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WellSpan outlines plan for central-fill pharmacy at former Kmart, flags drone delivery as future option
Summary
WellSpan Health told the Springettsbury supervisors it plans to convert most of the former Kmart on Haines Road into a regional central-fill pharmacy that would consolidate mail-order, hospital and urgent-care supplies; the company said drone delivery is being explored but the vendor declined a public technical presentation at this stage.
WellSpan Health representatives told the Springettsbury Township Board of Supervisors during a specially scheduled work session that the health system proposes converting the former Kmart on Haines Road into a central-fill pharmacy to consolidate regional mail-order and institutional supply operations.
Jeff Sterner of WellSpan said the site would be primarily production and distribution, not a retail pickup location. "We're basically filling prescriptions. A big portion of it is mail order," he said, adding the operation would supply hospitals, urgent cares and direct-to-patient shipments for the region.
Sterner said the company expects to take much of the building and initially occupy roughly half to most of the 70,000-square-foot site, with options to expand. He described packaging, robotics and centralized counting as core activities and said mail and courier services would continue to move most orders.
The presentation also raised the possibility of drone deliveries. Sterner said a technology partner that provides drone delivery is in an early East Coast rollout and declined to give a public technical presentation. "They're a little hesitant because they're just rolling it out," he said, and WellSpan invited the vendor to return for a staff-level or public briefing when it is comfortable.
Chair reminded the group of public-meeting rules for deliberations, noting that "if there are any deliberations done by three or more members of the board of supervisors, it has to be in an advertised public meeting." WellSpan said it intends to provide more detailed plans and proposed text amendment language for staff and solicitor review and to seek a public presentation before pursuing approvals.
Jordan Dayoff, introduced as senior director of operations and shared services, said operations staff would be available to answer technical questions in a future forum. Members of the public who spoke said they were curious but wanted more concrete information, including estimated employee counts and operational details.
Next steps: WellSpan will work with its vendor to develop presentation materials acceptable for public presentation and circulate proposed text amendment language to township staff and solicitor for review. The board did not take any formal action at the work session.
