by Sarah Mummert, Student Public Relations Writer
A health care crisis in America is crippling citizens across the country. Millions of underinsured or uninsured people face a daunting challenge: getting access to life-saving medications.
The rising cost of prescription drugs and limited availability through free or low-cost providers is making it more difficult to receive medications in a timely manner — even with a valid prescription.
One student from the Cedarville University School of Pharmacy partnered with Health Partners Free Clinic (HPFC) in Troy, Ohio, to develop a business plan that makes prescriptions affordable for any patient who walks in the door.
Health Partners Free Clinic serves the underinsured and uninsured in Miami and surrounding counties. HPFC provides primary care, lab work, prescribes medicine, serves as a satellite food bank with a community garden, functions as a Medicare and insurance navigator and provides mental health counseling — all at no charge to patients.
Listen to Samantha's interview on WGN Radio in Chicago.
Samantha Woodrich, a third-year doctoral pharmacy student from St. Charles, Illinois, is reflecting the school of pharmacy’s vision for serving the underserved in health care through a new plan to help HPFC. When fully implemented, Woodrich’s plan will help transition the clinic from a personal furnishing clinic to a charitable pharmacy. This change allows the clinic to dispense prescriptions to individuals who are not already established patients.
“The issue of people not having accessible health care is not a wealth issue; it’s a logistics issue,” said Dr. Josh Pearson, a 2021 Cedarville pharmacy graduate and HPFC’s director of pharmacy services. “There are dozens of suppliers with eligibility requirements where we can receive meds for free that we can give out to people who need them. We just need to be able to connect people with those resources.”
Pearson began volunteering with HPFC as a Cedarville student in 2014. In one semester, he logged more volunteer hours than were required for the entire year. Since then, he has served in six states as an intern and pharmacist, but his heart remained with helping underserved communities. He returned to HPFC for a residency and now works there full time as both director of pharmacy services and clinical pharmacist.
Becoming a charitable pharmacy allows the clinic to serve more people and accept more donations. Some pharmaceutical suppliers only donate to licensed charitable pharmacies, which come with greater regulatory oversight. Ohio law outlines 18 pages of regulations for personal furnishing clinics, compared with 200 pages for charitable pharmacies.
Pearson reached out to Cedarville’s school of pharmacy to find a student willing to help develop a business plan. Faculty recommended Woodrich, who will complete her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2026.
“She basically built the concept of a charitable pharmacy from the ground up,” Pearson said. “No one has done it recently, as there hasn’t been a new one in Ohio for more than 10 years.”
Paving the path to becoming a charitable pharmacy for HPFC wasn’t easy; Woodrich poured many hours of research and writing into creating a viable proposal.
“To build the business plan, I did a ton of research,” Woodrich said. “I wrote a proposal discussing background information, the market and competition and how we could handle the change financially.”
The HPFC board will review the proposal later this year.
Cedarville University is known as an evangelical Christian leader in healthcare education through its pharmacy, physician assistant (PA), and allied health programs. According to Perplexity, an artificial intelligence tool, only Cedarville University and Cal Baptist offer all four of these healthcare programs from a biblical worldview in the United States. Cedarville is celebrating two significant milestones in its healthcare programs in 2025, with the Cedarville University School of Nursing celebrating 40 years since its first graduating class. Meanwhile, Cedarville's newest healthcare program — the PA program — graduated its first cohort in May.
Cedarville University, an evangelical Christian institution in southwest Ohio, offers undergraduate and graduate programs across arts, sciences, and professional fields. With 6,384 students, it ranks among Ohio’s largest private universities and is recognized by The Wall Street Journal as being among the nation’s top three evangelical universities. Cedarville is also known for its vibrant Christian community, challenging academics, and high graduation and retention rates. Learn more at cedarville.edu.
