Walgreens' strategy to evolve, enhance, expand

CHICAGO—Alex Gourlay, executive vice president of Walgreens Boots Alliance and president of Walgreen Co., opened the 2015 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition with a keynote address that covered the retail pharmacy chain giant’s future plans.

Since Walgreens opened its first store in 1901 in the Chicago area, the patient has been at its center, Gourlay said. Since that time, the company has been the source of numerous innovations from drive-through pharmacies to a prescription refill app.

Looking ahead, “strategic partnerships will be really, really important going forward,” Gourley said, because scale won’t be enough.

Customers are starting to change and are more empowered than ever, he said. Moms are the company’s core customers and Walgreens wants to follow these customers along their entire health journey along with their families’. “Understanding the continuum gives us constant insight and tells us what is possible.”

Following its plan to enhance, expand and enhance, Walgreens has enhanced its core pharmacy business through services and solutions, extended the basic care pharmacies provide and expanded to adjacent services such as medical devices and disease management.

The company’s digital transformation started a few years ago, he said, and is all about enhancing services. They started with prescription refills. It used to take about five minutes over the phone to order a refill. Now, it takes less than 30 seconds through the use of its refill scan system. Not only that, customers said it was so much fun to use they wished they had more prescriptions to refill.

They expanded to other apps such as Pharmacy Chat which grew out of the realization that that was the most visited page on the website. Working toward better medication adherence is “one of the biggest opportunities in healthcare,” Gourlay said. Since its launch, Walgreens has conducted more than 9,600 Pharmacy Chats per week, which is almost a chat a minute.   

Walgreens is one of many companies readying an app for the Apple Watch. Its offering is designed to help patients manage their medication regimes, he said.

Last year, the company compiled its core assets for a new program called Healthy Choices which lets customers earn points for adopting healthy lifestyle choices as well as buying products. Since the launch, Walgreens has awarded nearly 2 billion points to more than 800,000 members.

Walgreens’ app has earned accolades and is the third most downloaded retail app and number one among pharmacy apps. “We’re building a strong and unique ability to drive a patient-centric, frictionless system.”

Looking ahead, the company is working on telemedicine. “We’re using our digital footprint to facilitate virtual visits. We plan to be in 24 new states by the end of the year for a total of 28 states.”

The company also is working to improve medication adherence because it costs almost $300 billion every year. Among those using text messaging and emails, the company has seen a 2 percent increase in refills. “That’s a big lift,” Gourlay acknowledged.

Gourley said he also sees improved medication adherence coming through wearable devices that track measures such as blood pressure and glucose levels. Those who use a werable sensor and walk one mile a day are 70 percent more adherent that those who don’t do those two things. Blood pressure monitors also are associated with greater medication adherence, he said.

“We know and believe as a brand that innovation is critical. We want to be a partner of choice and a champion for others’ happiness and healthiness.”

 

Beth Walsh,

Editor

Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.

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