By Matt Mallio<\/p>\n
Wicked Local – Action<\/p>\n
Posted October 10, 2017<\/p>\n
Pharmacists Saad and Ray Dinno always wanted their own shop so when the opportunity came to take over Acton Pharmacy, they jumped.<\/p>\n
According to Saad, the pharmacy\u2019s previous owner wanted to sell, but not to a chain, giving the two brothers their chance. That was Aug. 1, 1997. Two decades later, the brothers are celebrating their 20th anniversary in Acton with a Wellness Fair this Saturday at 563 Mass. Ave. The event will feature free blood-pressure readings, free skin-cancer screening, face painting, a raffle and giveaways, and yoga.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission of providing personalized care for all of our customers is only made possible through the tireless efforts of our staff,\u201d said Ray. \u201cThis milestone means a lot to my brother and I, and we have to thank our loyal customers who have kept coming back for the last 20 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Dinnos, pharmacy is in the family. Aside from he and his brother, Saad\u2019s wife is a pharmacist. Their father runs Keyes Drug in Newton. Saad and Ray also own the West Concord Pharmacy. He and his brother learned a lot from their father\u2019s business, specially about customer service. Saad said he tells those who work for them customer service comes first, always.<\/p>\n
A part of the community<\/strong><\/p>\n Saad and Ray view their business as an active part of the community. Saad said whether it is sponsoring sports teams, working with the Council on Aging, or the Acton Nurse Service, they want to provide whatever service their costumers and their community needs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very lucky to be part of this community.,\u201d Saad said.<\/p>\n Personal touch<\/strong><\/p>\n What distinguishes the shop from some others, Saad said, is the level of service.<\/p>\n Some of those services include making to deliveries to those who need who may have difficulty getting out either for physical or scheduling reasons such as the elderly or a new parent. Saad said it is not uncommon for pharmacists who work at the shop to make deliveries on their way home. Saad himself said he\u2019s made 9 p.m. deliveries. And, over the years, Saad said they have formed relationships with many customers. Some of these include multiple generations of the same family. They even have a customer whose been coming to the store since the 1940s, when it was owned by someone else.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d Saad said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good feeling, because we\u2019ve developed relationships (with customers).\u201d<\/p>\n Another reason for the store\u2019s success is the staff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t have done without great loyal staff,\u201d Saad said, some of whom who\u2019ve worked there for many years.<\/p>\n Compounding<\/strong><\/p>\n Another important aspect of the business, Saad said, is compounding.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everything on the shelf is for every patient,\u201d said Saad.<\/p>\n Sometimes, a patient may have allergy or diet restrictions and cannot use a commercially available medicine. When that happens, the pharmacy may be able to help make customized medication to fit their needs. Saad said they try to work with doctor and patient to think outside the box\u201d and come up with a solution.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s personalized to their specific needs,\u201d Saad said.<\/p>\n Saad said they compound medicines not just for people, but pets as well. The store, Saad said, does non-sterile compounding, so they do not produce things like injections and drops. .<\/p>\n They put in a new compounding lab in 2014.<\/p>\n Patient stories<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe letters and the feedback we get from patients,\u201d Saad said. \u201cI could show a wall of thank-you notes that we get.\u201d<\/p>\n In one case, Saad said, they were able to help a girl of two or three who was enduring treatment for leukemia. They were able to compound medicine for her she needed to consume daily. And they were able to do it locally so the parents didn\u2019t have to trek into Dana Farber Cancer Institute. That was some time ago.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s thriving and she\u2019s doing fantastic,\u201d Saad said \u201cand the mom keeps telling me: \u2018we made her life a lot easier.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat story stuck with me,\u201d Saad said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Matt Mallio Wicked Local – Action Posted October 10, 2017 Pharmacists Saad and Ray Dinno always wanted their own shop so when the opportunity came to take over Acton Pharmacy, they jumped. According to Saad, the pharmacy\u2019s previous owner wanted to sell, but not to a chain, giving the two brothers their chance. That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/p3rx.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}