Making Health Care Happen

For 43 years, Dr. Mona McBride’s mother, Mary Arnold, was a pastor in the small city of Hamburg, Arkansas, and a pillar of hope to the community. Today, Dr. McBride views the new CAREFirst pharmacy and wellness center that she opened in 2023 as a continuation of her mother’s legacy, providing holistic and personal care and resources to a medically underserved community.

Shortly after Dr. McBride’s mother died in 2023, a member of the city’s economic development committee suggested she open a pharmacy in town. Liking the idea of serving the community and touching people’s lives in a tangible way, Dr. McBride – previously a pharmacy and optometry district manager for Walmart – bought and renovated a large, empty building with her own funds. She turned to HOPE for a $128,750 loan to cover the cost of stocking up on medications and other operating capital, working with Arlender Jones, a vice president and senior commercial lending officer in HOPE’s Memphis office.

“She wanted to emphasize wellness and counsel people, make sure they’re taking the right prescriptions, and to help them get off some of the medications they were on. To me, she was a person who really believed in what she was doing and really wanted to make a difference in the community,” Jones said. “We put a lot of emphasis on minority-owned and women-owned businesses. In a lot of these small towns, a Black woman trying to open a business is almost unheard-of.”

Before CAREFirst opened, there were no full-service pharmacies in rural Hamburg, pop. 2,500. Residents had to drive 20 or 30 miles to get vaccines, and there were no experts in the area to see for routine health concerns. Today, residents of Hamburg and surrounding towns can discuss medication and healthy living with CAREFirst’s pharmacists and receive advice on everything from the need to drink more water to pair a probiotic with their medicine, to foot care and healthy diets for people with diabetes. They also can have CAREFirst deliver their medications, saving gas money, or for elderly residents who don’t drive, the expense of a
car service.

“The response has been really great because people see that we actually care and what we recommended actually works,” Dr. McBride said.

In opening CAREFirst, Dr. McBride measures her impact one patient at a time. A mother brought in her 9-year-old son with a sore throat. “His tonsils were the size of golf balls. I told the mom that this was an emergency,” she said. The family had no health insurance, so Dr. McBride called the Department of Human Services and sent them there, where the mother obtained the necessary medication. “I like to say we were able to save the child’s life because the infection didn’t spread through his body. It’s about making the difference in the lives of others, taking the time to listen and showing that you really care.”

Dr. McBride said that HOPE’s loan allowed her to make this difference in the community and she is contemplating opening additional locations in Mississippi. “HOPE allows seeds to be planted and grow. By me wanting to make a difference in the lives of the community, I utilize HOPE with that seed in the ground for them, and then it’s just a cycle,” she said. “They help me, and then I help the community. And then the community is able to make it and do better.”