About San Rafael Pharmacy

 

San Rafael Pharmacy was founded on December 2nd 1952 by Mr. Angel Diaz Rivas and his wife Luz Virginia Reyes-Ramos, Licensed Pharmacist. In 1980,  Pharmacist Reyes was diagnosed with cancer and experienced first-hand what cancer patients go through when obtaining medications and services.

Second Generation Pharmacists

In 1986 a second generation of family pharmacists joined the Diaz Family. During that time, the pharmacy was managing oral and intravenous chemotherapies in addition to pain management prescriptions.

HIV

In 1989 the urgency for HIV medication for patients became a necessity  and San Rafael Pharmacy assumed the responsibility and was  successful due to the lack of knowledge about this disease.

During the late 90’s and in the beginning of the new century, new specialized prescriptions were incorporated into the pharmacy for patients with Hepatitis, Multiple Sclerosis, and Hemophilia.

CooPharma Member

In 2002, the pharmacy becomes a member of CooPharma, a co-operative group that has 350 members in Puerto Rico.

Later in 2003, San Rafael began the accreditation process.

The first Pharmacy to use a "Robot"

Just like innovation, technological investments have been part of San Rafael Pharmacy’s plan. In 2005, San Rafael Pharmacy was the first pharmacy in the community to use a “robot” to dispense and track inventory of 240 prescriptions.

San Rafael Pharmacy hopes to continue to acquire new prescriptions and services to benefit the whole Puerto Rican community.

Clean Rooms

As a Specialized Pharmacy with health insurance and federal agencies, in 2008 the Pharmacy certified its “clean room” and received accreditation from the Joint Commission.

Specialized Pharmacy

In 2010, we established a specialized pharmacy on the second floor for Medicaid patients. We established a Case Management Department for managing and authorizing specialized prescriptions. We assisted patients with health care plans and prescription assistance programs to help with paying deductibles.

In 2012 we created the Department of Supplemental Medical Therapy so that patients could continue their therapies and secondary effects. Apart from delivering specialized prescriptions to the entire island, San Rafael Pharmacy represented prescriptions with exclusive or shared distribution for the Puerto Rican market.

The Importance of the Community

For this reason we have won prestige amongst the medical community with our ability to offer a large majority of prescriptions. In order for San Rafael Pharmacy to compete with large corporate chains, we are founding members of the Association of Community Pharmacies.