‘Wellness Wednesday’ defines Rite Aid mission
For the industry’s third-largest drug store chain, health events aren’t just something that happens once or twice a year; they’re an ongoing commitment that’s now embedded in its DNA.
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“Chainwide, we host a Wellness Wednesday on the first Wednesday of every month,” explained Jocelyn Konrad, Rite Aid executive VP-pharmacy. “It began as a way to stimulate our Wellness 65+ program, and we’ve seen very good success with it. These events provide our pharmacists with an additional opportunity to connect with their patients and have one-on-one conversations during blood pressure readings and various health screenings being offered. We also layer in other activities during these community events — both at the front end and the pharmacy — to make it beneficial and exciting for residents in the community to come back month after month.”
Wellness Wednesday was an outgrowth of Rite Aid’s dramatic transformation over the past decade. That transformation also led to the creation of a new store position, the Wellness Ambassador, and a new store prototype that emphasizes the company’s commitment to health and wellness.
“We began to look at different ways we can impact our communities when we set out on our journey to become a retail health care organization,” Konrad said. “That began with the development of our new Wellness Store format.”
“That was also the beginning of planning more structured and established health events for us within the community,” Konrad told DSN. “During the transition of select locations, we created this new position exclusive to our Wellness stores. Establishing the role of our Wellness Ambassador was a key part of our strategy, and this new role allowed us to effectively utilize this resource to introduce our new store format to the communities we serve. Additionally, we now had the ability to schedule more frequent events both inside our stores and outside in the community. We’re utilizing this resource as a catalyst for all of these activities.”
Rite Aid now operates 1,859 Wellness stores and has more than 2,000 Wellness Ambassadors.
During some health-and-wellness events, services can include screenings for conditions like osteoporosis, diabetes, hyperlipidemia and skin diseases, as well as counseling on healthy eating, heart health and smoking cessation.
While Rite Aid pharmacists play a lead role in the events, “we do utilize additional resources when needed to do specific screenings,” said Konrad. Rite Aid also sponsors mobile screenings with specially equipped buses, staffed by physicians or nurses, that park at select store locations to offer free screenings, such as The Road to Health Skin Tour, offered through the Company’s partnership with The Skin Cancer Foundation. Past efforts have centered around diabetes, as well as free annual wellness screenings for patients 65 and older.
“Additionally, we also have higi [blood pressure screening kiosks] in more than 4,100 stores, providing a convenient way for our patients to take their blood pressure regularly when visiting our stores,” added Konrad. “We encourage our patients, especially those struggling with hypertension, to not only utilize the higi machines but to also communicate the results back to their pharmacist, which is one additional way to continue to build on our current relationships with our patients. The ability for our patients to monitor their blood pressure regularly has shown to positively impact adherence, and it allows our pharmacist to have a very unique conversation with that patient, because as they begin to see the positive results of taking their medication regularly, they then understand the importance of taking their medication.”
And although it’s hard to gauge the direct impact the monthly events have on the company’s prescription revenues or pharmacy traffic, Konrad added, the outreach efforts yield clear benefits for the chain and its customers, and “our commitment to keep our communities well.”
“The ability to build new and strengthen existing patient relationships during Wellness events is definitely a key to their success. When attending these events patients learn about the unique services Rite Aid offers to help them with their individual needs,” she said. “We are able to educate patients on the services and programs Rite Aid offers that can make their lives a little easier, including our one-trip refill program, our Vaccine Central tool to provide guidance on recommended immunizations or other services that support patients. When customers experience a positive and helpful visit with our entire store team during these health events, they’ll want to come back and utilize our pharmacy for their prescriptions and other healthcare needs.”
Underlying the chain’s health outreach programs is an effort to align them with the broader network of health providers in the community. “It takes strong partnerships to improve the health of a community, and that’s why we collaborate with other healthcare professionals, employers, health plans, or related local businesses during many of our health events,” said Konrad.
“Once we’ve developed strong relationships with employers, senior centers, nursing homes, etc., our teams are often invited back to provide additional services like flu clinics and participate in discussions on topics like the importance of adherence. We want to keep those relationships alive throughout the year, and our store teams continue to engage with those groups, and try to impact them and participate wherever it is appropriate,” she added.