Walgreens Partners With Colleges of Pharmacy to Advance the Pharmacy Profession
February 05 2024 - 12:00AM
Business Wire
The Walgreens Deans Advisory Council will
collaborate to address key issues, including staffing challenges
and decreasing pharmacy school enrollment
As a trusted, convenient local healthcare destination that
millions of Americans rely on every day, Walgreens is expanding its
long-standing relationships with colleges of pharmacy through the
formation of the Walgreens Deans Advisory Council to enhance the
pharmacy profession and better support pharmacists as they provide
valuable care to their local communities.
The new Council, consisting of 17 pharmacy school deans and
Walgreens leadership, is sponsored by Rick Gates, Chief Pharmacy
Officer at Walgreens, co-chaired by John Colaizzi Jr., PharmD,
FNJPhA, Vice President, Pharmacy Practice at Walgreens and Angela
Kashuba, Dean, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and Lorri Walmsley,
Director, Walgreens Pharmacy Affairs, who will serve as the vice
chair.
Pharmacists have been a cornerstone of healthcare in communities
across the United States for decades, providing timely
interventions and filling gaps in care. While the demand for
pharmacy services is expected to increase over the next several
years, like many other healthcare entities and a wide range of
other industries, pharmacy is facing a pronounced labor shortage.1
Pharmacy school applications were down 22% in 2022-2023 compared to
the previous year and have decreased by more than 60% over the past
decade.2,3 The pharmacy operating model needs to evolve, and
pharmacy school deans are critical partners in helping Walgreens
and the industry overall solve for the current workplace challenges
that are also impacting pharmacy school enrollment.
“Collaboration within the pharmacy profession has never been
more important, and I’m grateful to the many academic leaders who
have joined the Deans Advisory Council as we work to transform the
future of pharmacy,” said Gates. “I look forward to working with
the deans to ensure Walgreens expands our reach beyond neighborhood
pharmacies into the fast-growing areas of healthcare and drives
outcomes that matter most to our pharmacists, patients and
partners.”
Members of the Council will meet quarterly with the goal of
identifying ways to attract, recruit and create a dynamic workplace
for current and future pharmacists. The Council’s initial
objectives include:
- Rebuilding the talent pipeline and focusing on recruitment
efforts, including through programs that expose high school
students to careers in pharmacy.
- Elevating community pharmacy as a practice setting of choice
through direct feedback from colleges.
- Addressing staffing challenges and helping pharmacists
experience greater job satisfaction and better patient
interactions.
- Evolving the community pharmacy business model and advocating
for pharmacist practitioner services.
- Advising on all aspects of community pharmacy strategy,
practice and administration-related topics.
“As the recent pandemic highlighted, pharmacists are the most
accessible, trusted healthcare providers. They serve as the front
door to health in their communities, yet community pharmacy remains
one of healthcare’s most underutilized resources,” said Kashuba.
“Our schools train pharmacists to fill healthcare gaps and improve
patient care through disease screening, prevention and treatment.
I’m excited to collaborate with Walgreens to better align workplace
conditions with training to transform the future of community
pharmacy.”
The Council will serve as a sounding board and play a key role
in helping Walgreens build upon recent initiatives deployed by the
company to reimagine the community pharmacy operating model. These
include: leveraging centralized services and micro-fulfillment,
deploying flexible store and staffing models and eliminating all
task-based retail metrics from annual performance reviews.
The Council’s first meeting is scheduled for early March
2024.
About Walgreens
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is included in the United States
segment of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. (Nasdaq: WBA), an
integrated healthcare, pharmacy and retail leader serving millions
of customers and patients every day, with a 170-year heritage of
caring for communities. As America’s most loved pharmacy, health
and beauty company, Walgreens purpose is to champion the health and
well-being of every community in America. Operating nearly 9,000
retail locations across America, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin
Islands, Walgreens is proud to be a neighborhood health destination
serving approximately 9 million customers each day. Walgreens
pharmacists play a critical role in the U.S. healthcare system by
providing a wide range of pharmacy and healthcare services. To best
meet the needs of customers and patients, Walgreens offers a true
omnichannel experience, with fully integrated physical and digital
platforms supported by the latest technology to deliver
high-quality products and services in local communities
nationwide.
1 Statista. Total number of retail prescriptions filled annually
in the United States from 2013 to 2025 (in billions).
https://www.statista.com/statistics/261303/total-number-of-retail-prescriptions-filled-annually-in-the-us/
2 The Pharmacy Graduate Application Service. 2022-2023 PharmGrad
Applicant Data Report.
https://connect.aacp.org/discussion/2022-2023-pharmgrad-applicant-data-report
3 Brown DL. Years of Rampant Expansion Have Imposed Darwinian
Survival-of-the-Fittest Conditions on US Pharmacy Schools. Am J
Pharm Educ. 2020 Oct;84(10):ajpe8136.
https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8136
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Erin Loverher Walgreens Media Relations media@walgreens.com
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