawaii Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund as well as $25,000 worth of needed products to the American Red Cross. An additional $5,000 has been donated to the Na Aikane O Maui Cultural center.

Tacderan was asked daily by management about the situation, which he said was steadily improving. Nonetheless, the pressure and the workload were enormous, and the hours were long, despite the assistance of the volunteers who were flown in.

Looking back, he expresses deep compassion for those who lost everything, such as the technicians at the Lahaina store, and admiration for the response of Walgreens.

“You know, this is such a small community, everyone is affected, directly or indirectly,” he says. “But I really appreciate what our company did; it really stepped up and made a difficult situation more bearable. It was a very heroic effort on Walgreens’ part.”