The Wall Street Journal reports that CVS Health “is testing a system that allows pharmacists to process prescriptions in part remotely, a move it said could improve store working conditions and the experience for customers as the company grapples with a shortage of pharmacists.
“CVS has equipped roughly 8,000 of its more than 9,000 U.S. drugstores with technology that allows pharmacists to review and enter prescription information remotely while still meeting patient-privacy requirements. About 400 of CVS’s 30,000 pharmacists are currently helping prepare prescriptions either at central locations, from their homes or in stores other than where medications will be dispensed.”
The new scenario means that “pills would be placed by a pharmacy technician on a specialized tray, which uses weight to register pill count, and that information along with images of the prescription would be beamed to a pharmacist, who could be working at another store or a central location.”
The story says that CVS maintains that the initiative “will lighten the workload for store pharmacists and free them up to provide customers with a wider range of services, such as vaccinations and health screenings.”
One roadblock: state regulations ” that require drugstores to have a certain number pharmacists on site or prohibit remote drug verification.”
KC’s View:
I get the operational need, but somehow this seems at odds with CVS’s stated desire to play a deeper role in people’s health care process. And I’m not sure I buy the CVS assertion that this system will give pharmacists the ability to do other things, especially if those pharmacists are miles away.
Sounds like a disconnect between strategy and tactics here.
The post <strong>CVS Rx For The Future: Remote Pharmacists</strong> appeared first on MNB.
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