Fort St. John-based pharmacist recognized with lifetime achievement award

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — A pharmacist with deep roots in the North Peace was recognized for his contributions to the industry by the BC Pharmacy Association.

Mike Ortynsky was recognized with the organization’s lifetime achievement award for his “more than four decades of practice,” according to a press release.

Graduating from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1980, he started his pharmaceutical career in Mackenzie, working at a Boots pharmacy location while raising his family.

Nine years later, in 1989, he moved with his family to Fort St. John, managing Circle Drug for a decade before opening his own pharmacy in Tumbler Ridge.

The ownership group that grew from the first purchase, Health Team Holding Corporation, now owns pharmacies in several towns in B.C., including the Fort St. John Pharmacy and Wellness Centre.

Cory Hermans, who has worked at the Pharmacy and Wellness Centre since 2010, first met Ortynsky as a UBC student in the mid-1990s, beginning his own career in 1999.

Hermans says Ortynsky has always been personable and appealing, which keeps customers coming back for continued service.

“Mike can talk to anybody about anything at any time,” said Hermans, who serves as a pharmacy manager at the store. “Mike always had this giant head, and it’s full of knowledge.

“He has this immense amount of knowledge about so many different subjects.”

One notable aspect of the business was, according to Hermans, Ortynsky’s commitment to people.  

Hermans alleges that when partners of Ortynsky’s pharmacy in Fort St. John wanted him to cut staff, Ortynsky took an alternative route, cutting salary from his partners and himself.

Ortynsky subsequently formed a human resource management company that would take over staffing responsibilities of the pharmacy through a contract with the owners, and made every employee of a store an owner so no one would be fired.

“Each pharmacy is broken up so the [Health Team Holding] owns 51 per cent, but the staff own 49 per cent,” said Hermans. “I’m a part-owner. We make less money than the other pharmacies in town, but we don’t care because the work environment is so good.”

With dedication to every aspect of the Fort St. John Pharmacy and Wellness Centre, including a drive-through pharmacy, compounding rooms, nursing rooms, travel medicine and sport injury fittings, Ortynsky was awarded the Ben Gant Innovative Practice Award in 2002.

He was also elected the Northern B.C. representative on the College of Pharmacists’ board of directors, and re-elected in 2022 before medical ailments, including a stroke, forced him to move to Vancouver with his family for rehabilitation.

Hermans says Ortynsky has always come across as “humble” and his reaction would be to just “shrug it off” or say “it’s just something that I do.”

“He does a lot more than anybody really knows,” said Hermans. “He’s had an impact on so many different people.”

The BC Pharmacy Association’s awards were presented in Victoria on Friday, May 2nd and are selected based on their impact to patient care, their communities, their innovation and their dedication to helping peers grow.