Kohll's Pharmacy & Homecare is going beyond its traditional menu of filling prescriptions and offering home medical devices, with its newest Omaha location offering Botox injections and medical-grade skin peels, a weight-loss program and hormone replacement therapy designed to combat age-related diseases such as osteoporosis and Alzheimer's.
The locally owned chain of pharmacies, which was founded in 1948, wants to reach a younger audience and further distinguish itself from the large nationwide drugstores, said marketing manager Laurie Dondelinger.
"We focus on feeling and looking better, from the inside out," she said.
The family-owned company's newest store doubled in size when it moved across the street to 620 N. 114th St. in the Miracle Hills shopping area. Last month, Kohll's marked the new store and its in-house Preventative Medical Clinic with a celebration that included food and live music by a folk-rock band.
The company's foray into the "medical spa" business targeting affluent young and middle-aged consumers is a dramatic departure from its focus on equipment and medical devices for the elderly. That service, which Kohll's continues to offer, includes the sale and lease of customized vans for wheelchairs and the installation of ramps and stairway lifts in homes.
Kohll's enters a market in which a number of medical spas and clinics have recently opened, including Te'Bella Medspa, the Center for Medical Weight Loss and OA&G, or Obstetrics, Aesthetics & Gynecology.
Staffed by nurse practitioners Debbie Hughes and Stacy Niemi, the Preventative Medical Clinic is a spinoff of the hormone therapy work Kohll's initiated in 1995, said Justin Kohll, who owns the company with his father, Marvin, and his brother, David.
Some patients want to lose weight, others want to counter the effects of aging such as fatigue, low libido, or hot flashes and night sweats, Kohll said.
In its hormone therapy practice, he said, the company tests patients' blood and saliva to determine levels of such substances as human growth hormone, estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. It then identifies and treats any deficiencies.
Services at the clinic are growing, Kohll said, with a third nurse practitioner preparing to join the company and laser therapy services planned for removal of hair and skin blemishes.
Pharmacists have a sterile room to prepare injectable medicines, as well as chemotherapy drugs for cancer patients.
Kohll's has seven locations in Omaha and one in Boulder, Colo. The company plans to establish a holistic clinic in Boulder, and other sites could be expanded to include similar clinics, Dondelinger said.
Contact the writer:
444-1117, joe.ruff@owh.com
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