This article is a reprint from a Sept. 2021 publication.
Current owner, Paul Mansour, behind the counter (Photo – Jean Sudbury)
Paul Mansour is the pharmacist and owner of Best Buy Drugs, located at 29 N. Baldwin Avenue. He is proud to say that this has been so for 25 years.
By Jean Sudbury
Since 1910, the pharmacy has remained in the same spot. Although the pharmacy has changed names and owners a few times, the business has remained as the neighborhood pharmacy for 121 years; it is the oldest business in Sierra Madre.
Brief History
F.H. Hartman purchased the local business in 1910. His son, Rudy, who was in junior high school at the time, began working there as an apprentice for his father. Rudy earned his pharmacy degree from USC in 1916. In 1917, he became his father’s business partner, and the business was known as F.H. Hartman and Son. In 1927, R. R. Hartman purchased the business from his father and continued the successful family business as Hartman Pharmacy.
In the 1950s, Martha Spriggs and David Kirkpatrick joined the pharmaceutical staff at Hartman Pharmacy. They were both USC graduates. In 1955, Mr. Kirkpatrick joined ‘’for one year’’ and stayed until 1985. Ms. Spriggs joined the pharmaceutical staff in 1958, and also stayed. Rudy Hartman was the sole owner of the pharmacy at that time. They all worked together as a community service for 30 years until the business was sold.
In 1960, R. (Rudy) R. Hartman was honored by the City of Sierra Madre for 50 years of pharmaceutical service to the community. Rudy made a clock for the pharmacy during his early days as pharmacist. For the numbers on the clock, he used basic symbols for chemical elements. The Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Washington D.C., published an article about this unusual timepiece, saying that the handmade clock with the unusual elemental design served to remind clients of the ancient background and progress of the pharmaceutical industry.
In February, 1985, Best Buy Drugs purchased Hartman Pharmacy. Ms. Spriggs and Mr. Kirkpatrick went on to other locations with their careers as pharmacists.
The original clock (Photo – Jean Sudbury)
Paul Mansour
Paul Mansour, the current owner, grew up in the area and earned his degree in pharmacy from USC in 1991. In 1996, he purchased Best Buy Drugs, keeping the tradition as a local business owner and pharmacist. He and his family live in Sierra Madre, and he provides this valuable service to the community. Prescriptions can be picked up at the pharmacy, and they can be delivered to clients when necessary. The Best Buy staff knows and cares for the multi-generational clients who have prescriptions filled.
Best Buy Drugs remains a successful Sierra Madre business, a viable service provided by local people. As for the clock made by Rudy Hartman? It’s still ticking 100 years later, and it hangs on the wall behind the cashier counter.
Best Buy Drugs in Sierra Madre (Photo – Jean Sudbury)
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So what did Paul Mansour do for his community? “Mansour created fake patient profiles in the pharmacy’s digital filing system and added fraudulent prescription medication entries to these fictitious patient files that duplicated prescriptions for medications provided to real patients of the pharmacy. Mansour then submitted false and fraudulent claims for the drugs added in the fictitious patient files that had never been dispensed, billing Medicare for the fraudulent prescriptions in the names of real patients of the pharmacy. Between January 2017 and June 2022, Mansour caused Medicare to pay the pharmacy between approximately $600,000 and over $1 million as a result of the submission of false and fraudulent claims.
Mansour pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.”
It’s Paul Mansour.