Faces of 340B

Alton Condra, Infectious Disease Program Pharmacy Supervisor, Grady Health System, Atlanta, Ga.

Grady Memorial Hospital, the flagship of Grady Health System, is located in the heart of Atlanta. Its patients come from all walks of life. “We have the young, the old, the poor, every race, every nationality,” says Alton Condra, the pharmacy supervisor in Grady’s infectious disease program. Roughly 30 percent of Grady’s patients are uninsured. Grady has the busiest level 1 trauma center in Georgia and one of the largest HIV clinics in the country. It is home to a verified burn center, a comprehensive stroke center, and an award-winning cardiac center. Grady writes about 855,000 outpatient prescriptions a year, a majority for uninsured patients whose out of pocket costs are $5 or less. Grady relies heavily on the 340B program to provide these services. The health system “takes the 340B program and uses its savings to give life-saving medications to its patients,” says Condra. “If Grady did not have access to the 340B program, then we would be unable to take care of as many patients as we do.” “Anything that would tamper with the 340B program, pull it back, or change it would be messing with peoples’ lives,” Condra says.