Raleigh, NC -- (SBWIRE) -- 04/05/2011 -- Tony Civello, President and CEO of Kerr Drug can now add a new title: Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement Winner. Civello received the recognition from the Triangle Business Journal for his lifetime of work aimed at improving the quality of health care in the community. The Journal’s editors cited Civello’s leadership in the drug store industry and his proactive work to refocus chain drug retailing in the health care field.

“Pharmacists are totally underutilized in health care,” says Civello. “Now more than ever, just handing a bag of medicine to somebody and ringing them up isn’t a good use of their education. The best and most cost effective way to improve the health care system is to have pharmacists and physicians working together for the overall benefit of patients.”

Civello graduated from the University of Pittsburgh pharmacy school and started in chain drug retailing with Thrift Drug in 1965.

In 1997, Civello led a group that purchased Kerr Drug, and he has steered the North Carolina institution into a model for what community pharmacies will look like in the future. Civello’s driving goal has been transitioning his stores from a business centered on delivering prescriptions to one including clinical services such as immunizations, compliance/adherence, and medication therapy management. Civello believes Kerr Drug pharmacists should be active in patient counseling, chronic disease management and interacting with physicians.

In addition to its retail stores across the state, Kerr Drug has expanded its reach and developed other health related operations, including Kerr Health, providing Specialty Pharmacy, Long Term Care Pharmacy, and Care Management.

The awards have followed: Kerr Drug was named the top chain pharmacy three years in a row by Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care and the 2010 Chain of the Year by Drug Topics. Both awards cited Kerr Drug’s emphasis on health and professional services and its patient focused approach to pharmacy. In 2008, Kerr Drug’s innovative Community Health Care Center was named Retail Concept of the Year. In addition, Civello and other members of Kerr Drug’s management team were named 2010 Pharmacy Executives of the Year by Chain Drug Review.

Civello admits what he calls his “paradigm shift” will take place slowly but he wants his stores to be ahead of the curve when it arrives. “Pharmacists are extremely well prepared to be a part of health care, especially with the increasing needs for health care professionals and treating an aging population,” adds Civello.