Rite Aid focused on driving front-end with holistic approach, Standley tells analysts at J.P Morgan Healthcare Conference
SAN FRANCISCO — Success in retail pharmacy is about integrating the front-end and pharmacy services into one comprehensive care model, John Standley, Rite Aid chairman and CEO, shared with analysts at the 33rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Wednesday. Rite Aid has been implementing many care initiatives to accomplish just that as the bi-coastal national chain strives to be the go-to choice for retail pharmacy services.
Those initiatives include a store remodel program where the latest developments in healthcare retailing are put on display as part of Rite Aid's Genunine Wellbeing format store. "I can't tell you how excited we are to be in a position to have capital to be invest back into our business and step one for us was really store renovations," Standley said. "They're substantially different in the marketplace from our competition. They've performed really well." A key component of those stores is Rite Aid's Wellness Ambassador, a position that now numbers more than 1,990 associates and helps guide Rite Aid patients toward the most appropriate healthcare information.
Those initiatives include the Rite Aid Health Alliance, partnerships with local healthcare providers that are focused on improving patient outcomes across a number of chronic and polychronic disease states. "This is where our pharmacist, a healthcare coach in our store and a provider work together for polychronic patients to develop a care plan," Standley said. "Our pharmacist and healthcare coach then work with that patient to deliver that care plan inbetween doctor visits. This plan helps drug compliance; it helps implement behavioral change; and we think it's greatly improving the care that these patients are receiving driving healthcare costs out of the system."
And those intiatives include Rite Aid's recent acquisition of Rediclinic, a retail clinic model that will see aggressive expansion in the coming years. "We are now rolling out clincs to Rite Aid stores." Standley said, noting that some 24 had been opened in the past three months with a goal to get to 35 by fiscal year-end. "We're really excited about bringing this offering to our stores."
An example of tying it all together into one comprehensive care model is Rite Aid's recent smoking cessation program. "We rolled out a very extensive smoking cessation program that really incorporated the front-end and certain products that are available on the front-end with the pharmacist in terms of the counseling a pharmacist can provide to the patient as well as our healthcare coaches from our Health Dialog acquisition who are also available to help a patient in smoking cessation. So you can see how that model pulls both the front-end and the pharmacy and our other healthcare capabilities together to bring a consumer facing to market that we're pretty excited about," he said. "There are a number of other areas that we're currently working in where we think we'll have future offerings from dermatology to weight loss, diabetes." With that medication therapy management is a key part of a number of different models Rite Aid is bringing to market, Standley added.
"As we look forward, we've got newer versions of our Wellness store on the way [and] we're working hard to expand pharmacy services to grow our business into the future," he said. "We're building a model where our healthcare professionals are an integral part of the healthcare team and extender of care. We've worked hard to develop the pharmacist's role, helping the healthcare provider improve patient health," he added. "We're working really hard on integrated healthcare services combined with coaching, monitoring and reporting of outcomes," he said. "The long-term future of our business will be to be much more integrated across the whole store. ... There is a huge opportunity to grow the front-end by really making the whole store work together in unison to provide great care."