Walgreens Brings Hybrid Pharmacy Program to 6 States

Walgreens has debuted what it calls the country’s first “hybrid pharmacy” program.

The service, announced by the retailer last week, lets pharmacists divide their time between working in stores for part of the week and spending the rest of the time working from a “centralized pharmacy desk.”

In a blog post announcing the move, Walgreens told the story of one of these pharmacists, pharmacist Mariana Endeley-Matute, who works at a location in Little Rock, Ark.

“I was looking for something that would allow me to continue the patient care that I enjoyed but also have a place to focus primarily on clinical work without interruption,” she said. “The hybrid position came up and was perfect for me.”

On days where she isn’t in the store, she works from a nearby centralized services outpost with a team of other pharmacists.

“In this setting, they review prescriptions, provide clinical support and consult with patients and providers over phone and email,” the blog post said. “By handling tasks like these at a central site, they free up pharmacists at stores to spend more time supporting patients in person.”

In addition to Arkansas, the company’s jobs page shows the roles being offered in five other states: Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Walgreens last year said it was expanding its use of micro-fulfillment centers, which are networks of facilities that employ robotic technology in a central pharmacy environment to more efficiently dispense and ship prescriptions to locations nationwide.

Around the same time, Walmart said it was expanding its Central Fill pharmacy locations, which use automation to streamline each step of prescription fulfillment. The centers use dynamic weighting systems, robotic carriers and a conveyance system to help automate pill counting, labeling, capping and sorting.

These changes are happening as the pharmacy industry is facing a range of different challenges, as Don Roy, professor of marketing at the Jones College of Business at Middle Tennessee State University, told PYMNTS last year.

“A critical issue is the ongoing shortage of pharmacists,” Roy said, noting the number of pharmacy job openings was starting to exceed the number of pharmacy school graduates.

“This trend has impacted the well-being of pharmacists on the job, with one study finding nearly 90% of pharmacists are at risk of burnout,” he added. “The impact of these trends is that it is more challenging to staff brick-and-mortar locations to meet promised service levels.”