Medical Arts Pharmacy

When I first moved to Newburgh I was hunting around for a pharmacy and came across this one. I decided to give them a quick test, I asked for an OTC asthma medication that has to be signed for after showing your ID. I went in and asked for it, the girl behind the counter had no clue what I was talking about, and then just left me standing there until I suggested she get the woman who was in charge, owner or manager, I don’t know. So I ask her for it, she said it’s no longer manufactured. I thought she may have misheard me so I said the name again. Nope, she still said that it was no longer being produced. I had a problem with this, why lie and say that instead of just saying they don’t carry it? I went back to going to CVS or WalMart for my asthma medication, and took all of my prescriptions to a chain pharmacy. I thought that independent pharmacies are always better, unfortunately this one isn’t.

Super helpful. Was able and willing to order an urgent Rx quickly when other pharmacies insisted that they couldn’t. I am super grateful; they have my business as long as I am a resident of NY.

BE CAREFUL — AT ANY PHARMACY YOU GO TO. I have been a customer of this pharmacy for almost 15 years. I take a number of expensive medications so I like to think I’m one of their better customers. As with all pharmacies, I and the public at large depend on their accuracy. There was a change of ownership at one point years back yet their service didn’t skip a beat. That was a few years ago though. Lately their service has been noticeably poorer. Poorer to the point where their acerbic delivery driver actually waits on customers. I have always been amazed at his poor customer service skills. Last week he was so rude to a customer that I thought he was going to get punched in the mouth. It settled down but what struck me was that the manager (or one of the owners) did nothing about it. She just kept filling prescriptions as if she couldn’t hear other customer discussing their recent negative experiences with the employee in question.
Last week, as I was coming to the end of a particular prescription I noticed that a strange pill was mixed in with one of mine. It was a pill amid capsules so it was readily identifiable yet I thought that was pretty dangerous. I brought it in to show them (I had to return as they «owed» me 60 of 90 pills I was to have gotten a day before — a very inconvenient practice.) The person I spoke to appeared to be one of the owners. He apologized and blamed their automatic filling machine. Little did I know that my life would be placed in jeopardy by that machine a week later.
I ran out of a particular prescription but since I wasn’t scheduled to take it until 8pm that evening I asked my wife to pick it up while I was at work. I came home a little after 8 and went to take my pill when I noticed it looked different. This happens with generic medications quite often. An orange round pill one month could be a white oval another month. Chain pharmacies indicate this on a label. I took the pill.
It was only later that I looked it up online and found it to be a hormone used to treat thyroid problems. On top of that it indicated that it shouldn’t be taken along with other medications I currently take. I was furious and prayed that I wouldn’t suffer any harm from it. I didn’t appear to, but here, not only did I take a pill meant for someone else, I didn’t take the medication I was supposed to that evening. What if an old person had been the victim of this screw up? Would they have taken them for a full month and not the one they needed? Who had my medication and were they taking it?
When I returned to the pharmacy today, as angry as I was I was calm about it but I wanted them to know that they were going to kill somebody. What was the response of the woman who I believe is an owner? Nothing!!! They were all completely non-​plussed. To add insult to injury, a clerk behind the counter handed them to the delivery driver (who had overheard me explaining what happened to a clerk) who was doing something on my side of the counter saying, «These are for him.», indicating me. That was when HE started to apologize for the filling machine’s error. Like I said to him. SOMEONE IS SUPPOSED TO QC THE PERSON — OR MACHINE — WHO FILLS THE SCRIPT. Mistakes happen but steps need to be taken to make sure it doesn’t. No one could have double checked my medication. I am in the customer service industry so I can say, the ONLY adequate response from them should have been someone in authority starting their apology with, «There is no excuse for this and we’re taking these incidents very seriously.
UPDATE — MARCH 2015: Finding another pharmacy was much more difficult than anticipated. Chain pharmacies have serious drawbacks that make them not worth the effort. I also learned that prescriptions for controlled substances can’t be transferred which made a complete move impossible. I also found out that getting certain prescriptions at chain pharmacies are like trying to find ice in the desert. While I still have an issue with how my incidents were handled — my advice to everyone is to check everything yourself. Don’t rely on others. I am still a customer here because the chains were worse.

Quick, inexpensive and great customer service.

Life Saver!
My son injured his foot playing sports several weeks ago and couldn’t walk so I went in search of crutches but on a Sunday that search proved futile. Another local pharmacy suggested I stop in here at Medical Arts and damn they had everything I didn’t expect a pharmacy to have. They were even open on Sunday… woohoo!
I not only found the crutches I needed for my son, this place had wheel chairs, braces for like neck, back, legs… I’m talking all kinds of medical aid supplies I wouldn’t expect to find in a pharmacy. This place was definitely a life saver for my son who was happy I found crutches so he could get around the house until we got him to doctor on Monday since his foot wasn’t broken.
Oh yea, this place is actually a real pharmacy aside from my excitement of them having medical aid supplies like wheel chairs.

Quick check out excellent service