Posted on 01/27/2023 8:25:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
CVS Health Corp. and Walmart Inc. are cutting pharmacy hours in the midst of a pharmacist shortage that has plagued the nation’s biggest drugstore chains throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.
CVS, the largest U.S. drugstore chain by revenue, plans in March to cut or shift hours at about two-thirds of its roughly 9,000 U.S. locations. Walmart plans to reduce pharmacy hours by closing at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. at most of its roughly 4,600 stores by March.
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. previously said it was operating thousands of stores on reduced hours because of staffing shortages. Combined, the three chains operate some 24,000 retail pharmacies across the U.S.
*SNIP*
Retail pharmacies, which benefited from a bump in sales and profits during the pandemic, are now reworking their business models as demand for Covid tests and vaccines decline and generic-drug sales generate smaller profits.
CVS and Walgreens are closing hundreds of U.S. stores and launching new healthcare offerings as they try to transform themselves into providers of a range of medical services, from diagnostic testing to primary care.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
It’s gonna all be BOTS and ‘puters soon.
It’s 90% pills out of a big bottle into a little bottle.
A modified paint-formula mixer could do it.
The rest is prepackaged already.
This has more to do with the decline of rural America, due to off-shoring, factories closing, bi-coastal only investing. It’s more than just pharmacies specifically-
I was a casual CVS shopper, there’s one just up the street that used to go to for stuff like birthday cards.
But then they became mask nazis... so I went somewhere else.
The biggest winner in my shopping was Jeff Bezos - I buy almost everything except for groceries from Amazon now.
It’s bull 💩. My wife is a pharmacist and she’s only allowed 27 hours of tech help and her pharmacy is opened 67 hours so she’s by herself
“CVS and Walgreens are closing hundreds of U.S. stores and launching new healthcare offerings as they try to transform themselves into providers of a range of medical services, from diagnostic testing to primary care.”
Their new business models will be moving away from generic drugs into walkin/up health care based on instant lab values and other tech to enable instant diagnosis/treatment by MDs not in the pharmacies. Trained RNs will replace pharmacists at the new diagnostic stations in the pharmacies.
Generic drugs will be filled and mailed to end user/patients by Amazon, Costco and new entries into generic drugs for most of America. The generics will be pre packaged in weekly, monthly, 60 or 90 day Rxes.
“Pretty soon, we’ll have to buy all of our soap, deodorant, and shampoo on Amazon.”
We have been doing that since Covid showed up.
Costco is sending/mailing/UPSing a lot of these items in multi packs and free shipping.
I just received #100 generic Claritin at $4 less than Amazon and free shipping. Costco mailed the bottle to us. We bought a bigger mail box to receive these orders.
Our PPO/Kaiser has had US mail for most of their Rx refills for years. The mailing cost is zero to us. They notify us when to order via email. We pay by credit card and the process is easy and painless. I do that from the comfort of my Lazy Boy chair in our family room.
I have not gotten a prescription that I physically picked up at any pharmacy in a long time. Unless it was amoxicillin for a sinus infection.
Is someone going to come to your door asking to see their shot records? Just wondering
The local 24 hour CVS went from 6 am to 12 pm now...
My neice in law is an American! She is a daughter of Veitnam immigrants who owned nail salons and she met my nephew in 6th grade. She is a pharmacist at Walgreens.
The last time I went to a CVS, they had a sign paying Pharmacy tech’s $18/hour. Our local In-n-Out starts some positions at $17/hour and the people who visit In-n-Out generally want to be there, unlike a Pharmacy where many are there because they feel awful or are tending to sick family members.
They wouldn’t have a shortage if they actually used some of that savings from replacing employees with automated cashiers to actually compensate people who are supposed to have at least some training to handle life saving drugs.
If CVS was paying $20/hour to start they probably wouldn’t have a problem finding more people.
Meanwhile, my local CVS — 24 hours, but who knows how much longer — has to close their drive-through, and stop answering their phones. The only way to interact with a person is to stand in a long line and hope what their app tells you is ready is accurate.
“safe and effective”...
Or in crime-riddled neighborhoods.
They think those hours are bad, they should have to deal with Military base Pharmacies, M-F, stops taking scripts at 3:30 pm, no weekends, no Fed holidays, or training days. Good luck getting Escript through, and don’t get sick over a holiday weekend. Hope the base is big enough to carry the med ordered. Trying to eliminate them for Express Scripts fills. Those cost MONEY.
You can also get a rabies vaxx without an adjuvant.
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