Einhellig staffs front line of health crises

2021 Women of Distinction – Health Care

Vickilee Einhellig – Good Day Pharmacy

LOVELAND — The vaccines developed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, and the public efforts to make the shots available, accessible and desirable, put the nation’s pharmacies in an unprecedented spotlight.

As chief executive and president of Loveland-based Good Day Pharmacy, Vickilee Einhellig has been up to the challenge, seeing the Northern Colorado chain’s sales rise 11.6% in 2020.

“This past year was the most emotionally and physically demanding year Colorado’s health-care personnel have ever experienced,” Einhellig said. “Our pharmacists and technicians are the most accessible health-care professionals, and our teams inspired me every day. It was my honor to work alongside the selfless providers, from direct-care providers, county/state health departments, and our teams, who supported each other and our communities.

“We all learned on the fly, provided resources to our neighbors, customers and patients, and pivoted to the highest priority.”

Einhellig, a 1987 graduate of the University of Iowa with a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical science, did a residency at the university’s hospitals in Iowa City for a year, then started work as a staff pharmacist at Good Day in Loveland in 1992. She quickly ascended to pharmacy manager in 1993 and chief operating officer in 1996 before taking on her current title as CEO in 2019. Today, she leads a team of more than 140 employees at pharmacies in Loveland, Fort Collins, Greeley, Longmont, Eaton, Johnstown, Wellington and Yuma.

She is vice chair of the Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, a board on which she has served since September 2013. She also sits on the National Community Pharmacists’ Association’s long-term care advisory committee and long-term care steering committee. She was an RxPlus board member from 2009 to 2017 and served on the Colorado Board of Pharmacy in 2015 and 2016.

Under her watch, Good Day has been recognized as one of BizWest’s Mercury 100 fastest-growing private companies as well as Colorado’s Top 50 family-owned companies, won the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Association’s 2019 Excellence in Innovation Award and the NCPA’s NICE Innovation Award in 2018, and was ranked seventh on the list of Top 100 Women-Owned Businesses in Colorado in 2020.

At the helm of Good Day, Einhellig has created procedures and executed policies to meet state and federal guidelines for pharmacy practice, and managed and measured growth metrics, including sales, profitability, cash flow and other industry-specific objectives.

Besides filling prescriptions, Good Day locations provide medical supplies and rentals, offers customized compounded prescription medications for people and pets, delivers flu shots and other vaccinations, and runs a long-term care pharmacy that offers support for assisted-living, skilled-nursing and developmentally disabled patients and their caregivers. The Greeley location is among pharmacies and other health-care facilities offering COVID-19 testing.

“My nearly 30 years at Good Day Pharmacy have provided me incredible opportunities to serve our Northern Colorado communities,” she said. “I am grateful to have ‘grown up’ at Good Day Pharmacy. As CEO, I have the exceptional privilege to surround myself with a driven, talented team to influence the pharmacy’s impact on health care.”

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